Netonix Forums

I have spent several hours over the past week reading all the excellent Grounding info here in the forums, and have a different grounding scenario than is frequently discussed on this forum.

(see map below please) - I have 2x buildings that share a common wall, each has its own Power Service panel / Utility Feed. (one is a 12-unit apartment complex, the 2nd is a 4-unit apartment complex). I have sch80 conduit run about 120ft from Building 1's data closet TO Building 2's data closet - and in that conduit 3x runs ~140ft each of Shireen DC-1030 cat5e connecting the two closets (DC-1030 is Outdoor rated, non-shielded, No-Drain-wire, CMR solid-awg24 with gel-tape). Both closets are on the 1st Floor. There is no POE across this data run, 1gbit data only. Building #1 has a: Netonix WS-8-150-AC, building #2 has a: Netonix WS-12-250-AC

My question is: How can i best ground / isolate the power of each data closet, at this point? (i am trying to resolve ground issues in regards to this quote) NB: i am NOT seeing data errors, just blown ports at times:

If the ground potentials of Building A and Building B are different, a ground current flows in the data line.
This is known as a ground potential difference. The voltage level of the data signals is increased or decreased by the ground potential difference, causing data transmission errors.

Here are the options / solutions i have come up with:

• #1- add a POE powered media converter ( and put it at the 712-stp end , then use a short Fiber patch cable -> SFP in Netonix sw of building #2) IE:
  $56 - TrendNet POE MC / OR / $80 - from FS.com
  OR
  
• #2- "Medical-grade" ethernet ISOLATOR ( such as this: $110 - 100mbit max blackbox amazon link / or / $163-Tripp Lite IsoBar Strip )
  OR
  
• #3- UBNT Ethernet Surge protector (BC NO POE HERE so no Dead-Short POE issue @ switch), with ground wire going to the ground screw of the Netronix SW
  
  AND
  
• #4- on the AC / power side for the input of BOTH Netonix Switches (in closet #1 and closet #2) add:
  -- a- 239$ - ZERO SURGE 2r15w
  OR
  -- b- $150 - https://www.ametekesp.com/surgex/flatpak/flatpak-120-208v
  OR
  -- c- 70$ - Tripp Lite ISOBAR6Ultra Isobar 6 Outlet Surge Protector - amazon link here

(i clearly should have ran fiber in the conduit, but did not know any of this, and re-running fiber is not an option at this point). To be clear- Internet is provided via a cable modem -> Mikrotik router -> building #1's switch.

History RE: grounding / blown ports ;
2018 - 2021: Building #1 was by itself (building #2 "did not exist" until ~2022) and over these 5x years we lost 2x or so cheap chinese TP-link 8port POE switches.

2021 - 2022: We upgraded to UBNT Edgeswitch (8port POE 150w , non-unifi) that ran well for ~1.5 years, around Feb 2022 the 2nd building came online and I connected the UBNT Edgeswitch to Building #2's new WS-12-250-AC , around april 2022 the current sensors on the ws-12-250 started acting up (indicating a possible grounding issue), early may 2022 during a rain storm, half of the UBNT Edgeswitch stopped providing POE (but data continued to work on those 4 of 8x ports). 7 days ago i replaced the UBNT Edgeswitch with a new Netonix WS-8-150-AC and then found this forum and started to read up on grounding (and all of these issues make sense now!!)

Thanks for your consideration, i tried to make this short :(

I do have some contributions i will be making to this forum as well.
-james

I may not be able to answer your question but reading your post I do have some questions that may get asked.

I don't see any information about where you have connected the ground lug on these switches. Are the switch chassis connected to ground? If so, what is this ground, electrical ground back to the electrical panel, or dedicated ground to grounding rod?

Further more, how are the switches mounted, network rack, wall, sitting on a shelf? Everything else related (Other equipment, mounting solution, etc) grounded where applicable?