I talked about lately that for the third time in roughly a decade, a subset of the electronics suite in my residence had gotten zapped by a close-proximity lightning storm. Though this follow-up writeup, one in all a deliberate collection, was already proposed to (and permitted by) Aalyia on the time, subsequent earlier-post feedback exchanges with a few readers had been equal elements informative and validating on this one’s topical relevance.
First off, right here’s what reader Thinking_J needed to say:
Solely 3 occasions in a 10-year span, within the space SW of Colorado Springs?
Brian, you look like fortunate.
My response:
Southwest of Golden (and Denver, for that matter), not Colorado Springs, however sure, the broader space is energetic annually’s “monsoon season”:
https://local weather.colostate.edu/co_nam.html
The “monsoon season” I used to be referencing traditionally runs from mid-June by means of the tip of September. Storms usually fireplace up starting mid-afternoon and may proceed in a single day and into the following morning. For instance of what they appear like, I grabbed a precipitation-plot screenshot throughout a subsequent storm this yr; I stay in Genesee, explicitly famous on the map:
Wild, huh?
Then there have been the in-depth ideas of reader “bdcst”, in a posting solely the primary half of which I’ve republished right here for brevity (that stated, I encourage you to learn the submit in its entirety on the original-published location):
Hello Brian,
A number of issues come to thoughts. First is, for those who suppose it was EMP, then how will shifting your copper indoors make a distinction until you reside in a Faraday cage shielded residence? One of the best ways to stop lightning induced surges from getting into your tools by way of your community connection, is to go to a fiber drop out of your ISP, cable or telecom provider. You would additionally change over to shielded CAT-6 Ethernet cable.
At my broadcast tower websites, it’s the incoming copper, from the tower, or phone system or from the facility line itself that brings lighting induced present indoors. Even with first rate suppressors on all incoming copper, the one method to dissipate many of the differential voltage from the massive present spikes is with close to zero ohms bonding between each piece of kit and to a single very low impedance earth floor level. All steel surfaces in my buildings are grounded by massive diameter versatile copper wire, even the steel entrance door is bonded to it bypassing the resistance of its hinges.
Once I constructed my residence on the finish of a protracted rural energy line, I skilled odd failures throughout electrical storms. I constructed my very own energy line suppressor with the most important GE MOV’s I might discover. That eradicated my lightning points. In fact, surge suppressors should have very low resistance path to floor to be efficient. When you can’t get a fiber drop in your information, then do set up a number of layers of Ethernet suppressors between the incoming line and your property. And do set up no less than a small AC line suppressor instead of a two-pole circuit breaker in your primary panel, ideally on the high of the panel the place the principle circuit breaker resides.
My response, a number of elements of which I’ll elaborate on on this writeup:
Thanks everso in your detailed feedback and ideas. Sadly, fiber broadband isn’t an possibility right here; I really really feel lucky (given its rural standing) to have Gbit coax courtesy of Comcast:
https://www.edn.com/a-quest-for-faster-upstream-bandwidth/
Concerning internal-vs-external wired Ethernet spans, I don’t know why, however the one occasions I’ve had Ethernet-connected units fry (excluding coax and HDMI, which even have been problematic previously) are associated to these (multi-port switches, to be exact) on one or each ends of an external-traversed Ethernet span. Absolutely inner Ethernet connections look like immune. The house has cedar siding and naturally there’s additionally insulation within the partitions and ceiling, so maybe that (together with incremental air gaps) in sum offers adequate safety?
Your query relating to Ethernet suppressors ties properly into one of many themes of an upcoming deliberate weblog submit. I’ve finished solely rudimentary analysis to date, however from what I’ve uncovered up to now, they are usually both:
Plus, I’m at all times involved about bandwidth degradation that will end result from the added middleman circuitry (identical goes for coax). Any particular ideas you might have can be drastically appreciated.
Thanks once more for writing!
Earlier than persevering with, an summary of my residence community might be first-time informative for some and act as a memory-refresher to long-time readers for whom I’ve already touched on varied elements. Mine’s a two-story residence, with the furnace room, roughly in the midst of the decrease stage, appearing because the networking nexus. Comcast-served coax enters there from the surface and, after routing by means of my cable modem and router, feeds into an eight-port GbE change. From there, I’ve been predominantly leveraging Ethernet runs initially laid by the prior proprietor.
In a single course, Cat 5 (I’m assuming, given its age, versus a more moderen technology) first routes by means of the interstitial house between the 2 ranges of the home to the far wall of the household room subsequent to the furnace room, connecting to a different 8-port GbE change. At that time, one other Ethernet span exits the home, is tacked to the cedar wooden exterior and runs to the upper-level front room at one finish of the home, the place it re-enters and connects to one other 8-port GbE change. Within the reverse course, one other Cat 5 span exits the home on the furnace room and routes exterior to the upper-level main bedroom on the different finish of the home, the place it re-enters and connects to a five-port GbE change. Though the internal-only Ethernet is seemingly comprised of typical unshielded cable, judging from its flexibility, I used to be reminded by way of examination in prep for tackling this writeup that the exterior wiring is undoubtedly shielded, not that this did me any protecting good (unsurprisingly, sadly, on condition that externally-routed shielded coax cable spans from room to room have equally nonetheless confirmed susceptible previously).
Usually, there are 4 Wi-Fi nodes in operation, in a mesh configuration comprised of Google Nest Wifi routers:
Why routers within the latter three circumstances, versus inexpensive entry factors? Within the Google Nest Wifi technology, versus with the Google OnHub and Google Wifi precursors (in addition to the Google Nest Wifi Professional successor, satirically), entry factors are solely wirelessly accessible; they don’t supply Ethernet connectivity as an possibility for amongst different issues making a wired “mesh” spine (you’ll quickly see why such a spine is fascinating). Plus, Google Nest Wifi Routers’ Wi-Fi subsystems are extra sturdy; AC2200 MU-MIMO with 4×4 on 5 GHz and a pair of×2 on 2.4GHz, versus solely AC1200 MU-MIMO Wi-Fi 2×2 on each 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz for the Google Nest Wifi Level. And the Level’s inclusion of a speaker is a don’t-care (extra correct: a detriment) to me.
I’ve augmented the already-existing Ethernet wiring after we purchased the home with two different notable further spans, each internal-only. One runs from the furnace room to my workplace immediately above it (I did find yourself changing the authentic incomplete-cable addition with a completely GbE-complaint successor). The opposite goes by means of the wall between the household room and the earlier-mentioned workplace past it (and under the lounge), offering it with sturdy Wi-Fi protection. As you’ll quickly see, this specific AP ended up being a key (albeit imperfect) participant in my present monsoon-season workaround.
Talking of workarounds, what are my resolution choices, on condition that the outdoor-routed Ethernet cable is already shielded? Maybe the simplest possibility can be to attempt putting in Ethernet surge protectors at every finish of the 2 outdoors-dominant spans. Right here, for instance are some that promote for $9.99 a pair at Amazon (and had been discounted to $7.99 a pair in the course of the latest Prime Fall Days promotion; I really positioned an order however then canceled it after I learn the high-quality print):
This one’s twice as costly, albeit nonetheless fairly cheap, and provides an earth floor strap:
Once more, nothing however diodes (the cluster of 4 on every finish are M7s; I can’t learn the markings on the center two), although:
Downside #1: diving into the high-quality print (due to this fact my earlier talked about order cancellation), you’ll discover that they solely help passing 100 Mbit Ethernet by means of, not GbE. And drawback #2; judging from the consumer feedback printed on each merchandise, they don’t appear to work, no less than on the atmospheric-electricity intensities my residence sees.
Okay, then, if my commentary passes muster that internal-only Ethernet spans, even unshielded ones, are seemingly EMI-immune, why not run substitute cabling from the furnace room to each upper-level ends of the home by means of the interstitial house between the degrees, in addition to between the interior and outer partitions? Which will certainly be what I find yourself biting the bullet and doing, however the mandatory navigation round (and/or by means of) enroute joists, ductwork and different obstacles shouldn’t be one thing that I’m relishing, fiscally or in any other case. In-advance is at all times preferable to after-the-fact in relation to such issues, in any case! Satirically, proper earlier than sitting down to start out scripting this submit, I skimmed by means of the ultimate print version of Sound & Imaginative and prescient journal, which included a nice writeup by residence installer (and long-time column contributor) John Sciacca. There’s a essentially stable cause why he wrote the next sensible phrases!
A number of of my greatest ideas: Prewire for all the pieces (a wire you aren’t utilizing right now is likely to be a lifesaver tomorrow!), go away a conduit if attainable…
What about MoCA (coax-based networking) or powerline networking? No thanks. As I’ve already talked about, the present external-routed coax wiring has confirmed susceptible to close-proximity lightning, too. If I’m going to run internally routed cable as a substitute, I’ll simply do Ethernet. And after a number of a long time’ price of coping with powerline’s unfulfilled promise resulting from its struggles to traverse a number of circuit breakers and phases, together with at this home (which has two breaker packing containers, imagine it or not, the unique one within the storage and a more moderen complement within the furnace room), together with injected noise from furnaces, air-con items, hair dryers, innumerable wall warts and the like, I’ve frankly collected greater than sufficient scars already. However talking of breaker packing containers, by the best way, I’ve already applied one of many earlier documented ideas from reader “bdcst”, courtesy of an electrician go to a couple of years again:
The ultimate possibility, which I did attempt (with attention-grabbing outcomes), concerned disconnecting each ends of the exterior-routed Cat 5 spans and as a substitute relying solely on wi-fi backbones for the mesh entry factors upstairs at each ends of the home. As setup for the outcomes to come back, I’ll first share what the wired-only connectivity seems to be like between the furnace room and my workplace immediately above it. I’m nonetheless relying predominantly on my legacy, now-obsolete (per Home windows 8’s demise) Home windows Media Middle-based cable TV-distribution scheme, which has a handy built-in Community Tuner facility accessible by way of any of the Xbox 360s appearing as Home windows Media Extenders:
In preparation for my external-Ethernet severing experiment, to maximise the robustness of the resultant wi-fi spine connectivity to each ends of the home, I put in a fifth Google Nest Wifi router-as-access level within the workplace. It certainly resulted in fairly sturdy, albeit extra erratic, bandwidth between the router and the entry level in the lounge, first as reported within the Google Dwelling app:
after which by Home windows Media Middle’s Community Tuner:
I sometimes skilled transient A/V dropouts and freezes with this particular configuration. Extra notably, the Home windows Media Middle UI was extra sluggish than earlier than, particularly in its response to distant management button presses (fast-forward and -rewind makes an attempt had been significantly maddening). Most disconcerting, nonetheless, was the truth that my spouse’s iPhone now incessantly misplaced community connectivity after she traversed from one stage of the home to the opposite, till she toggled it into after which again out of Airplane Mode.
One of many downsides of mesh networks is that, as a result of all nodes broadcast the very same SSID (in varied Google Wifi product households’ case), or the identical multi-SSID suite for different mesh setups that use completely different names for the two.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz beacons, it’s tough (particularly with Google’s elementary Dwelling utility) to determine precisely what node you’re linked to at any cut-off date. I hypothesized that her iPhone was stubbornly clinging to the now-unusable Wi-Fi node she was utilizing earlier than versus switching to the now-stronger sign of a unique node in her vacation spot location. Regardless, as soon as I re-disconnected the extra entry level in my workplace, her telephone’s sturdy roaming conduct returned:
However because the above screenshot alludes to, I ended up with different issues in alternate. Observe, particularly, the now-weak spine connectivity reported by the lounge node (though, curiously, connectivity between the master suite and furnace room remained stable even now over Wi-Fi). The mesh entry level in the lounge was, I believe, now wirelessly linked to the one within the workplace under it, satirically a shorter node-to-node distance than earlier than, however passing by means of the interstitial house between the degrees. And immediately between the 2 nodes in that interstitial house is a giant hunk of steel ductwork. Observe, too, that the Google Nest Wifi system is predicated on Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) know-how, and that the wi-fi spine is particularly applied utilizing the 5 GHz band, which is higher-bandwidth than its 2.4 GHz counterpart but in addition inherently shorter-range. The end result was predictable:
The experiment wasn’t a whole waste, although. On a hunch, I attempted utilizing the Xfinity Stream app on my Roku to view Comcast-sourced content material as a substitute. The supply mechanism right here is totally completely different: streamed over the Web and originating from Comcast’s server, versus solely over my LAN from the mini PC supply (in all circumstances, whether or not stay, time-shifted or totally pre-recorded, originating at my Comcast coax TV feed by way of a SiliconDust HDHomeRun Prime CableCARD middleman). I wasn’t direct-connecting to premises Wi-Fi from the Roku; as a substitute, I stored it wired Ethernet-connected to the multi-port change as earlier than, leveraging the now-wireless-backbone-connected entry level additionally linked to the change there as a substitute. And, as a nice shock to me, I persistently acquired stable streaming supply.
What’s modified? Let’s look first on the video codec leveraged. The WTV “wrapper” (container) format now in use by Home windows Media Middle supersedes the DVR-MS precursor with expanded help for each legacy MPEG-2 and newer MPEG-4 video. And certainly, though a perusal of a latest recorded-show file in Window Explorer’s File Properties possibility was fruitless (the audio and video codec sections had been clean), pulling the file into VLC Media Participant and analyzing it there proved extra enlightening. There have been two embedded audio tracks, one English and the opposite Spanish, each Dolby AC3-encoded. And the video was encoded utilizing H.264, i.e., MPEG-4 AVC (Half 10). Apparently, once more in keeping with VLC, it was formatted at 1280×720 pixel decision and a 59.940060 fps body fee. And the bitrate different over time, confirmative of VBR encoding, with enter and demuxed stream bitrates each spiking to >8,000 kb/sec peaks.
The excellent news right here, from a Home windows Media Middle standpoint, is two-fold: it’s not nonetheless utilizing archaic MPEG-2 as I’d feared beforehand might need been the case, and the MPEG-4 profile in use is fairly superior. The dangerous information, nonetheless, is that it’s solely utilizing AVC, and at a excessive body fee (due to this fact bitrate) as well. Conversely, Roku gamers additionally help the extra superior HEVC and VP9 video codec codecs (alas, I do not know what’s getting used on this case). And, as a result of the content material is streamed immediately from Comcast’s server, the Roku and server can talk to adaptively alter decision, body fee, compression stage and different bitrate-related variables, maximizing playback high quality as WAN and LAN bandwidth dynamically range.
For now, on condition that monsoon season is (supposedly, no less than) over till subsequent summer season, I’ve reconnected the exterior Cat 5 spans. And it’s good to know that when the “thunderbolt and lightning, very, very scary” return, I can at all times quickly sever the exterior Ethernet once more, counting on my Rokus’ Xfinity Stream apps as a substitute. That stated, I additionally plan to ultimately check out newer Wi-Fi know-how, to additional take a look at the speculation that “wires beat wi-fi each time”. Nearing 3,000 phrases, I’ll save extra particulars on that for one more submit to come back. And till then, I as-always welcome your ideas within the feedback!
—Brian Dipert is the Editor-in-Chief of the Edge AI and Imaginative and prescient Alliance, and a Senior Analyst at BDTI and Editor-in-Chief of InsideDSP, the corporate’s on-line publication.
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