<p dir="ltr">My condolences. Don't trust the ground installed by Comcast. A poorly tightened ground clamp onto a miscellaneous piece of pipe is not a ground. Get a 5' ground rod, drive it in 3-4' from your house until only 3-4 inches are above ground. Run 10 gauge ground from that to the cable line ground. Use no-corrode paste on the connections and tighten to no more turns.<br>
That will NOT stop a direct lighting strike. To do that, replace a section of the cable with a 1/2A fuse on both the center and shield lines. That replaced section needs to be as short as possible and each fuse should be separated by a 1/16" thin nylon sheet or a 1" air gap and encased in a metal box grounded as above.<br>
Keep a supply of fuses on hand.</p>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Aug 10, 2013 3:55 PM, "Michael Potter" <<a href="mailto:michael@potter.name">michael@potter.name</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
Just bought this switch from Fry's because my old switch was zapped by a lightning strike.<div><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Netgear-ProSafe-5-Port-Ethernet-Desktop/dp/B00002EQCW" target="_blank">http://www.amazon.com/Netgear-ProSafe-5-Port-Ethernet-Desktop/dp/B00002EQCW</a></div>
<div><br></div><div>It has a grounding tab.</div><div><br></div><div>I cannot find any recommendations on the Internet on the benefit of grounding the switch. One reviewer on Amazon said it was for electrical noise isolation. I don't care about noise isolation, however, I do care about avoiding more damaged equipment.</div>
<div><br></div><div>So, my questions are:</div><div>1) Is there a benefit to grounding the switch in regards to avoid "getting zapped" again.</div><div>2) What is the easiest way to ground it? Can I just salvage a three prong plug and use the ground wire while safely terminating the live wires?</div>
<div><br></div><div><div>The strike also took out my router, cable modem, receiver, and ethernet port on my printer. I am also having comcast out to replace their lightning arrestor. </div><div><br></div><div>I am also putting a surge suppressor (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Monster-MP-AV-800-PowerCenter/dp/B00003CWDH/" target="_blank">http://www.amazon.com/Monster-MP-AV-800-PowerCenter/dp/B00003CWDH/</a>) on the coax connection to the cable tv box, and</div>
<div> a surge suppressor (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/APC-PNET1GB-ProtectNet-Standalone-Protector/dp/B000BKUSS8/" target="_blank">http://www.amazon.com/APC-PNET1GB-ProtectNet-Standalone-Protector/dp/B000BKUSS8/</a>) on ethernet cable between the cable modem and the router.</div>
<div><br></div><div><br></div>-- <br>Michael Potter<br> Tapp Solutions, LLC<br> Replatform Technologies, LLC<br><a href="tel:%2B1%20770%20815%206142" value="+17708156142" target="_blank">+1 770 815 6142</a> ** Atlanta ** <a href="mailto:michael@potter.name" target="_blank">michael@potter.name</a> ** <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelpotter" target="_blank">www.linkedin.com/in/michaelpotter</a>
</div>
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