Storm season advice for Fixed Wireless and Sky Muster™ customers

Storm season is in full swing here in Queensland and in just one evening an unbelievable 176,000 lighting strikes were reported on the 30th October 2017. That’s a truly incredible statistic.

To help ensure your broadband service survives aerial assaults like this, we strongly recommend that all Sky Muster™ Satellite and Fixed Wireless systems are switched off and that Ethernet cables are removed. It’s simple advice that can save you a whole heap of time and money.

Reduce the risk of your hardware getting fried!

Here’s Brendan Evans from SkyMesh Technical support to explain what happens during a lightning strike and why everything should be disconnected:

“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, equating to thousands of dollars in damages!

While NBN™ hardware is covered under lighting strike warranty, other devices such as Wi-Fi routers are unlikely to be. Surge protectors can help protect your devices. Switching off and disconnecting everything is best.”

What to do in the event of a lightning strike

If your property is hit by lightning and your internet is no longer working, something will have been damaged.

So that we can raise a service restoration ticket with NBN™ and have an engineer visit your premises, you’ll need to test that:

• your NTD is not powering on, or that the ODU light is not red
• the issue isn’t the power outlet (by testing the NTD in another power outlet, or by testing some other device in the same outlet).

After this, contact our support team so we can raise the service restoration on your behalf and get you back online ASAP.

Please bear in mind that turnaround for NBN™ restoration work is not that quick, especially during storm season and Christmas. It’s weeks, not days and is unfortunately totally outside of SkyMesh’s control, hence the reason for this blog post.

Moral of the story – don’t chance it!

While the likelihood of your property being struck by lighting remains very low, we always advise that customers follow the above advice to help ensure your devices remain safe, to keep you connected and to avoid lengthy restoration appointments.

Written by Barney Lassen

Originally from Oxford (UK), Barney's headed up the Marketing team since 2016. Outside of work, you might catch him down his local swimming pool or walking his very-good-girl, Macey.