I had a recent nearby strike kill my network. I had SPDs in place at points of entrance to my house from external cameras, but the surge burned right through and took out most of my network. Fun times!
I'm looking to go with a change of approaches to avoid this in the future. I had RB260GS's dotted around my house into which multiple devices were attached, including the closest cameras. I had them connected with copper to my core switches and was still planning on replacing that with fibre before this surge. Instead of segmenting with fibre by area, I'm going to go with segmenting by function and having multiple layers of surge protection between my external camera and their switch. More cables to pull, but if I can protect my kit, then so be it. All cabling here is FTP with shielded connectors bonded to their cable's ESD.
I was in the process of installing my cameras. I only had two installed - one had a 6m cable run outside through which I believe the surge was induced. I only had a SPD on one end of that run. That was also earthed my household PE, which I realize in hindsight may not have been the best thing.
Key to those layers is using the GESP, and I just have a few questions:
- How do I test a GESP? The brochure suggest testing after nearby lightning strikes.
- Is there a specific orientation of the GESP? Does the male end always plug into the device (camera, switch)? And the female side always come from the cable run?
- Is there a minimum distance between GESPs on the same cable?
- Is there a maximum distance?
- Should I be using a GESP at the point of entry into my building? Some cameras will have a bit of a cable run outdoors, but at what distance should I install a point of entry GESP?
- Just to save on a bit of cost, I'd like to use GESP+POE-IN, but with my own POE switch. Can that passthrough passive POE?
Then from that switch I'll be running only fibre to my core switches (Which I have yet to replace).
Thanks in advance.
The switch that got deep fried: .