fred@compu.com (Fred Rump) (02/13/91)
Some time ago I heard a presentation on using fiber optic cable
in a lightening prone enviroment. IE lots of electrical
disturbances.
I lost the name of the company that gave the talk and now need
more information.
This would be especially directed to folks who also do business
in Florida where we are experiencing dramatic electrical problems
when having lines either above or below ground from building to
building.
Many of our customers now unplug everything at night down there
and have great trepidations about keeping their computers on
during the slightest sign of thunderstorms.
This is all very good for keeping the equipment working but not
good for productivity and convenience of operation. Nightly
communications have to be done during the day when things are
more expensive than necessary. Remote buildings get disonnected
because of the fear of failure via a heavy surge. We have
protection on the outlets and a UPS with surgeprotection but
nothing really seems to work reliably.
So, the question is would fiber cable help? Do others use it? How
much is it? Sources?
Any information at all would be helpful.
fred
---
Fred Rump | Home of Brother John Software
CompuData, Inc. | SCO Advanced Product Center
10501 Drummond Rd. | Bang: {uunet dsinc}!cdin-1!fred (800-223-DATA) Philadelphia, Pa. 19154| Internet: fred@COMPU.COM (215-824-3000)
--
Fred Rump | Home of Brother John Software
CompuData, Inc. | SCO Advanced Product Center
10501 Drummond Rd. | Bang: {uunet dsinc}!cdin-1!fred (800-223-DATA) Philadelphia, Pa. 19154| Internet: fred@COMPU.COM (215-824-3000)fred@compu.com (Fred Rump) (02/14/91)
fred@compu.com (Fred Rump) writes:
(Sorry, I posted this in comp.unix.i386 which I don't think
exists any more)
Some time ago I heard a presentation on using fiber optic cable
in a lightening prone enviroment. IE lots of electrical
disturbances.
I lost the name of the company that gave the talk and now need
more information.
This would be especially directed to folks who also do business
in Florida where we are experiencing dramatic electrical problems
when having lines either above or below ground from building to
building.
Many of our customers now unplug everything at night down there
and have great trepidations about keeping their computers on
during the slightest sign of thunderstorms.
This is all very good for keeping the equipment working but not
good for productivity and convenience of operation. Nightly
communications have to be done during the day when things are
more expensive than necessary. Remote buildings get disonnected
because of the fear of failure via a heavy surge. We have
protection on the outlets and a UPS with surgeprotection but
nothing really seems to work reliably.
So, the question is would fiber cable help? Do others use it? How
much is it? Sources?
Any information at all would be helpful.
fred
--
Fred Rump | Home of Brother John Software
CompuData, Inc. | SCO Advanced Product Center
10501 Drummond Rd. | Bang: {uunet dsinc}!cdin-1!fred (800-223-DATA) Philadelphia, Pa. 19154| Internet: fred@COMPU.COM (215-824-3000)king@suphys.physics.su.OZ.AU (Peter King) (02/14/91)
Here at the Plasma Physics Department we have a MicroVAX II that is subject to frequent power surges due to the tokamak discharging. The surge is such that when the tokamak fires, all the monitors in the Department jolt quite strongly. We have taken various precautions with the computer including mains filters, surge protectors and fibre optic isolation to our Ethernet network. All of our terminals are fibre optically isolated too. Recently we had a severe electrical storm which fried every computer in our Department except the MicroVAX II. We knew that the problem wasn't a power supply problem as the surge protectors were intact, so the problem was the Ethernet acting as a large antenna for the lightning strike on the building. Since everything works okay, I can recommend fibre optic isolation for the network connections. -- ******************************************************************************** Peter King ( king@alfven.physics.su.oz.au ) * voice: 612 692 3371 University of Sydney, Australia. 2006 * FAX: 612 660 2903 ********************************************************************************
jim@tiamat.fsc.com ( IT Manager) (02/22/91)
We used to be very prone to lightning damage on some RS-232 lines that we had running along the length of our plant. There were probably 10 RS-232 ports sharing wires in two multi-wire cables. Every summer, during thunderstorm season, we would blow the 1488 and 1489 chips in the terminals or computer serial boards about twice a month. Last summer we installed a fiber optic line, which connects two Ethernet repeaters, out to the plant. In the plant, we have a 16-port terminal server, and all the RS-232 cables (unshielded twisted-pair) are completely inside the building. Since installing this, we have no trouble at all from lightning storms. We also use fiber optic to connect our plant and R&D building, but we used fiber there because of the distance, not because of lightning problems. At first, we used a 16-port FO multiplexer at each end, but now the fiber carries Ethernet like the other. Wanna buy two used 16-port FO multiplexers? --jim ------------- James B. O'Connor jim@tiamat.fsc.com Ahlstrom Filtration, Inc. 615/821-4022 x. 651