CAT5 surge/lightning strike protection recommendations?

Jay Hennigan jay at west.net
Tue Sep 13 20:59:08 UTC 2005


On Tue, 13 Sep 2005, R.P. Aditya wrote:

> I have a bunch of cat5 buried about 1 ft below the surface connecting multiple
> buildings on a campus (short runs) and lightning strikes nearby have caused
> surges along one or more of the cables and burnt out switch ports.

Don't do that, then.

> I would like to protect the switch ports -- there seem to be lots of
> products on the market.
>
> Anyone have recommendations (tested/practical is best :-)?

Use the cat5 as a pull rope, install fiber.

> The APC Protectnet PNET1 and PRM24 seem quite nice and not too expensive --
> if they work....pros? cons?

Seriously, this is a battle against Mother Nature that you aren't going to
win.  Differences in ground potential as well as induced currents into the
UTP will continue to cause equipment failure as well as possibly kill you
or someone else.

--
Jay Hennigan - CCIE #7880 - Network Administration - jay at west.net
WestNet:  Connecting you to the planet.  805 884-6323      WB6RDV
NetLojix Communications, Inc.  -  http://www.netlojix.com/



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