# Lightning protection for Cable modem and LAN ?



## dgxman (Sep 1, 2005)

Hello,

Please help me to choose a lightnig protector / surge suppressor for my cable modem and pc..

I lost a cable modem and a lan card recently due to a lightning strike.. the motherboard had a narrow escape.

I came across such protectors in the APC web site www.apcc.com 
Are those available in India? any other alternatives..?

TIA


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## Biplav (Sep 1, 2005)

use a stabiliser.


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## dgxman (Sep 1, 2005)

I am using an UPS.

What I want is protection form lightning surges which are conducted through the Cable modem ( broadband internet ) - they pass on to the LAN card on the pc....


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## AlienTech (Sep 2, 2005)

For the cable modem it is easy, usually it is already grounded but you can also ground the cable yourself to earth. The metal connector is all that is needed to ground it. The LAN is whole another problem and I dont think such things exist. Other than grounding all electrical wiring. The UPS should usually be doing all this since it is already earthed and has built in surge suppressors among other things but not the cheap ones. 

I have replaced 3 LAN cards and a mother board because of lightning strikes hitting the cable modem, but the modem itself is just fine, its the card connected to it that fries. Dont know how to fix that since the last strike happened like in front of the house and scared the beejas out of me and sparks were flying everywhere. It fried the mother board Ethernet controller but the modem still works. Such close calls are hard to protect against since the sparks will not have time to earth and will jump almost anything... 3-10 feet in some cases and destroy things. But if it happens a ways away then it gets grounded on the way and you only feel a small pulse.


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## Biplav (Sep 2, 2005)

ok mine is an inbuilt lan on mobo
can it be affected by lightning by the same amount?


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## rajas (Sep 2, 2005)

let it be LOM(Lan on Mobo) or a seperate N/W card, chances of lightning/spike are the same.
How far it damages the Mobo is also important.


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## dgxman (Sep 2, 2005)

What I came across was this model from APC. 
*www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=PNET1

Does anyone have hands on experiece with it or similar products?


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## anubhav_har (Sep 2, 2005)

try using hcl powersafe ups... it has surge portector also..


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