We have a lot of lightning in our area and it seems that every time we get a big storm we get trouble calls that result in a blown NIC card in customer computers.
Installs and grounding are to MOTO’s spec for SM’s
Have any of you out there had any issues like this and what are some recomendations?
We already advise that setting up a wireless router in the home will protect the computer.
Is there a Cat 5 surge arrestor that actually works, that the customers can buy?
Thanks in advance,
Reay
We require that all of our customers purchase a broadband router from us or provide one before installing the SM at their location. We have a lot of nasty storms in West TX, and I cannot recall the last time that a NIC was blown due to a surge/strike. However we have had to replace several routers for that very reason.
There are several surge/ups units from APC, CyberPower, and Belkin that offer RJ45 protection. I am not sure how effective the RJ45 protection is though.
Well there are 2-ways you can wire the SM.
One is according to Moto, by passing the power through the Surge.
OR you could plug the power adapter right into the Surge and then on the other of the SS plug in the cable that would go to the Customers PC or router.
Now option 1 generally ends up in a blown NIC card at client end.
And option 2 generally ends up with a blown SM. Take your pick 
But from my understand the new 600SS is supposed help with that blown NIC at the client. But time will tell with that one.
Ouch,
Either one is not so great.
I appreciate the replies.
Let us know about the 600SS’s.
Thanks,
Reay
Hi Ready…
i try to push broadband routers now for that very reason. that - and it keeps unnecessary garbage off the network. we’ve probably seen ten blown nic cards since launching…
Hey there Jay,
We don’t offer to sell them or anything however we do reccomend them to all customers, sounds like we need to push harder.
How is your growth? We can’t get caught up. 400 SM’s in two years. Sure keeps a single two man crew busy.
Good to hear from you.
Reay
I’ve had that problem with one of my customer’s NIC’s getting fried during every major storm, though not with a moto unit. We have 2 systems one moto and one waverider. The wave rider system usually kills the sm before the NIC but this one customer would lose both, about 3 times in the last year. We finally got her switched to the moto system, so far so good.
I don’t believe the 300SS or 600SS is the solution for the problem you describe. There was just a very long discussion about this over on part-15.org (great resource by the way), I think what you are seeing happen is the surge is coming through the customers power and through the power supply not the radio outside.
I would recommend installing a Belkin travel surge or something similiar to protect against it. Pac wireless is also selling a POE injector that works with canopy that is three prong grounded with surge protection in reverse polarity.
Thanks,
Ben
Hey Reay…
it’s frustrating up here, we don’t do this full time and a lot of the part time help who put up money to help start the company have found other things to do with their time - but they won’t cooperate with us guys who are trying to grow the company. we’re hanging in at about 100 - we’ll lose a few to cable or dsl and we’ll gain a few more. word of mouth is our primary source of advertising and others feel if we grow much faster we won’t be able to keep up. it’s frustrating…but i don’t regret doing this…ever. if i can’t get this current group to cooperate i’m still going to start some other POPs myself.
Keep in touch!
-jf
we get some pretty bad t storms in the summer round here. and quite a few bad nic cards and and burnt nics in radios. weve finally figured a way to keep those to a minimum. we just set up the cabling in this order.
Radio-Groundblock-punchdown-poe-surge strip that has RJ-45 ports-PC/Router
with this setup 9 out of ten times the ground block or the surge strip takes the abuse. its really helped out alot in the summer. just make sure you DO NOT put the poe on the PC side of the data port on the surge strip. we had a couple field techs do this and it burns the poe out.
Impractical for the most part due to cost, but I did see a guy once who used to Ethernet to fiber media converters to stop a surge from passing that point, as electricity can’t pass over fiber.
I have lately had a customers PC blow the onboard Ethernet and a PCI card within about a month of each other. I didn’t have the 300ss installed - I have read they are not that effective.
What can I use to guard against this (that would be effective)?
Does anyone use in-home surge protectors with RJ45 protection?
Thanks.
We use shielded cable, and ground to earth with a 2ft frounding rod. We live in the high desert mountains where it is arid + lots of lightning. Our truck rolls for blown NICS cut in half, not to mention more consistant 100MB full duplex connectivity on longer cable runs. It cost more, but Ithink it is worth it.
jakkwb wrote: I have lately had a customers PC blow the onboard Ethernet and a PCI card within about a month of each other. I didn't have the 300ss installed - I have read they are not that effective.
What can I use to guard against this (that would be effective)?
Does anyone use in-home surge protectors with RJ45 protection?
Thanks.
Sell the customer an inexpensive router and a UPS w/ AVR (I use CyberPower units), then run the cat5e from the SM thru the UPS and to the router.
If any of our customers require pc work it is an additional charge. If they have router issues I'll typically troubleshoot up to a certain point, but if it needs replaced I suggest they contact Linksys.
Jay’s business partner here. Do you guys have a website? Do you mind sharing your pricing structure?