Thanks for the info so far, will try things out later. Ref Green Granite, I maybe go a bit farther after having a near lightning strike (40 metres) that blew only half of the houses electronics, but leaving the other half OK. I pull the plug from the wall, unplug the modem at the phone line and its power supply. My mate has one modem and two computers blown in the past few years by lightning so its worth the effort. Sorry for the thread creep