Brighthouse Networks tells me surge protector = internet problems?!?!

[Techie333]

So my internet was out for at least 12 hours starting last night at 2AM. I call up the Brighthouse Networks lady and she says my surge protector can cause a short on the line and cause the modem to malfunction. The online light on my motorola roadrunner modem wouldn't light up and the send and receive lights kept blinking. I was like WTF does the surge protector have to do with this??!?!? Anyways, it works now after I reset the power for the 50th time and it suddenly came online. Was she feeding me some BS?

 

[T3C]

No, she was not feeding you BS. It does not sound like the problem was troubleshot very well, but a surge protector could possibly cause problems. I am not saying that it was in this case, but it CAN happen.

-T3C

 

[Atheus]

It's an external modem right? i.e. plugs seperately into the power socket, not taking power from your PC...

Originally posted by: Techie333
she says my surge protector can cause a short on the line and cause the modem to malfunction.

Well that _is_ was a surge protector does, it shorts extra power to ground. Is your voltage varying a lot?

 

[kevnich2]

Originally posted by: T3C
No, she was not feeding you BS. It does not sound like the problem was troubleshot very well, but a surge protector could possibly cause problems. I am not saying that it was in this case, but it CAN happen.

-T3C

Considering I know how Bright House techs are sometimes, I'd have to disagree on this one. If the online light wasn't lighting up, I'd say it was just a sync issue. If it was a level 1 tech though, I'm surprised they would have thrown out that it was a bad surge protector though unless she actually had you bypass the surge protector and go straight to the wall and it magically came back online. But since you didn't mention that, I can't assume she did that but that should have been step 1.