[NCSA-discuss] lightning protection on ethernet

[Jeff The Riffer]

On Fri, 16 May 2008, Joseph Mack NA3T wrote:
> However all the large installations I've worked at (1000
> people over many buildings) don't seem to have lightning
> protectors on the ethernet and don't suffer from it.

I've rarely heard of power surges over ethernet taking out equipment. With a 
lightning strike, the voltages and amps involved are far, far beyond what is 
considered "normal tolerance" You can only do so much about it.

But there's a big difference between residential homes and office buildings. 
Most large commercial buildings are required to have lightning rods and 
grounding all over the roof. The building itself is almost always in a sea 
of asphalt/concrete with very little open ground. Trees, if they exist, are 
smaller than the building. So the probability of a lightning strike going a 
path anything from "lighting rod"->"ground" is very small.

> I'm about to wifi a building which will involve long
> (100-200') runs of ethernet and was wondering whether I
> should put lightning protectors on the ethernet lines.
> They're about $100 each and you'll need one at each end of
> the ethernet cable. The lightning protectors are worth more
> than the waps. However down time is more expensive that both
> of these.

Well I certainly wouldn't bother if all the cabling is going to connect 
together is some WAPs. You'd probably end-up replacing the access points 
with newer upgrades in a few years anyways...


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