Hello @middleofnowhere,
We have seen this situation on lots of equipment, most likely your equipment is Toast (excuse the pun).
If you’ve had a close call with lightning, you are best to replace all of your DSL modems, balance router and your wireless links. If you have good insurance, then you may have protection against fire/fusions and may be able to claim on that.
When you get the new equipment, consider lightning protection on all connection points, lightning protection is available on:
- Power Supplies
- DSL/PSTN Lines
- Ethernet Connections
- Coaxial Connections
In Australia, we recommend the Belkin Mains Surge Arrestors for power, for DSL/PSTN we use carrier approved surge arrestors, for ethernet we use Transtector & Cambium Networks, for Coaxial we use Times Microwave. We ensure all of these are correctly earthed to remove the surge away from the equipment.
In order to help protect our business, suppliers and most importantly our clients we now inform our clients that if they choose to not having full lightning protection on systems, they also may lose the option of warranty from the manufacturer and costs from their insurance company on the solutions.
When you go to replace the equipment, we suggest ensuring that you put in adequate lightning protection, here is a previous post on this topic with links for you:
The extra cost may be more than the equipment in doing the lightning protection correctly for smaller installations, though the longer-term savings from looking after a system are tremendous (especially the more remote or difficult the location is).
Happy to Help,
Marcus 