Protect your connection this storm season
Christmas in Australia is notoriously storm season. Evening light shows have become an expected part of our annual celebrations in many parts of the country.
While there’s plenty to revel in about storm season, there’s also plenty to keep a watchful eye on.
With Christmas storms comes lightning, and that brings the potential to dampen your Christmas spirit by frying all your electrical appliances.
How to avoid frying your Internet hardware
Electricity from lightning strikes travels through electrical wiring, cords and plugs. If your appliance is struck by lightning, it’s not going to survive.
In the case of your home network, which can involve Ethernet cables connecting all of your favourite electronic devices, a lightning strike hitting your Fixed Wireless antenna or satellite dish could cost you your NTD, router, handset, computers and TV all in one go. This could equate to thousands of dollars in damages!
While nbn™ hardware is covered under their lighting strike warranty, other devices such as WiFi routers are unlikely to be.
Preventative actions to take
1. Use surge protectors to help fortify your devices in case you’re not around to unplug them when a storm hits
2. Switch off and disconnect all your electrical appliances where practical.
What to do if lightning strikes
Here’s 4 steps to take if your Internet connection dies following a lightning strike:
1. Test whether you can turn your NTD on again.
Give it about 5 minutes to reboot before checking the lights are showing correctly as per step 2 below.
2. Check the lights on your equipment:
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Fixed Wireless customers:
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Check that the outdoor unit (ODU) light is not red on your NTD.
The power, status and ODU lights should all show green when you turn it back on. They may flash a little initially, but they should definitely not be red.
If none of the lights come back on, there is a big problem and you’ll likely need new equipment.
Try step 3, and if you still get no love from your lights, go directly to step 4 below.
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Sky Muster™ and Sky Muster™ Plus customers:
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Check that the light on your NTD is not white or red.
It will glow white when you first turn it on and while its rebooting if all is working well, but it should change colour within 5 minutes of you trying to reboot.
If the light turns orange or blue, then everything should be fine with your satellite dish.
Orange is a stand-by mode. Blue means it’s all active and online.
Try out step 3 if you get red or white lights. If you still get the same outcome with your lights, you need to move directly to step 4 below.
3. Make sure the issue is with the NTD and not the power outlet.
Plug your NTD into a different power outlet and try to turn it on again.
4. Contact our support team on 1300 759 637 and let them know you tried steps 1, 2 and 3.
Once you’ve followed step 1 – 3, we’ll contact nbn™ with a request to restore your service.
While we most definitely do what we can to get you back online quickly, nbn™ can experience a backlog of restoration requests over Christmas and there may be a bit of a wait for a technician to visit.
The safest bet is to disconnect your NTD when you know a storm is coming.
Need some help?
Call our Aussie Team on 1300 759 637
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