MikroTik

Do most people use equipment like this http://www.titanwirelessonline.com/Prod ... 2DSRG%2DRF
to protect their equipment?

depends on you cable run. Anyway if cable is installed properly, don't need this gear.

We've an area where there are some problems with lightnig strikes
coming in via Powerlines. We added surge protection there. No problems now.
Installation is costly as there is a lot of additional cabling.

I set up several MT AP's / RB's up metal poles and such like. I added POE surge protectors on all the POE cables. We get lots of lightening. What's $20 if it saves a $200 RB or a $50 POE?

Plus we have dirty mains supply (norm is 240v) but we get anywhere from 110-280v. If the POE gets a spike I wanna make sure it doesn't wipe out my RB!

Josh

Do most people use equipment like this http://www.titanwirelessonline.com/Prod ... 2DSRG%2DRF
to protect their equipment?

I know a lot of these device cause problems about packet loss.
But someone working well: http://www.townet.it/content/view/63/40/lang,it/

I dont know "DBii PoE & RF miniPCI Surge Protection"...

I set up several MT AP's / RB's up metal poles and such like. I added POE surge protectors on all the POE cables. We get lots of lightening. What's $20 if it saves a $200 RB or a $50 POE?

Plus we have dirty mains supply (norm is 240v) but we get anywhere from 110-280v. If the POE gets a spike I wanna make sure it doesn't wipe out my RB!

Josh

This is my feeling on it. I don't mind spending $20 if it is protecting my equipment. But then again I didn't want to be wasting money on something that wasn't effective. It's one of those things you can't immediately see if it's doing it's job or not. Also I don't want to add something that creates problems such as packet loss.
That's why I wanted to see others opinions on these devices.

The one I linked to I thought was kind of neat since it had both ethernet and rf protection. Twice the functionality. But I wonder if the rf surge protection is as robust as what you would get with a traditional lightning arrestor?

My thought is you need something to bleed off the static. These little boards are not going to help very much if a fair amount of voltage passes through them. It will just jump across and continue on. I like the APC modules that fit inside the little APC case. I can't think of the model numbers offhand. They actually are beefy. Use them in tower enclosures with regulated power supplies.

Hi Popcorrin & everyone else,
My name is Lawrence from Dbii Networks. I just recently started posting to the forums (I know I should've come on sooner). In any case, I understand about packet loss and latency concerns you might have regarding adding the SafeSurge. I can tell you the reason why we developed this was b/c in customers in Asia experienced lots of lightning surges which damaged their RB411 and RB433 to charcoal status near the Ethernet ports especially (Due to direct lightning strikes at times) Sometimes adding additional lighting arrestors outside the enclosure attracts more lightning (according to some customers....I can't attest to that). But essentially not only was the miniPCI card damaged, the board was as well.

The SafeSurge is designed so that the first major point of entry is lessened by this unit before it hits the miniPCI. The 2nd point is the protection on the F50-PRO where leftover surges or ESD will be prevented, in most cases not allowing to damage your board. The whole point is to extend the life of your overall unit.

You won't experience latency or packet loss issues.

I can give you a sample if you would like, in fact anyone that e-mails me....I can try to give you samples as long as I have them on hand. E-mail me at lawrence [at] dbii [dot] com

The only time I have ever seen packet loss with devices like this is if the POE voltage is miss matched to the protection device or if you have ground that is bad. We had problems at a customers site with one and traced it to a 20vac charge on the buildings ground and neutral! We have started using some of DBii cards in production and so far they have been excellent. We are in the process of moving our cpe to using DBii cards.

We have spoken with Laurence and found that we get very fast responses, with excellent technical information and we are looking forward to other product release from Dbii.

Thanks for your support, but performance is the ultimate concern. As you experience issues we will address them. Sometimes I don't have all the answers but I will find out for you immediately.

As I mentioned about performance, you might notice that our spec sheet might indicate a certain number but you actually see improvements. Many people have told us to change the specs to compensate for what they are seeing. My response is that yes....it's great for marketing, but I don't want to put something on the datasheet for "theoretical" or "optimum setting" even though I admit, it's something I always like to see. Based on your own tweaking, I'm sure you can push the equipment to it's limits.

What I can say is that based on signal strength, CCQ, ping times....you should see significant improvements compared to other cards. Try it out and see for yourself...or I'll refund you the money...oh wait...I'm giving away free samples (if available of course)