For ease of cabling, we have a length of Cat5e cable that runs around
the *outside* of part of the house. There's a wall box at each end, one
of which is connected by a patch cable to the ADSL router, the other to
an ethernet switch. The cable is just a length of Cat5e run through
holes in the brickwork and stapled to the wall of the house by a
helpful local builder.
In the recent storms that cable seems to have picked up a charge that
damaged the ADSL router and possibly also the switch, but (fortunately) nothing else.
The ethernet port on the router that was connected to the external
cable is dead (the others are fine) and the ADSL connection is dead,
though the router itself and the built-in WiFi are still working.
There was no lightning strike, but the storm was directly overhead and
very active. I can well imagine that it might have induced a sufficient current in the external cable to damage the connected kit.
What can I do to reduce the likelihood of this happening again? Should
I install metal sheathing around the external cable? I see that one can purchase ethernet surge protector devices, are these any good?
Go fibre?
Does any of your switching kit take mini-GBIC transceiver modules?
In article <e4se5sFhiueU1@mid.individual.net>, Adrian Caspersz wrote:
Go fibre?
That's an interesting idea -- would certainly address the issue of susceptibility to lightning, etc. -- but I'm not sure I'd know how.
Does any of your switching kit take mini-GBIC transceiver modules?
Nope (I had to look up mini-GBIC). So-called RJ-45 sockets only. The
router is a Draytek Vigor2860ac (the one clobbered by the lightning was
a 2860n, but I took the opportunity to upgrade as we have some 5GHz
devices around the place) and the switch is bog standard Netgear
100Mbps thing.
Sounds like significant expenditure would be required to add fibre
capability here?
I have seen some of the electronics on a device taking a "near miss"
to be vaporised on the circuit board.
You were lucky - the energy involved in an actual strike is sufficient
to vaporise the cable.....
A nearby strike will involve a heavy current through to "ground" which
can make for a large change in the ground voltage - this is 1 reason
it isnt a good idea to shelter under a tree in a lightning storm.
If you want to shield a metal cable then the shield needs to be set up
such that it doesnt just channel induced current into the cable and
cause damage that way.
Maybe accepting the risk and the occasional device replacement will be cheapest.
For ease of cabling, we have a length of Cat5e cable that runs around
the *outside* of part of the house. There's a wall box at each end, one
of which is connected by a patch cable to the ADSL router, the other to
an ethernet switch. The cable is just a length of Cat5e run through
holes in the brickwork and stapled to the wall of the house by a
helpful local builder.
In the recent storms that cable seems to have picked up a charge that
damaged the ADSL router and possibly also the switch, but (fortunately) >nothing else.
The ethernet port on the router that was connected to the external
cable is dead (the others are fine) and the ADSL connection is dead,
though the router itself and the built-in WiFi are still working.
There was no lightning strike, but the storm was directly overhead and
very active. I can well imagine that it might have induced a sufficient >current in the external cable to damage the connected kit.
What can I do to reduce the likelihood of this happening again? Should
I install metal sheathing around the external cable? I see that one can >purchase ethernet surge protector devices, are these any good?
What does the team think?
I would not discount the possibility the pulse came in on the phone
line. 5-10km line to the exchange is probably 1000x more likely to
pick up a spike than 10m of wire around your house.
For ease of cabling, we have a length of Cat5e cable that runs around
the *outside* of part of the house. There's a wall box at each end, one
of which is connected by a patch cable to the ADSL router, the other to
an ethernet switch. The cable is just a length of Cat5e run through
holes in the brickwork and stapled to the wall of the house by a
helpful local builder.
In the recent storms that cable seems to have picked up a charge that
damaged the ADSL router and possibly also the switch, but (fortunately) nothing else.
The ethernet port on the router that was connected to the external
cable is dead (the others are fine) and the ADSL connection is dead,
though the router itself and the built-in WiFi are still working.
There was no lightning strike, but the storm was directly overhead and
very active. I can well imagine that it might have induced a sufficient current in the external cable to damage the connected kit.
What can I do to reduce the likelihood of this happening again? Should
I install metal sheathing around the external cable? I see that one can purchase ethernet surge protector devices, are these any good?
What does the team think?
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