APC Surge Protector for Ethernet Data Port (10/100/1000 Base-T Ethernet lines), ProtectNet (PNET1GB)

We have a lot of electrical storms here, and because we have devices outside connected with CAT6 cable (generator, 5Ghz dish for our internet etc.) I wanted those incoming connections to go through a surge suppressor before plugging into my network switch, even though they are also fully shielded and grounded connections. It never hurts to be save with all the electrical storms we have around here.I bought a couple of these things back in 2015 and took the time to mount and properly ground them well. Then in 2017 I bought a couple more for additional devices, trusting that they still do the job but never really knowing since despite all the electrical storms we've had, nothing has been struck and nothing has gone out. Perhaps that in itself is a testament to these things... but I still wasn't sure if these had capability to absorb multiple hits, or if they are single use.That changed this past weekend. We had a killer electrical storm right above our house and at the same moment we saw a massive lightning strike, the power went out for a few seconds and our internet went out and stayed out. (We get our internet from the 5Ghz dish outside from a nearby mountain since there is nothing else available in our area.)The dish seemed okay. The POE injector was still sending power, the radio on the back still had activity and RX lights, the link on my switch port was still showing 100Mbps full duplex, but no internet. I tried everything... replacing the POE injector, rebooting the dish and even leaving the dish's radio unplugged for 24h to drain it completely. I was about to go order a new radio and then thought, "hey, why not remove the surge suppressor" even though network and power seemed to be passing through it just fine. That was it! the lightning must have caused enough of a surge to trigger it. Once I removed it and replaced it with a new one, my dish was back online.So, here's some proof that these things actually work. Happy to buy a replacement for $23 vs. a new switch for hundreds (assuming it would have gone through to my switch... and if that's true, where would it go from there!)

My house has whole-house protection in the breakers, but never thought about protecting the ethernet lines. I had a lighting issue that took out a few devices connected through physical wires. Lost 2 switches, 2 mesh nodes and a number of AV equipment that has physical wires instead of wifi. This lead me to suspect I needed a network cable solution.Do these work? Not sure as I'm doing this proactively however the reviews here suggest it does. Went with this brand over something generic as the cost difference was not an issue when you think about the potential $$ savings. My only concern was impact to speed. Older comments here suggest it does slow down, but that has NOT been my experience. I have gig-fiber going into my home. Still getting 900s with this device in. Note there is overhead in bandwidth so getting 1000 is not expected. It may have slowed it down a tad bit, but not enough to matter to me given the piece of mind.I installed mine between the cable from the wall into my AT&T cable modem thus protecting it and all devices downstream from it. I have a number of downstream switches after the cable modem that I may purchased couple more for those switches, but so far no noticeable impact to my network. Time will tell when/if I get hit again, but for now a proactive peace of mind.

Like another reviewer, I have ethernet running underground connecting two buildings. I was constantly losing switches, ports and having other storm related issues for years. I put one of these on each end of the line, and elsewhere in my network, and the problems stopped.Last night we had a decent storm and I lost network in the second building. The switch showed signal coming from the ethernet cable but no connection to the network. I bypassed this protector and voila, the network worked which means thing did it's job. I cracked it open and you can see how it failed in order to protect the equipment.I should note that these are expensive for what they are. Ubiquiti sells the same thing for $13.

I always wondered if this item would truly do it's job. Some of the reviews have not been favorable and some are. Now I have real world experience with this Surge Protector. My signal comes in via coaxial to the modem which is connected to old Asus router I was using as my wi-fi access point. This Asus Router was connected, via an Ethernet cable, to an expensive Cisco Commercial Router. I parked the APC Surge Protector at the end of that Ethernet Cable and then plugged the other end of the APC into my commercial router's WAN. It sat there for quite a while and I had no idea if it was actually going to work. Sometime in the last week the coaxial cable coming into my home experienced some type of surge (probably lightning) that ran up the line to the modem, then through the Ethernet Cable connected to the Asus Router, through the outgoing Ethernet cable connected to the APC Surge Protector. That surge evidenced itself as follows: Burnt connections in the outside coaxial cable as well as my inside coaxial cable running to the alcove where my equipment is installed. It then proceeded to fry the modem (owned by the ISP, so no harm no foul) thru the Ethernet Cable (which was also burnt out) connected to the Asus Router. It fried the Asus Router then and ran down the Ethernet cable with the APC Surge Protector at the end which was connected to the Commercial Router. Bottom line is the lightning strike took out everything (including Ethernet Cables) all the way up to the APC Surge Protector. It protected that router as well as my expensive CAT 6 cabling throughout the residence. In other words, the APC Surge Protector DID IT'S JOB.