I had a long day dealing with issues caused by last night's storm. I found myself unable to remote in despite no reported outages. After several hours and no resolution, I went to the office to investigate. Unfortunately, I discovered that my cable modem was fried, the WAN port on the router was damaged (the LAN port was okay), and the switch after the router was struggling and didn't recover even after a reboot. All of this equipment was connected to UPS units. It seems like there must have been some sort of surge through the coax cable of the cable modem. Is this a common occurrence? Do I just need to get an inline coax surge protector, or should I ask my ISP to install something?
6 Answers
Back in my day, we faced similar issues with lightning damaging our setups. We had to replace NICs after lightning hits. Installing RJ45 surge suppressors really helped us out in avoiding future damage. Nowadays, with so much tech, I'd recommend investing in good quality surge protectors for your setup.
You might want to consider that some APC Back-UPS models come with coax in and out connectors that provide surge suppression. Just double-check if yours has that feature. Also, verifying your coax grounding is key.
I'll check if my APC has coax surge suppression. If I use a suppressor, will I need the ISP to recalibrate the signal?
It sounds like lightning could be the culprit. Just to be safe, make sure your coax is grounded at the demarcation point! That can help mitigate issues like this in the future.
I assume the ISP is responsible for grounding, but maybe I should have them check to ensure it's properly grounded.
Make sure to have surge protection installed for any incoming metallic conductors. Depending on your area, your ISP may offer surge protection, but it's often good to install your own too, ensuring it's done properly to maximize effectiveness.
This happens a lot here during summer storms in Florida. We usually install coax surge suppressors or use the ones integrated into UPS systems to protect our equipment.
Surges from lightning or electrical faults can definitely happen, and it's quite common. Using inline surge suppressors can help protect your gear. Just be sure to do your research on what would work best for your setup.
That sounds like an interesting experience! I can relate; I worked at a place with some crazy setups where storms frequently took out equipment. Good to know I’m not alone!