Down time...

[SoundMods]

I am surprised you have cable. If Eastern Shore farms don't have a satellite down-link they have squat. It's a cell phone or nothing.

I've only had cable for about 4 years, and I had to talk to Comcast Business, and sign a two-year contract, to get them to build from the end of the driveway to the house....

Roscoe

OUCH!

[tomp]

Did they install a surge protector on the coax going into the house?

[SoundMods]

Did they install a surge protector on the coax going into the house?

Really? You would ask that? Their so-called "techs" have been know to splice RG-6 co-ax with a pen knife.

And -- a weather-tight enclosure for the outdoor connections?! You'll be lucky you get a signal.

OH -- and let's not forget curling excess run into a tight ring and electrical taping it to hold together.

GOD forbid they cut the cable to size and terminate it properly.

I helped a couple of friends with their cable connections. It's a joke. And don't get me started with Verizon.

[tomp]

At different times I had both Dish and Direct TV and they both had surge suppressors on the coax on the outside of the house at the point of entry with weather boots on the connectors and a separate ground connection.

[Pelliott321]

In Baltimore, we only have one choice and that is the dreaded Comcast. They have the monopoly if you want a hard connection. Satellite seems to have too many problems, especially with weather and poor speeds.
I have had Comcast out a few times over the 15 or so years, and the quality of service varies greatly. The last guy was a good one and redid the shoddy workmanship of the previous dudes. and we did all the terminations both outside and inside. The poor connections were causing all kinds of problems both for me and the neighborhood. Recently we started having downtimes at least once a week.
I have solved the problem (so far) by putting a timer that reboots the cable modem every night.

[tomp]

In Baltimore, we only have one choice and that is the dreaded Comcast. They have the monopoly if you want a hard connection. Satellite seems to have too many problems, especially with weather and poor speeds.
I have had Comcast out a few times over the 15 or so years, and the quality of service varies greatly. The last guy was a good one and redid the shoddy workmanship of the previous dudes. and we did all the terminations both outside and inside. The poor connections were causing all kinds of problems both for me and the neighborhood. Recently we started having downtimes at least once a week.
I have solved the problem (so far) by putting a timer that reboots the cable modem every night.

Pretty ugly. My FIOS fiber here has been great.

[Stuart Polansky]

fe3c3823fbf8b514f75784c0cf4e9fde.png

POE goes over pins 4,5,7,8
I do not think the suggested Ethernet surge protectors would have helped Roscoe.
The spike that killed his equipment probably came over the other conductors

As you well know, if a direct lightning strike occurs, all bets are off. The best we can hope for is to protect against HV/HF spikes either entering the property via power , data, antenna or communications wiring. It is not enough to protect only at the point of entry to the premises, secondary protection is required in the building: certainly at subpanels, but also at point-of-use for critical and expensive gear/appliances/etc. This is needed because a close-by strike will mean induced voltages everywhere.

To that end, a variety of suppressors (including power line and coaxial) should be employed at point-of-entry along with a second set of suppressors right where cables connect to anything you cringe at buying again: air conditioner controls, laundry and kitchen appliances, everything networked via copper, televisions, etc.

The links I sent have a large variety of gear available. Not just POE and Ethernet protectors, unless I sent the wrong links. And that is always a possibility, just like lightning striking.

Stuart

[tomp]

In one of our buildings in Chicago, a 5 story steel and concrete structure, one day the building took a direct lightning strike and the steel in the structure channeled it to ground. There was no problem in the mains wiring, but all of our terminals on the counters stopped working. We discovered that the lightning current going through the building steel made the building act like the primary of a transformer. Even though the coupling to the data lines of the terminals was not very good, with the magnitude of current in the building steel, there was enough induced voltage in the data lines to destroy the input data boards. As Stuart said, we then added protectors on the data lines as well. In a regular residence, if you take a direct hit from lightning, things tend to vaporize. Surge protectors are of no help in that case.

[SoundMods]

As you well know, if a direct lightning strike occurs, all bets are off. The best we can hope for is to protect against HV/HF spikes either entering the property via power , data, antenna or communications wiring. It is not enough to protect only at the point of entry to the premises, secondary protection is required in the building: certainly at subpanels, but also at point-of-use for critical and expensive gear/appliances/etc. This is needed because a close-by strike will mean induced voltages everywhere.

To that end, a variety of suppressors (including power line and coaxial) should be employed at point-of-entry along with a second set of suppressors right where cables connect to anything you cringe at buying again: air conditioner controls, laundry and kitchen appliances, everything networked via copper, televisions, etc.

The links I sent have a large variety of gear available. Not just POE and Ethernet protectors, unless I sent the wrong links. And that is always a possibility, just like lightning striking.

Stuart

The advice Stuart provides is excellent. I did a study for a Condo Association Board of Directors regarding garden-style apartments and their complaint was that they were tired of the elevators controllers being trashed, fire alarm control panels being damaged, roadway lighting controls fried, etc. I can help. I performed the study (pretty much what Stuart just advised). They were in until they found out the cost to install the protection. They decided it was cheaper to just absorb the cost in the event of storm damage. Was that a good decision? NOPE! I certainly hope they do not have learn about the concept of transferring liability in a Tort suit the hard way.

To be fair -- it is a "crap shoot." Will it happen again? Maybe not.

[SoundMods]

In one of our buildings in Chicago, a 5 story steel and concrete structure, one day the building took a direct lightning strike and the steel in the structure channeled it to ground. There was no problem in the mains wiring, but all of our terminals on the counters stopped working. We discovered that the lightning current going through the building steel made the building act like the primary of a transformer. Even though the coupling to the data lines of the terminals was not very good, with the magnitude of current in the building steel, there was enough induced voltage in the data lines to destroy the input data boards. As Stuart said, we then added protectors on the data lines as well. In a regular residence, if you take a direct hit from lightning, things tend to vaporize. Surge protectors are of no help in that case.

I performed a Due Diligence study for a buyer of a medium-rise office tower. The building was fitted with a lightning-rod system tied to ground independent of the building steel. On the roof I noticed lightning damage on the concrete parapet between lightning rods. WTF?!