Repairing Lightning Damage

Since I didn't start this blog until well after the repairs were underway, it's kind of hard to do a chronological recap of all the stuff that I've replaced.  The first thing that had to be put back in order was a router so that we would have VOIP phone service and e-mail, then the garage door opener, but after that it's been a matter of fixing whatever was most annoying at the moment.  My philosophy on the repairs is to make the repaired system better than the system it replaced.  That's why the new router is a Cisco 2651xm, replacing a Cisco 2621, the switch is a Cisco 2970G replacing a Cisco 2924xl, and that garage door opener is a LiftMaster 3800 Residential Jackshaft Garage Door Opener instead of the Overhead Door chain drive wall rattler.  The RJO is really quiet and as cool as something like a garage door opener can be (hey, Jay Leno installed three of them in his Garage Mahal!!!).

Today, I found an HAI Omni IIe system on Ebay which I plan to use in place of the Ademco 4100 that failed somewhat unspectacularly after the strike.  The Ademco didn't make a fuss, it just turned on all it's lights and quit quietly.  The Omni II will allow me to integrate some home automation features with the alarm system which is something I've been wanting to do for some time now.  This should make plenty of fodder for future blog posts!