It has taken a few days to restore the infrastructure that was destroyed by the storm a week ago.
First for attention was the security system, and the installing contractor arrived the following morning to inspect the damage. The extremely robust UPS had been reduced to rubble. as had one security camera. Not a problem apparently, and both are off for repair under warranty. Apparently acts of god are not a reason to invalidate a warranty in Thailand, thank god. So surveillance, with one blind spot, was up and running again; which pleased she who must be obeyed because she likes to review the security footage to track the stray cats that roam the garden during the night. Money well spent….
The satellite TV people offered to send someone within three days, and did so within two days, and they replaced the device on the end of the satellite, thus immediately restoring fifty channels of crap.
Next for attention was the internet, and a trip to Tuk Com was made to replace the very ancient temporary modem. The new modem did no better at discovering an infrequent service which eventually settled down to 1.8 of whatever units are used to measure the internet speed. This was even less than we had in our previous condo and several calls were made to 3BB requesting attention.
Meantime, I contacted InvadeIT about the destroyed router and they told me to send it back and they would arrange to have it repaired under warranty. I was so impressed with their service I decided to buy another router to see me over until the repair is done; cannot live without the convenience of a device which downloads torrents to an attached disk and streams them anywhere; plus the wife had got used to the powerful wifi signal which throbbed mightily at the boundaries of our massive estate and beyond (I exaggerate somewhat).
With no sign of the 3BB technician after three days, I decided to do some home maintenance. Both the router and the modem are attached to an expensive UPS box which had failed to trip; so I assumed that the surge of death had come down the phone line. This was supported by reports from the neighbours who reckoned that lightning had hit the ground on and around the phone supply box outside the house. I decided to replace all internal phone line connections, and first was the phone socket in the wall next to the computer. It looked unmarked but, after an hour or so of fiddling with wires, the system sprung back to life and announced a connection speed of 18 internet speed measuring thingies. Seeing as now I am only paying for 13, I decided this was a success and when the 3BB man eventually called two days later we reported the problem had gone away.
Happy days again, until the next time.
Comments 🔗
2015-04-30| Clive saysThose internet thingies are probably cans of beans. They work best when in pairs, empty and connected by a good length of wet string. Chances are your storm filled one of the cans with something - rain most likely - and that degraded the quality of the vibrations on the string. That fiddling you did with the plug was probably just enough to tip the can over and the rainwater sloshed out. Problem solved! Probably…
On the other hand…
Assuming you’ve got some form of DSL or ADSL-based service [i.e. the “modem-thingie” seems to be able to download stuff faster than uploading] the chances are that the kit you install and get working will “train” itself over the first 2-3 days of clean running, to go as fast as the line quality will allow it. If you’re paying for 13 thingies and getting 18, the most likely explanations are:-
that the lightning strike zapped back along the metal wires to the distribution panel. Assuming that got roasted [quite possible] then it’s either reset itself to the default “Spike’s line really, really was 18Mb/s. Really.” setting, or your friendly engineer replaced a dead unit with a shiny new one and was kind enough to flip the switch the wrong way and give you [and possibly others] new-found speed.
Or, perhaps even more likely, the 13 Mb/s unit in the phone company exchange was suitably old, suitably out of date, and the company had no exact-match replacements. Thanks to the march of technology, the did have some more modern spares, so you got a free upgrade when they put the spare in.
If that’s the case, then find a friendly tekkie to tell you when the 18Mb/s units get replaced by something even faster than that… and then construct a 40-50 metre lightning rod on top of your local phone company street cabinet… Simples.
I had something similar last Christmas. Local BT engineers swore blind that their test kit showed that my (£300) personal modem/router/firewall was dead, so despite power lights and poor performance from it [and with no way of proving them wrong] I forked out another £300 for a replacement unit - which made no difference. Called them back and the third engineer who they sent [the first two couldn’t spell “BT”, so I sent them away again] went outside to the street cabinet, hit the reset button, and, presto, I got 80Mb/s down and 20Mb/s up… With both my old modem and new one. By this stage 14 days had elapsed and the vendor of the replacement unit I had purchased declined to accept it back for a refund.
About a month later I got a call from BT sales telling me my contract was up for renewal and asking if I was happy with my service, to which my response was, “So: how long have you got?”
2015-05-01| Chang Noi saysWelcome to living UPC in Thailand …. I have seen so many electrical things destroyed when I was living upcountry. Never happened anymore since living in the city. Only yesterday 2 lights in the street in front of our house started to act weird …. what ended in a burning smell and no light anymore. But indeed it is amazing … 2 ups’s, 1 modem/route and a LCD screen have been replaced under warranty due to thunder & lighting (and probably electronic magnetic fields).