DSL Lightning Protector

[Nickd]

Hi all,

after my router was fried last week, looking to grab a lightning protector for the new one.
any ideas/suggestions - would prefer to be able to pop into game/dion/makro for it on the way home from work.

 

[fragtion]

I highly recommend Clearline products. I didn't understand what the hype was all about until lightning fried just about everything in my house about a month ago, yet my ADSL modem survived. The surge protector wasn't working anymore afterwards - modem wouldnt sync through it (no big deal as long as my modem and network survived) so I opened it up and was amazed with what I saw. It was completely obliterated. Everything was completely coated with burnt black residue inside - exploded MOVs/Gas arrestors, yet my DSL modem was 100% unharmed. They come at a price, but they also include warranty for your protected gear. I highly recommend them after my most recent experience.

I was using this model: http://www.clearlinestore.co.za/node/81 - needless to say I've replaced the blown one with the same model new one

As always, the most important aspect when it comes to lightning protection, is a good ground/earthing route for the charge to go, rather than having to find any form of ground escape VIA your electronics (=fried). So make sure your surge arrestor has a good earth attached to it, or it simply won't do what it's supposed to

Good luck

 

[Tim the Techxpert]

Hi There,
As we enter the lightning season in Johannesburg it is a good idea for everyone to look carefully at what they are doing to protect their equipment. Surge protectors like clearline ar excellent for giving some protection as fragtion has described.
Once hit they are pretty much destroyed.
unfortunately it is not the only way that lightning can damage our equipment. Lightning always finds the shortest route to ground and that may be it comes through the telephone line and "jumps" across to some equipment nearby. Not much that you can do about that except to try and keep the length of cable from the phone outlet to the protector as short as possible and as pointed out above don't put electronic goods near the line or the surge protector.

Regards

Tim
follw me on @TechXperTim

 

[westom]

looking to grab a lightning protector for the new one.

The solution has been well proven long before computers or transistors even existed. If a surge is inside the building, then what will an adjacent protector do? Stop what three kilometers of sky could not stop? Absorb hundreds of thousands of joules? View the specs for every recommendation. How many joules will it absorb? Hundreds? It protects from near zero surges.

Protection was always about earthing a surge BEFORE it can enter a building. Once inside, the surge will hunt for and find earth destructively via some appliance(s). No way around well proven concepts. Any protector adjacent to that DSL modem must claim, with numbers, to block that surge. Or absorb it.

The protector and protection are two completely different items. A protector does not do protection. Either it makes a low impedance (ie 'less than 3 meter') connection to earth - the protection. Or it only claims to protect from transients that typically cause no damage (ie a few hundred joules).

A next post is an industry description specifically stating how all DSL modems must be protected. Of course, the same concepts apply to everything inside a building. No protector does protection. Either a protector connects low impedance (ie ground wire not inside metallic conduit, no sharp wire bends) to single point ground. Or it does nothing useful.

Obviously, no wall receptacle safety ground can provide a necessary earth ground.

 

[westom]

AT&T provided "How can I protect my DSL/dialup equipment from surges?":

Surge protection for DSL and dialup service. Surge protection takes on many forms, but always involves the following components: Grounding bonding and surge protectors. ...

Grounding is required to provide the surge protector with a path to dump the excess energy to earth. A proper ground system is a mandatory requirement of surge protection. Without a proper ground, a surge protector has no way to disburse the excess energy and will fail to protect downstream equipment.

Bonding is required to electrically connect together the various grounds of the services entering the premises. Without bonding, a surge may still enter a premise after firing over a surge protector, which will attempt to pass the excess energy to its ground with any additional energy that the services surge protector ground cannot instantly handle, traveling into and through protected equipment, damaging that equipment in the process. ...

Now, if all the various service entrance grounds are bonded together there are no additional paths to ground through the premise. Even if all of the grounds cannot instantly absorb the energy, the lack of additional paths to ground through the premise prevents the excess energy from seeking out any additional grounds through that premise and the electronic equipment within. As such, the excess energy remains in the ground system until dissipated, sparing the protected equipment from damage. ...

By far, the whole house hardwired surge protectors provide the best protection. When a whole house primary surge protector is installed at the service entrance, it will provide a solid first line of defense against surges which enter from the power company's service entrance feed. These types of protectors can absorb/pass considerably more energy than any other type of protector, and if one does catastrophically fail, it will not typically be in a living space. ...

Plug in strip protectors are, at best, a compromise. At worst, they may cause more damage than they prevent. While they may do an acceptable job of handling hot to neutral surges, they do a poor job of handling any surge that must be passed to ground. ...

Then, to add insult to injury, some strip protectors add Telco and/or LAN surge protection within the same device, trying to be an all-in-one sale. Remember bonding? When Telco or LAN protection is added to a strip protector, if the premise ground, which is not designed to handle surges, cannot handle all of the energy, guess where that excess energy seeks out the additional grounds? You got it! The Telco and LAN connections now becomes the path, with disastrous results to those devices. ...