With the rise of technology and the explosion of the internet, pretty much every home in America is filled with hundreds or even thousands of dollars of expensive electronic equipment. These electronics aren’t just expensive, they’re also incredibly important, holding our most sensitive information, and serving as the key to how we work, how we learn, how we entertain ourselves, and how we store everything. Unfortunately, these electronics are incredibly sensitive. The static electricity from raising your arm while wearing a cotton t-shirt can be enough to fry your motherboard (if you come into direct contact with it), and so you can imagine that the immense amounts of electricity from thunder and lightning could easily ruin a computer.
It’s not simply lightning strikes that can cause these power surges, either. Any fluctuation along the power grid, from brown-outs, downed cables, shorted wires, or malfunctions at the power company can also cause surges.
It used to be that people would rely on the lightning arrester attached to many power lines, the power company’s very own surge protectors. Back when people had minimal electronics, that was enough. But now, people are taking matters into their own hands, with various options for home surge protection. A surge protector provides a buffer between the outside world and your electronics. There’s a single male connector that plugs into the wall outlet, and then a number of female connections to plug your electronics into. In this way, they serve as power strips as well.
But simply protecting your computer from power surges from the wall outlet isn’t enough. Should there be a lightning strike at the phone line, power can also transmit through those lines as well. Your computer’s ethernet cables also have the ability to transmit power as well. For this reason, it’s recommended that you invest in a ethernet surge protector to protect your ethernet connection as well. Like traditional surge protectors, an ethernet surge protector is plugged in somewhere along your network line – either between the wall connection and a modem, router, or switch, or between that device and your expensive electronics, depending where along the line you most need protection. There are different options when buying a network surge protector, including protectors that offer many female connections, or, more commonly, single one-in-one-out connections. Splitting the connection, which would be fine when dealing with power cables, will result in signal degradation when using ethernet cables.
In fact, this is one of the main drawbacks to ethernet surge protectors. Because they do insulate the wires, they will always result in some degradation of signal and reduction of speed. When using faster connections, this may not matter as much, but the greater your needs, the more it will become noticeable. Expect some crosstalk (interference between signals on different circuits), as well as phase distortion, degraded common mode rejection, and possible ground loops. The greater the protection (or the greater the number of protectors), the greater the loss. A compromise must be made between signal quality and protection.
Also know that you must choose between a CAT5, CAT5e, or CAT6 surge protector, depending on the style of cable you have. The CAT5 cables are the oldest and slowest, while CAT6 are the newest and quickest. These cables all look exactly the same, and plug into the same ethernet ports, but their internal wirings are totally different, meaning they require entirely separate types of ethernet surge protector. When purchasing a surge protector, look carefully at the manufacturer’s specifications to ensure you’re purchasing the right one. It’s particularly important that your purchase protection as the speeds get faster, as these faster cables are also significantly more sensitive to electrical interruptions.
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