The answer is, there is no affordable product that will protect your equipment.
A good Ethernet surge suppressor goes for $$85 and up. I have one in my outdoor
transmitter shack, on the CAT5 line that goes to the top of my 110' tower,
where there are multiple wi-fi panels. It also requires a good ground, meaning
an RF ground - which would be copper strap attached to a 6' ground rod less
than 10' away. This is probably not practical for you.
My tower recently took a direct hit - destroying the panels, and a key component of
my antenna rotor. But it did not make it into the house. (I also have coaxial surge
suppressors, and rotor control line surge suppressors, all mounted on a solid copper
bar, which is tied through that 3" copper strap, to a network of ground rods.
Altogether, I have 20+ ground rods around the house...)
I would recommend that you consider using sacrificial hubs - old hubs or
switches at strategic points. They tend to not transfer hits to other ports,
although this is not a certainty. But for 0 - $10 or so, I would say they are
worth it.
And there's always wi-fi...
-----Original Message-----
From: ncolug-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ncolug-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Kory Pounds
Sent: Thursday, September 15, 2011 5:06 PM
To: ncolug@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ncolug] Re: How can only the ethernet ports blow out on the wireless
router???
Everyone,
After reading Larry's reply, how can I protect against this? Is it
even possible to protect against this? I really do not want to have to
bother with unplugging ethernet cords every time we think there might
be another storm. What about if we do not realize a storm is about to
enter the area?
Is there something that can protect an ethernet line from surges? What
about utilizing some cheap hub where the long ethernet line from the
second floor can plug into right before the hub plugs into the router
next to it in the basement, so that the cheap hub blows out instead of
the nicer, more expensive wireless router?
There has to be an answer to this. What do you all make of this? Thanks,
Kory
On Thu, Sep 15, 2011 at 7:29 AM, Larry DiGioia<larry@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Lightning is a whole subject in itself. As a ham radio operator, I am quite
familiar with this, and I have also seen many episodes like your in the
workplace.
What is happening is that the ethernet (CAT 5) wire is acting like an
antenna, picking up the lightning like a radio wave. Lightning IS in fact,
RF.
The results vary at different points and places because of differences in
lengths of the cable (resonances) and differences in the potential with
respect to ground of other connected equipment. NOT being plugged into AC
power would help in this case.
You may also see ethernet ports fail later due to "degradation" as opposed
to outright destruction.
On 09/14/2011 11:15 PM, Kory Pounds wrote:
Ok everyone,
This is a total weird one to me. Maybe you can help me figure out
exactly why this happened. Let me explain:
This happened during that violent storm we had during the night a
couple of weeks ago, with plenty of lightning, etc. At some point our
power went out for only about 15 seconds or so (and I heard a "snap"
in the background, too). Anyhow, after the storm passed through, I
found that the 4 ethernet ports on the wireless router (a single band
Linksys) failed and would not work at all. However, the router still
powered up and the wireless part still worked. I could still access
the internet wirelessly through it. I know that it was not a power
surge because the DSL modem was fine and both items are plugged into
the same power backup/surge protection battery.
The router and modem are in our basement. My bedroom is in the
basement and that is where I have my laptop most of the time, with it
plugged in by ethernet when it is there. My laptop was fine after this
incident, no blow-outs or anything else. My laptop stayed plugged into
the power and ethernet all during that night. I verified my laptop by
plugging its line into the DSL modem and I accessed the internet. I
unplugged it and I accessed it successfully by wireless as well. So I
knew my laptop was fine and the problem was with the router.
However, my brother has an ethernet line that runs from another of the
router ports up to the second floor of the house, where he has a desk
where he often works online with his laptop. That night his laptop was
up there and plugged into that ethernet line. In the morning he found
that his ethernet port/NIC card in his laptop was blown. He could only
access the router through the laptop's wireless part.
How in the world could this have happened?! Why would only the
ethernet ports on the router be affected? Why would my brother's NIC
be affected on the second floor and not mine in the basement? Thanks
everyone!
Kory "The Perl Guru" Pounds
P.S. I ended up swapping in a nicer, dual-band Linksys router that I
had packed away as a backup. I definitely DO NOT want some similar
tragedy to happen to that one as well! Also, is there any sort of
"surge protection" for ethernet lines (if it is needed at all)???
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