Reddit mentions of TII 212 Broadband Cable TV and Satellite Lightning Surge Protector 75 Ohm 5-1500MHz

Yeah, I bet I know what happened. I'm guessing you probably don't want to wait around on Comcast to fix this? Comcast's tap down at the road is probably fine but there's a decent chance that the lightning fried a splitter in your house. Does Comcast lock the house box in your area? It's your wiring, and you're on the hook for anything that happens to it, but some cable companies are douches and will try to keep you out of the house box. Open up that box and you'll see two things, the cable from the street goes into a device that grounds the outside and connects with a copper wire to the ground rod for your electric service, and a splitter or two hooking up to all of the outlets around your house. With any luck, those two things will be separate, that'll make it simpler. The splitter can be used as a ground block, and there's nothing wrong with that, but we want a separate ground block so we can use a lightning arrestor.

As for the lightning arrestor, TII makes a good one. Really you just want to grab one of the gas tube lightning arrestors, and make sure it's one that has a ground connection on it, not one that just uses the jacket for a ground. This is what you'll probably see grounding your cable right now, you basically just replace this device with the lightning arrestor.

As for the splitter, you may find one, you might have 2 or 3, it depends on the house and how it was set up. You probably have a failed splitter, it's pretty simple to replace but make sure that you replace any splitters with the exact same type of splitter that it had originally. So if there's 2 2 way splitters, don't just replace it with a 3 way splitter and call it good. You want to keep the signal levels where they're currently at. Each splitter essentially splits the incoming signal evenly across the ports so when it was set up the cable installer might have set it up such that your internet connection is on the line that goes straight to a 2 way splitter connected back to the ground block with any TVs hooked up to a 4 way splitter under that 2 way splitter. For TV, you don't have to worry about signal strength balancing too much unless you have like 8 or 10 outlets all around your house, in which case you would probably need an amplifier. The important thing is that your internet connection needs to get the same amount of signal that it's getting now. So if it's getting 25%, less could cause service issues. Counterintuitively, more signal could also cause service issues, just keep it the same, because getting it right might not be easy to measure with your modem and it's more complicated. Just look in the box and go to Lowes or Home Depot or something like that and get an identical splitter. You don't have satellite so as long as the splitter is good for 5MHz to 1000MHz you're fine.

Also, you need all of this to be weatherproof and while the enclosure will keep out rain it won't keep out all moisture. If you take any weather seals off the old splitter or ground block, put them back on the new splitter exactly how you took them off. If the splitter is currently being used as a ground block, you'll need to separate this out to put in the lightning arrestor so don't forget that you need another short coax cable. Make sure it's at least RG-6 and don't just grab a long one, it's not going to fit, You want something real short like just 6 inches. Unfortunately, you're going to have a tough time finding a tiny coax cable since pretty much no one ever needs them. What the professionals do is just make the cable, it's really quite easy once you get the hang of it, and usefull if you ever want to do stuff like add an outlet in a particular room without having to pay an arm and a leg to Comcast or someone else. If you want to make your own cables, you need the tools to do so. Don't get any crimp on tools, they're garbage connectors and they'll frequently pull right out. All of the professionals just use compression connectors, they're only a little pricier, but they actually make a decent termination which is never going to happen with crimp connectors. You need a compression tool, a coax stripper (not strictly necessary, but if you're doing more than a single connection it's totally worth it), and some decent sidecutters or linesman pliers, or even just any old wire stripper. So long as you aren't just trying to use some kitchen scissors it'll work fine. Then for the cable itself you can buy a spool of RG-6 for ~$30 and then just make sure that whatever compression connectors you get are made for the cable you're using so don't try to use regular RG-6 connectors for quad shielded RG-6. Also, you can get quad shielded RG-6, it's better for noise, but I'd recommend against it, certainly if you've never messed with coax before. You'd also need a special tool to prep the cable with quad shielded RG-6 whereas it's just optional with regular RG-6. Really it's optional with quad shielded, but it's such a pain that I wouldn't want to deal with it without it.

Really what it boils down to is that first, replace the busted splitter or call Comcast to do it. Then replace the ground block with a lightning arrestor and if you need a 6" cable, just buy it off Amazon if you don't want to learn how to install coax elsewhere in your house as well. There's also the chance that Comcast's equipment fried so you might wanna just say screw it, call Comcast and have them fix the busted splitter or their equipment.

Grounding requirements are found in the National Electric Code, mostly in articles 810.15 and 810.21 (page 658 of PDF), which is adopted by most states and cities/counties.

You must separately ground both (1) your antenna mast/pole and (2) the coaxial cable with a ground block just before it enters the house.

Make sure to electrically ground your antenna mast to reduce the chance of a lightning strike, minimize damage from one, and shunt away static electricity buildup. If this was previous DirecTV/Dish installation, the coax used by the installer might have a companion ground wire (a 'messenger' wire) that runs with the coax. If so, then make sure the ground messenger wire is attached to metal on your antenna or mount.

If there is no messenger wire, buy size 10 AWG copper wire (Home Depot, Lowe's, or online). Strip any insulation off the end and use a ground clamp on the bottom of the mast. The other end can be attached to several different places in your house's electrical grounding system -- the list of all of them is at NEC article 810.21, but the cleanest-looking may be the house's electrical service panel (the big circuit breaker box on the outside of the house). To do this, run the wire to a ground clamp (like a corner ground clamp or a side ground clamp) screwed onto the electrical service panel. Strip an inch of any insulation away when attaching to the ground clamp. (Look for where any previous DirecTV/Dish installer, if any, grounded the coaxial grounding block if you want a hint on where to ground it.)

If there was no previous DirecTV/Dish setup, and you're using your own coaxial cable from the antenna to the inside of the house, then make sure to use an electrical grounding block on the coaxial cable, just before it enters the house. People like the TII-212, which is also a lightning protector. Run size 10 AWG copper from this grounding block to a grounding clamp at your electrical service panel, just like you did with the antenna mast.

If you're using the coaxial from previous DirecTV/Dish setup, double-check that the ground block they installed on the coaxial line is properly grounded (see NEC article 810.21 for list of acceptable grounding places; sometimes they mess up). It should have a copper ground wire that runs to your electric service panel or metal pipe, etc. If not, then you'll need to ground the block yourself in roughly the same way.

I use something like this. https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0016AIYU6/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_aWErDbNVDYS3J

Ground wire from this to the city side of the water pipe. If you're on well water, connect to your electrical panels ground plate/rod.

Couple things I would check would be your home's electrical ground. and I would if not already done so install a COAX surge protector.

https://www.amazon.com/TII-Broadband-Cable-Lightning-Protector/dp/B0016AIYU6

You could also put an ethernet surge protector between your system and the router.

https://www.amazon.com/APC-PNET1GB-ProtectNet-Standalone-Protector/dp/B000BKUSS8

Disclaimer I am not making a recommendation on parts. Part links are for example only.

You need an inline coax surge supressor like this. It costs about $20 on Amazon. It goes outside near where your cable enters the building. You should already have a coax grounding block there. If so you can connect it there. There is more info from the manufacturer here. If you don't already have a coax grounding block outside then you'll need to run a ground wire to the existing ground rod for your electrical system.

I’ve heard great things about this surge suppressor and it doubles as a grounding block.

https://www.amazon.com/TII-Broadband-Satellite-Lightning-Protector/dp/B0016AIYU6

The coax coming from the pole has its own ground potential, its supposed to be bonded between the electrical ground but it sounds like the bond is broken somewhere. So when the coax cable meets with the tv that becomes a source of voltage between the two systems.

I had a similar problem except I don't have a cable service, I have a separate ground rod for an antenna system on opposite sides of the house and I didn't understand how to bond them. I blew out a brand new tv and when checking the coax cable to the ground there was a good 40volts ac running through it. I figured out after careful examination that the antenna ground rod was picking up stray voltage from a bad well pump and it was bleeding back between the well casing, the second ground rod then to the tv. So not only was the electrical bill higher from the pump pulling all the amperage out of the circuit whenever it turned on but it also destroyed the new flat screen tv.

The same sort of thing can happen with the cable system except its worse because its snaking all over the place between all the homes and poles. So if the grounding has gone to hell you can have reflections from all sorts of places which could be mild and only ruins the signal or could be worse and ruins your tv.

I would buy this and put it on a grounding block on your service side. Its an isolator that lets the signal pass through but cuts out the bad ground coming from the pole and if you want to be really careful get this grounding block/surge protector to go with it

edit: also what the other electricians said check your home's electrical system, my house is also from the 70's and i recently had to completely rewire it as it was full of problems, literally on the verge of burning down. The code back then wasn't that great and stupid things like aluminum wire decaying and burning up is a big deal

also gfci's are more of a bandaid to grounding issues. you shouldn't expect them to "fix a bad ground" they are only there to compliment a ground not really replace them

Ditched the dish, and no issues. Untightened the dish mount screws, threw it off the roof... Put a nice 6 foot pole into the J mount, put up an OTA, connected up the antenna, using the same run of coax. Got all 55 channels in my area. No issues.

If done properly, your old dish setup should be grounded per NEC and local building codes. Review:
http://columbiaisa.50webs.com/antenna_grounding_nec.jpg

You should see ground connections.

I'd also suggest installing this too:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0016AIYU6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The other advice here is good on specific cabling and what not. I'm going to give my somewhat ghetto homeowner approach.

Your goal here is to have everything work right. A digital device (whether it's a TV box or your cable modem) is generally going to be more picky about signal quality than an analog device. Each split, unless put through a powered splitter, will somewhat degrade the signal. Therefore you want to have as few splitters as possible before any important devices (like your cable modem). All else being equal shoot for that, but don't kill yourself at first trying to perfect it.

If you hook up everything and it works, don't worry about it. If you have any questions or concerns, you can usually use your cable modem as a poor man's signal tester. You can plug it into the coax, then plugin your computer into the ethernet jack and visit the cable modem's diagnostic page and see the exact signal quality. Your TV or cable boxes may also do this. For example I have an HD Home Run prime as my main cable box and the diagnostic page displays this for me:

• Signal Strength 100% (2.6 dBmV)
  
• Signal Quality 88% (27.3 dB)
  
  I ended up having some issues when I installed my HD Home Run so I bought this powered splitter for like $45 and have been flawless ever since.
  
  Bonus tip: Make sure your coax is grounded going into your house and also run it through a surge protector before it gets to your cable modem. $500 of fried home electronics taught me this lesson the hard way when lightning struck a puddle right next to my entrypoint into the house. After that I went whole hog and got one of these lightning protectors too

...For those environments, with substantial grounding work done, these products can prevent direct lightning bolt damages (for the most part). However, if you want an a low latency (<=1ns) and unlimited capacity (akin to joules), then the BEST option is a BUNCH of avalanche diodes, in a series. This is what ZeroSurge/BrickWall/SurgeX (and some others) make (they also make MOV-based btw, so read the product descriptions carefully!). The avalanche diode ability to react at lower voltages (akin to the clamping voltage for MOVs) is also stellar, as I've read some reviews (by [WireCutter](https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-surge-protector/)) achieving cut-offs of surges past 140v (recall: 120v is the desired voltage for most of North America) and they'll last virtually forever (there are no MOVs to burn out, thus no joules). They're hopeless against direct lightning bolts however, so just be clear about that. With enough of them in series though, unless your home is the preferred path of least resistance underground, then lightning bolts a half mile away or more should be totally fine, I'd think. Depends on how many are used in the device, after all. Similarly, you can get stellar results with a series of high-capacity MOVs, but they'll never achieve the <=1ns latencies. So, what are you worried about? That's the question you have to answer. I think a highly rated MOV or stellar number of avalanche diodes are both great solutions, with the latter requiring no upkeep (no need to replace MOVs, because there are none), but typically costing way more. Personally, I think the real winner is the avalanche diodes in sequence. For a video from a vendor (read: biased, but still informative) [watch a MOV vs AD surge demonstration](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RixUrc-FRcM).

2. Beyond these topics of protection are functionality. I'm not referring to the number / spacing of ports (although important), but rather filtering. When looking at UPS+SP hybrids, you'll see some offering sinewave protection - you want this, if you plan on streaming audio or experiencing static in audio you play (or are worried you will). However, they won't necessarily filter all electricity, likely just when operating off of the UPS' battery. Which brings the next topic of UPS - how does it bring power to your devices? There are three methods, but two most common approaches are: A) Outlet charges battery and devices, but switches to battery mode when the outlet goes out. B) Outlet charges battery, which in turn powers devices. The former may result in a brief "flicker" (or complete device turn off, if very old or extremely sensitive, not something most people should experience). Frankly, I feel the latter is over-kill (and due to extra heat from power conversions it means you'll have an always-on fan running, which could be loud to you, depending on placement). I state it's over-kill because, frankly, if your power goes out, if, in the worst likely case of a monitor flicker, you'll have just received a visual notification that your power went out and you may want to investigate everything is fine. Better UPS devices should raise an audible alarm, but it's a nice 2nd catch if it doesn't work. Plus, if you're maxing out the wattage on your computer setup, then your batteries might only last 2 minutes, so you probably need every second of that reminder to save your work and gracefully shutdown! Finally, there are some extra features to consider, such as USB ports, coaxial cable ports, and landline telephone ports (they're not able to support the high-speeds of Ethernet like you'd want for watching netflix or playing games, so don't try that!). The USB ports are simply a "nice to have" for some (if you plan to have it within reach, as opposed to tucked behind a desk/couch, because USB wires aren't rated to work when run very far, fyi), while the other two are certainly things you use. Having surge protection on your coaxial cable and/or landline ports may help with some surges, but various people have studied this and concluded it offers no real benefits, because this has to do with surges from outside your home (e.g. lightning strikes), which are already too intense. However, you CAN resolve the coaxial surge for as cheap as \~$5 if you ground it directly to the earth with a device like [this](https://www.amazon.com/Ground-Weather-Perfect-Vision-PVGB1HFWS/dp/B075J32VFK) or (even better) [this](https://www.amazon.com/TII-Broadband-Satellite-Lightning-Protector/dp/B0016AIYU6). Sadly, apartment owners with bad landlords may be out of luck. Credit for the aforementioned product ideas goes to the commenter "always-learning" on the WireCutter article I linked-to earlier. He goes into WAY more detail about all things surge-protection, than even I do in this verbose post. He also addresses how some zip codes will have laws requiring companies (e.g. Comcast) to install these grounding blocks at apartments and houses, so it may have already been done for you (or you can try calling and asking). If you understood everything I just wrote, then go read his comments and have your mind blown further! He's clearly a 100x more knowledgeable than I am. Here's a snippet: "*J. Rudy Harford invented Series Mode Filters and holds several patents for it. He improved upon the technology twice with Wide Voltage (operating) range and Total Surge Cancellation (TSC) Technology. Harford also started his company called Zero Surge, Inc (which makes the Brickwall Series Mode Filters). In the early days Zero Surge also made the SurgeX products. SurgeX licenses the technology from Harford. One has to give SurgeX credit for mass marketing Series Mode filters. Their Advanced Series Mode filter technology is TSC (no difference), but SurgeX also adds ICE (inrush current elimination) as well as COUVS (Catastrphic Over/Under Voltage cuttoff) technology to many of their products that are geared for audiophiles or professional concert venues, etc ... You can't go wrong with products from either of the 2 companies (3 brands). If you want new Zero Surge contact them at their factory. Ask to speak to Donna especially if you want a price on their TSC models (it may be cheaper than a used SA-15).*"

Ya, that's going to be useless for lighting protection.
This is probably the cheapest one I would use: https://www.amazon.com/TII-Technologies-212FF75F225-21-Connector-Lightning/dp/B0016AIYU6/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1503608806&sr=1-3&keywords=coax+surge+protector
Make sure to run a thick wire (say 10awg) to your electrical panel earth.

This is a monster but it works really well for me... i can pull more then i though i could, and we have very similar TV Fool reports.. if you go outside make sure to get a surge protector www.amazon.com/dp/B0016AIYU6/ (in line link didn't work) This is great since your signals are from all over... mount it as high as you can and try with and without the amplifier to see what works best fro you.

You want at least one grounding adapter somewhere in your run for safety. Something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CLFGH40/

It doesn't need to be that exact one but that's the brand I use because it goes up to 2.5 Ghz and it has two ground holes.

You will want to ground it to your house ground also.

If you live in a lightning heavy area, you could go with one of these instead:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0016AIYU6/

Maybe something like this? Not sure if it'd interfere with the data riding your coaxial lines though, you'd have to double check to make sure it's compatible.

In all likelihood it's fine. The idea behind the bond is to equalize the electrical potential between your coax system and your home's electrical system. It won't make any difference in the case of lightning strikes. You want a 75ohm lightning arrestor for that.

Possible it didn't come over the coax and instead came in over the hot wire, into a cheap surge protector that shunted it to ground. Once the surge hit ground it went via the ground prong into a computer or router and into the Ethernet, then took all paths back out towards earth ground including the coax, killing all Ethernet ports in it's path.

Limit the surge into the house in the first place by using a type two surge protector at the service panel.


Surge source via the coax line is less likely as the shielding is normally grounded at service entrance and would short over there rather than 8 devices in the house. You can get a cheap coax surge protector that covers the signal wire too off of amazon.

TII 212 Broadband Cable TV Lightning Surge Protector https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0016AIYU6/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_apa_V2Zizb5QS80QM

My satellite guy put in a "coax grounding block" (link) for his stuff, then ran a ground wire to a place and grounded it properly. Is there a cable box outside your house, or does the wire just come in from the pole directly in to your house?

You might want to go the extra step with something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/TII-Broadband-Satellite-Lightning-Protector/dp/B0016AIYU6/ref=sr_1_6?crid=DH4A4R3UW240&keywords=coaxial+grounding+block&qid=1563563175&s=electronics&sprefix=coaxial+ground%2Celectronics%2C156&sr=1-6

You would need to find something that would fit the cable coming in to your house.

Hopefully somebody with more practical experience can weigh in.

I know there are some power strips with coax connections to help with surge. I don't know how well they work as I don't use a cable provider for my internet. The optimal solution is to use a media converter to convert the cable link to a fiber connection and either input that into your network or convert back to Ethernet. If you are replacing your ERL then look at the Edgerouter X SFP. You could use this to separate the connection between the modem and your router with the addition of a media converter.

Edit: There are these that might help with the circuit entering the house. You have to connect them to your home ground connection but they are suppose to help.

I suggest splurging on a decent UPS. Not only will it have surge protection, but allow the devices to be shut down without data corruption or loss. UPS's also clean the electric up by taking the jitter (peaks and troughs) out and leveling the signal. Thus easier on the devices.

You can even buy them with rg6/59 surge protection.They make inline ones. https://www.amazon.com/TII-Broadband-Cable-Lightning-Protector/dp/B0016AIYU6