[KLUG Members] Surge suppression for RJ45 connections?

[bill]

Hi Bob,

I've used surge suppression on network cabling ever since a long run between
buildings wiped out a 3Com hub (and the rest of the building behind it).  Took a
while to realize that because the cabling was underground and far from -any-
electrical connection it couldn't have been any sort of direct electical surge,
but an electrical strike nearby (i.e., lightning, this run was between
buildings) caused the long run to act like an antenna and pick it up as a huge
EMF pulse.  Thankfully, 3Com had really -long- warranties.

No way to diagnose the source for sure, but the problem has not recurred since
installing surge suppression.

For any long runs, and even sometimes others, I use the APC surge suppressors on
RJ45 cabling.  Make sure the pigtail is grounded, of course.  It's usually too
expensive for every connection, but the longer the run, the easier to act like
an antenna, the more likely I'll stick a surge suppressor on it.

Before you ask, I have no idea if EMF pulses are some sort of new weapon for the
military, it may be just science fiction.

kind regards,

bill

Bob Kanaley wrote:

> To the KLUG SysAdmin's,
>
> Am I the only sysadmin that worries about surge suppression on my network
> cabling?
>
> I worry that a local lightning strike might surge in through the power lines
> to some powered device attached to the network cabling (say, some network
> attached, high amp Laser printer) or a device attached to a computer (a
> reader, a scanner, etc.) and go out across the network back to one of my
> servers; or a spike might come in on my dedicated dialup line; or the
> satellite antenna might take a hit; or a local workstation might blow a
> power supply and send out a surge over the network; or ...
>
> It seems I have a heck of a time purchasing workstation UPS's that have
> surge suppression for RJ45 connections. APC sells surge suppressors for use
> on RJ45 cabling, but this is not included in any of their UPS's. I fell for
> a third party salesman's word about some APC UPS's that had RJ45 jacks. Only
> after I bought more than a half-dozen did I find out from APC that only two
> of the wires have surge suppression on them! I had to look long and hard to
> find a Belkin UPS that had surge suppression on all wires in the RJ45
> connections. I bought a half-dozen of these, but Belkin has discontinued
> this model!
>
> What is the deal here? Is there no market out there for RJ45 protection?
>
> Does putting an Ethernet signal through a surge suppressor cause general
> network problems or am I the only true paranoid in the group?
>
> Any recommendations for UPS's (or mental health professionals) would be
> appreciated.
>
> Bob
>
> Robert V. Kanaley
> Manager Information Systems
> Agdia, Inc.
> rvk@agdia.com
> http://www.agdia.com
>
> _______________________________________________
> Members mailing list
> Members@kalamazoolinux.org
>