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Upgrading from WRT1900AC. Suggestions to protect from lightning surges.

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MonkeyB

Occasional Visitor
Hello everyone,

The router (WRT1900AC) in my parent's house recently stopped working because a nearby lightning strike ruined the WAN port. It worked flawlessly for the most part. Range in some places used to keep dropping. I believe its an AC Wave 1 router so it does not have as many bells and whistles as new MU-MIMO routers.

My requirements are as follows:

- Slightly better and stable range.
- Dual WAN.
- VPN Client/Server support.
- Upgrading to Mesh in the future.

After a lot of researching, I came down to these options:

- Asus RT AC88U. (I am a huge fan of Merlin fw)
- Asus RT AC5300. (They claim 5000sft but too many negative reviews) (Not interested in GT because there is no Merlin)
- Synology RT2600. (I have read many posts in SNB with people telling how it is better than Asus routers in terms of Range). I am able to get the Synology for less than $150 online so its the cheapest of the 3 as well.

Apart from this. What is the best way to protect my future gear (WAN port) from such lightning strikes?

Thanks a lot for your time folks.
 
Nothing will totally protect from lightening but you need to make sure you have an 8 foot copper ground rod in the ground off the main breaker box of the house. This is where I would start.
 
Nothing will totally protect from lightening but you need to make sure you have an 8 foot copper ground rod in the ground off the main breaker box of the house. This is where I would start.
I would also recommend that the wire from your service entrance be at least a 10 gauge copper wire and make sure it's securely clamped to the ground rod . Would also check this connection at least once a year and if necessary unclamp it and clean the ground rod and clamp with a wire brush. You can also apply some dielectric grease to the connection to prevent corrosion. You can find this at any auto supply store. Being an old ham radio operator I cannot over emphasize the need for a good ground connection. I'm also a big fan of uninterruptible power supplies. I like Cyber Power but any good unit will help. To quote coxhaus nothing will totally protect your from a lightning strike but there are steps you can take to minimize the possibility.
 
They also sell the heavy duty clamp and wire for the ground rod. I think you can buy them at HomeDepot. The bare wire is heavier than 10 gauge. The wire I used was around 1/4 inch in diameter solid copper.
 

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