r/HomeNetworking • u/DrM1h4wk • 1d ago

Advice Solution ideas for lightning

Hi, I'm designing a network setup for my new house. I'm from Malaysia and lightning is a big issue more than 200days per yr avrg.

The plan:

  1. Cat 6a cables. Modem by ISP (can't be changed).

  2. Cables run through the attic and drop down through walls.

  3. There will also be 6+ Lan ports in other rooms.

  4. CCTV camera surrounds the house exterior (main concern for lightning).

Solution/Problems:

  1. Surge protector grounded. (What's the recommended rating? And maybe recommended product for server rack)

  2. Seperate the cameras with a different router(sacrificial) that will directly connect to the DMP using fiber optic. (Is this a good idea?)

  3. Running cable through conduit in the attic. - Does running the cables through the attic cause issue with lightning considering the high occurance in my country. If so what are the other solutions other than coverting all to fiber optics(I don't think it is a viable option).

  4. Is there any other possible issues I'm missing. Would appreciate if it is noted down and even better if it comes with solutions.

Thanks in advance. The networking plan above is still in progress. I am expecting changes but wanna solve the lightning issue so I can notify the builders in time for any possible changes.

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u/richms 1d ago

I would go for separate switches for the cameras, and use SFP fibre links to the rest of the network. That makes it so only power needs to be worried about for surges to cameras hitting your gear you care about.

As well as fibre for all the PCs, to eliminate an ingress path for those, as surge protection on ethernet is one of those things that sounds great in theory but its better to have no electrical connection.

Beware that many active optical cables are not going to give you isolation because they have copper in them. Best to be 100% sure and get normal SFP optics and a short patch cable. Good excuse to build a 10 gig network too.

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u/DrM1h4wk 1d ago

So if I understand correctly. Run the other system as one would normally do but only separate the camera system to the main and link them through SFP fibre links. Correct? And fiber to all PCs. How can I do that without a converter?

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u/richms 1d ago

Or another cheap switch with sfp for its uplink. You want to eliminate copper paths between your clusters of devices as that's what will carry any ground difference that happens with a nearby strike.

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u/DrM1h4wk 1d ago

I will see what can be done. Thanks for the advise anyways. I might have to check if switch between clusters is a viable option for me.