Cable modem through surge protector?

[crazychicken]

I was having some connectivity problems with my cable internet. The cable guy came out to the house and just about screamed at me for running the cable through an APC surge protector before going to my cable modem. That turned out not to be the problem, but am I that crazy for doing this? If lightning hits the power poles or something, there could be a surge through the cable wires as well that could break some equipment - this is what the APC surge protector is trying to prevent by having a coax in/out port, right?

Can anyone comment on if this makes sense or if it could actually cause connectivity problems?

Thanks,

Dave

 

[Blain]

Did he in any meaningful way, explain is rational?

 

[crazychicken]

Nope - he just kept saying "WHO SET THIS UP OH MY GOSH THIS IS SUCH A BAD IDEA IT IS DEFINITELY WHY YOUR INTERNET IS NOT WORKING".

Should I chalk it up as this guy is an idiot and keep running the cable through the surge protector?

 

[Blain]

1. "WHO SET THIS UP OH MY GOSH THIS IS SUCH A BAD IDEA IT IS DEFINITELY WHY YOUR INTERNET IS NOT WORKING"
2. That turned out not to be the problem
3. Should I chalk it up as this guy is an idiot

Did he defend his "IS DEFINITELY WHY YOUR INTERNET IS NOT WORKING" statement after that turned out not to be true?

 

[crazychicken]

Nope - just kept saying that.

 

[Blain]

"Should I chalk it up as this guy is an idiot" :thumbsup::laugh:

 

[JackMDS]

Is it absolutely No No to put the cable feed through surge protector? No.

Can it pose a problem? Yes, some times when it goes rouge it can.

Does it add protection? Cable feed in its nature is not affected very much small low energy spikes. If there is a real spike that is weather related it probably would not be blocked by consumer level filters that are in the power strips.

You are probably better of installing a coax cable Arrestor at the entrance of the coax to your home (you probably can find one in Radio Shack or Home Depot).

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: JackMDS
You are probably better of installing a coax cable Arrestor at the entrance of the coax to your home

Echo that! That is exactly what the Comcast tech did when I got their cable Internet.

 

[Blain]

How does a stand-alone coax cable arrestor differ from the built-in arrestor in a good surge suppressor?

 

[JackMDS]

The suppressor on a power strip closes the circuit on the strip.

Being on the strip it affect all the wires and what ever else is on the strip. In addition it closes to the Ground through the House wiring and what ever else is attached to it.

The Arrestor is installed at the entry point and shortens the Spike to the ground directly (its grounding is usually attached to a water pipe, or a rode that goes few feet into the ground), thus hopefully none, or only small amount of the spike goes into the house.