Using cheap ethernet card as power surge protection?

nxodus · Feb 28, 2018

Greetings,

I had 2 serious power surges in the last 5 years damaging 2 motherboards and I wanted to make sure this never happens again.

Power surge number one killed the modem, passed through the router (not harming it) and popped my motherboard ethernet port.

Power surge number two passed modem and router safely and popped my motherboard ethernet port.

I'm planning to upgrade my system and buying my most expensive motherboard yet, an Asus Prime z370-a

To the best of my knowledge, most of the ethernet surge protectors have serious tolls, there are those which get destroyed by surges, ones that survive but need expensive replaceable parts after each surge, and there are those which work great but take a bite off your network speed.

I had the redneck idea of simply installing a cheap gigabit ethernet adapter and let it take the shot instead of the integrated one.

-What happens to the PCI slot if a power surge kills the card?
-The above mentioned mid-tier motherboard promises Lower CPU workload, as well as High TCP & UDP throughput with the integrated adapter. Are there any cheap adapters with similar features or is this some inflated advertisement stuff.

I really don't know much about networking stuff and adapters.

Thanks in advance!

bill001g · Feb 28, 2018

It is very surprising that you get any power surge on a ethernet cable. If you are using shielded cable that is another story since incorrectly installed a surge could travel on the shield.

Ethernet is magnetically isolated. That means there is no direct connection between the equipment power and the ethernet cable. All the signalling is passed with a tiny transformer with magnetic fields. In addition many device have optical isolator between the transformer and the rest of the circuit to cut noise but it provides a second layer of electrical isolation.

The failure would have to so bad that it could fry the circuit board bad enough that power could get past these protections. It is almost unthinkable that it could pass through multiple devices. It would have to cause massive damage to everything in the path.

I do not think there is much more you can do to protect yourself. A simple router or switch in the path should always get fried by something like a lightning strike and not pass the surge on.

In the many thousands of computer we have on the network I have never seen one damaged by a power surge that came in over a network cable. We did get a direct lighting strike that took out modem and router, it actually melted them but nothing was damaged passed those.

Scottray · Feb 28, 2018

I think a better solution is to use a battery backup UPS for your equipment, something like this: https://www.amazon.com/CyberPower-CP1350PFCLCD-Sinewave-Outlets-Mini-Tower/dp/B00429N18S?SubscriptionId=AKIAIPHVZTVH6LZ5BFZA&tag=hawk-future-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B00429N19M&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&ascsubtag=pcg-1926425948-20&th=1. I'm taking a guess that it's not just a surge thru ethernet, but also surges on your power line, too.

If you do decide ethernet surge protectors, be sure to get one's with a green grounding wire and connect it properly. If it doesn't have a grounding wire, it's crap. Here's an example: http://www.apc.com/shop/us/en/products/APC-ProtectNet-standalone-surge-protector-for-10-100-1000-Base-T-Ethernet-lines/P-PNET1GB

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Using cheap ethernet card as power surge protection?

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