How to ground my network devices?

[Koala]

I recently upgraded my network from a consumer all in one router to an EdgeRouter Lite and a Netgear Prosafe managed switch and an AP. The router and switch both come with grounding screws, so I figured I'd ground them. Is it enough to buy some wire and connect them to the nearest outlet's ground wire? What gauge wire do I need? Couple of years ago I had to ground and outdoor antenna and that called for 10AWG but that seems like massive overkill...

 

[BigDave]

The router and the switch are grounded electrically with three prong plug that powers the unit.
The purpose of the grounding screw is for ESD protection, that can be a much smaller gauge
and you can terminate it at an outlet's cover screw. I'll see if I can find a visual...

20 gauge wire would be about right I think.

 

[Koala]

Cool, thanks!

 

[jgreco]

I recently upgraded my network from a consumer all in one router to an EdgeRouter Lite and a Netgear Prosafe managed switch and an AP. The router and switch both come with grounding screws, so I figured I'd ground them. Is it enough to buy some wire and connect them to the nearest outlet's ground wire? What gauge wire do I need? Couple of years ago I had to ground and outdoor antenna and that called for 10AWG but that seems like massive overkill...

This is not a big concern in many environments, though it is sometimes still a good idea if there is a lot of noise. Ethernet is highly resistant to noise, but in some cases you need to ground for signal integrity. Grounding your gear for electrical safety is also a good idea, because a metal enclosure that somehow becomes energized is dangerous, and grounding tends to spoil that.

The EdgeRouter devices often end up being used in hostile environments, such as an outdoor enclosure on an antenna mast. You definitely want some grounding there.

For indoor use, there is less opportunity for bad things to happen. When they do, they usually come from outdoors. What you're doing is totally insufficient for that.

What you *do* want is for there to be proper grounding of your CPE, which should happen at the main point of entry, which if you're lucky is very close to your house's grounding point(s). But the thing is, grounding equipment for basic electrical safety is very different for grounding in an attempt to reduce the chance of damage from lightning or other adverse events.

Your telco or cable company will probably install an arrestor that is then bonded to some convenient nearby point, such as a water pipe. This is good for them but less-good for your stuff, because electricity likes to find the shortest path to ground, and if there's other valuable stuff grounded along the path, it may experience some damage.

So the paranoid among us make extensive use of multiple grounding runs, and so we'll have an APC ProtectNet

for telco or cable on the provider's side of the CPE, then the CPE, then a *separate* APC ProtectNet for ethernet on the other side of the CPE. Each ProtectNet module gets its own home run of 6 AWG back to the building ground, and there's a separate 6 AWG ground supplied for grounding the telecom NID or the cable demarc.

 

[jgreco]

20 gauge wire would be about right I think.

......

"Yikes." Grounding to an outlet screw is generally the ground of absolute last resort, in part because there's no guarantee that the screw is grounded.

http://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/77258/how-do-you-ground-residential-network-equipment
http://serverfault.com/questions/582627/how-do-i-ground-a-network-switch

If you're going to get OCD over grounding, then do it right. This might include moving your networking gear close to the demarcation so that you can access a known ground.

 

[Koala]

Thanks for the advice. One of my grounding points is right next to the demarc. I'll take a peek tonight to see what my cable company did there in terms of grounding. And this is also within 15 feet of all my gear, so I have known ground nearby.