lightning storm

Welp, somehow things always get muddled.  For the record, I recommend the use of an outdoor coaxial surge protector mounted ON the grounding block. 

A grounding block is required for any coaxial cables entering a home from the outside, whether from the cable TV provider, an FM or TV or Dish antenna as well. These ensure the ground potential of your antennas stays at the same reference level as the rest of your home outlets so you don’t have the possibility that ground on your antenna is hundreds of volts different than the house ground.   This was probably installed by your cable/Internet provider already.  

A coaxial surge protector is there for cases when an electrical surge is present on the inner wire, diverting that excess voltage and current to ground before entering your home, which is why it’s best on the outside and on the grounding block itself.   They are imperfect but they do limit the fallout radius of a lightning surge.   Sometimes these are installed by the cable TV / Internet providers but usually inside on the modem. 

For further reading check out sites devoted to ham radio operators.  

If you have an antenna mounted in the attic a ground block is not required. 

@jea48 and @erik_squires 

Great suggestions but why create any risk at all? I literally have one wall plug for the entire system including the projector, content is streamed in 4K HDR wirelessly for movies, and same for music that isn’t on my server. 
 

Thanks,

Steve

@hifidream 

Wifi streaming is safest for your devices but may not be ideal depending on your neighbors and other factors.  My experience, as someone who not only streams but also needs a reliable network connection for work is that Ethernet is still the king of reliability.  If my PC or TV stop being able to stream I know it’s not my wifi. 

The use of a free wifi analyzer for your phone or tablet can always help you decide on the ideal configuration, not just in terms of signal strength but also picking out the least congested channels in your neighborhood as well as helping you decide where to put your router. 

Also, even if you opt for 100% wifi inside your home put your modem/router on a surge protector to reduce the chance of an incoming surge hitting your power lines and causing secondary damage through that path. 

@erik_squires Wi-Fi seems like a no brainer for lightening damage mitigation, which is what this topic is about. I have my computer hooked up to the network via CAT8 ethernet wire directly for day trading because latency could be an issue. I have never had a Wi-Fi outage or any issue related to Wi-Fi playing movies or music even with Wi-Fi 5 technology, which is up to 7 now. I live in a large apartment building in a signal dense neighborhood, there are over 30 networks to choose from when I search for one; I think interference is a thing of the past. I don’t want anyone scared to try this who may be in a lightening heavy area or simply wants the best way to secure their system based on assumptions. I unplug the computer from power and ethernet after each use, all three monitors including a 55” OLED are plugged into one surge protected distribution array with one plug into the wall. The router is on a surge protector. After experiencing the loss and time and effort to replace damaged equipment from lightening, the 10 seconds it takes to unplug everything is definitely worth my time and would encourage others to do the same. 
 

Thanks,

Steve 

I have never had a Wi-Fi outage or any issue related to Wi-Fi playing movies or music even with Wi-Fi 5 technology, which is up to 7 now. I live in a large apartment building in a signal dense neighborhood, there are over 30 networks to choose from when I search for one;

@hifidream  - Those are very good outcomes indeed!  I have been in similar situations and myself and my neighbors were constantly faced with Wifi buffering issues unless we actively attempted to find unused channels.

My advice is still the same, if in doubt at all use a Wifi Analyzer (free!) for your laptop or phone and look not just at signal strength but also channel congestion and try to pick out a channel with the least number of competing signals.  This by the way has also led me to discover that my Wifi router here at home was just spontaneously going offline.  Time for a new one. 

This is also an excellent tool to use to ensure your router placement was optional.  Did I mention they are free?