PCA Forums

Is there any kind of spike protection availble for CAT5?
I have a friend who has wireless internet connection at his house and frequently his WAN port goes out on his router. Prob. from some kind of spike coming from the outside antenia. The rest of the ports on the router are fine, and ironically the modem is fine. This happens about every 3 months in a big wind storm. (maybe atmospheric static...I dont know).

Do they make some sort of surge protection on CAT5?

Yup. APC PNet-1. This is for a single CAT-5 port.

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?s ... dcaid=1688

They make multiple port versions too.

I use them in locations with CAT-5 running outside, like between buildings - I put one on each end. It's important to connect it to a good ground though. I also like to put them on the ethernet port of cable and DSL modems to stop surges coming down the line. Modem might fry but at least the network won't.

I've also seen power strip surge protectors with integrated CAT5 surge protectors as well, but the PNet is simpler, except that the ground is a wire that needs to be screwed to a ground (screw on an outlet plate will work IF you're certain the outlet is properly grounded - cold water pipe or house ground would be better).

Coolio
Just what I was looking for. Thanks again FP

I also thank you Fp,

I was about to look for a surge protecter for cat 5 also.
Starting to work with WFI here also. You get alot of signal loss going through a long run of antenna cable, from indoor WIFI router to antenna mounted on a tower! Plus every connection also is a loss of power.
Since Cat 5 will run over 100ft very easily I am thinking of mounting the router at the antenna in a protective inclosure, then using about a 6ft antenna cable, I will have very little loss. At least little when compared to a 100 ft run. Then I have to run cat 5 down the tower to the house.

The cat 5 is what worries me. You can string an insulated wire above ground (maybe 20ft high) and from 2 trees about 50 - 100 ft long and get enough static currant to jump a sparkplug gap over time. Depending on local condtions. That's a horizontal wire, but I figure a vertical wire might do the same.
With WIFI I'll be shooting a signal right at the wire basically from the other end, plus I got a radio station not to far, and power lines etc...

You should never suspend CAT5 outdoors. Makes a nice lightning antenna. Should always be buried at least 1 foot or if it must be exposed use shielded CAT5 (expensive) or put it in a grounded metal conduit (also expensive).

Still, expect to take lightning hits. At $20 a pop those P-Nets aren't cheap throw aways and they WILL pop when they take a hit. I replace them all the time during the rainy season.

You really shouldn't get much loss from an antenna cable if you're using 50 ohm coax.

Either way, with anything outdoors (router or just antenna) it's a good idea to use one of those PNet suppressors.

Yep lighting is a concern here too!

Couple reasons I thought about the router on the tower, one was loss in cable the other was cost of antenna cable.

I have several thoughts in mind on the idea, just have to see what flies
One was run Cat5 in a plastic pipe or hose up the tower. Also thought if it's wifi anyway, why not just mount the router on the tower and wifi from house to router? In theory it seams a good idea.

No long cables needed, just a shorty from router to antenna. Then I need a power source up there for the router also. I am thinking of using the same tower for a wind mill, so a small battery on the tower should be no problem. Use a small sealed lead acid like in a UPS, recharging should be no problem off the windmill and just a router should take forever to run one down.

Question.
These routers with 2 antennas, will they run 2 directions? Like I connect one side to a dish antenna for long range, the other side I use to access the house with a different antenna. So one points to the horizion, the other points to the house. I would think it should work that way ok.

That also stops worries about the house getting a lighting surge, might take out the router on the tower, but house network should be fine.

The dual antenna models are call "Dual Diversity". It's actual purpose is to give you circular polarization coverage. You're supposed to put one antenna facing up and the other facing horizontally (not that anyone does this though, unless they're ham radio operators).

An antenna can be polarized horizontally or vertically. If the reciever and transmitter are in different polarizations (one horizontal and one vertical) the the signal strength will be very poor. Dual diversity units help compensate for this.

However, to answer your question, yes you can connect them to antennas facing 2 different directions. I've seen people leave one inside and run the other outside also.

Thanks,

I knew about horizontal and vertical oritation on the large parabolic type dishes and such, hadn't really given the little stick antenna's much thought on that though.

Do you see any problems I might have missed about setting up the router on the tower and wifi from house to router, router to other tower, and perhaps have the router up there and again Wifi from that tower to main lan with server?

Would that cause a noticeable lag time or any such problems jumping over several routers that way?
Providing of course all wifi systems have a good strong signal from antenna to anntena to begin with.

I don't think I would have any real problems putting a power source on the tower to run a router. Small battery with lots of amp hours and either a small solar pannel or small windmill (maybe both) to keep the battery charged.