Stormy Weather

I love Stormy Weather. The version by Lena Horne is a favorite, although it's hard to beat the earlier recording by Ethel Waters.

Having said that, I'm not all that big a fan of stormy weather. You know, the actual weather where it storms. The song is wonderful. The weather phenomenon, not so much.

I bring this up because yesterday, there was some stormy weather, and it wreaked havoc at the house.

There was damage to electronics, but nothing more than that. No limbs through the roof. No trees uprooted. Just a close by lightning strike that cause the lights to briefly go out, a large pop from where the Internet connection comes in, and then my network not coming back up.

So far, I found three things that the lightning took out. My network router didn't exactly die, but it stopped working. Lights came on, and the wireless network allowed connections, but it would not connect to the Internet.

I have a separate modem, and was worried that had gone out, but connecting a computer directly to that showed that the modem was not the issue. It was the wireless router.

I also have a separate network switch to which I had several devices connected via Ethernet to the network. That switch went out as well.

And, my expensive fancy KVM switch that I used to connect multiple computers to a mouse, keyboard, and monitor also went out.

Correcting the wireless was easy enough. I bought a new wireless router. Two nodes, actually, as I replaced the mesh network with another mesh network. I could have purchased a replacement for the single device that was fried, but that was not available locally, and I could replace the entire network (two access points) for around the price of the single bad device. So, the wireless network was replaced, and configured with the same SSID and password.

Correcting the switch was easy enough as well. I bought a new switch. It was a simple 8-port switch that I use to connect devices, and an exact replacement was available locally. So, the switch was replaced and the Ethernet connected devices began working again.

The KVM switch is more of a problem. Part of it works -- the video monitor, the V part, works -- and part doesn't. So, I connected a mouse and keyboard directly to each of the main computers I use -- the Windows device runs Plex, and the Linux device is what I'm using for day to day use -- and I'm back running. I've ordered another KVM switch, and will replace it when it arrives in a couple of days.

I really hate when nature conspires against me. And I really didn't like that three pieces of the network went out, but I should be thankful that only three pieces were damaged. It could have been a lot worse, I suppose.

The storm ended shortly after putting my network down, and I was able to then order the two parts from Walmart and have them delivered. Yes, I waited until after the storm passed.

I was down a few hours, but after Walmart delivered the parts to get me back up and running, I once again resumed my online, and Streaming, Life.