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maxx,
Some weeks ago (quite recent) the cable Co came to exchange the inside of the box which connects to the cable outside.
(so its coax surge protected inside now...)
They also put a powersurge protect on the box feeding the phone (cable-phone need an extraneous power supply, and that must for all functions, not only for the higher voltage RRRRIIIIINNNG signal. The box this surge protect is for has a BACKUP battery in that box, so it's effectivley an UPS for a PHONE...)
and the put a surge protect on the cable modem, with a clamp on the working end of the NIC BNC.
why did they do that?
the rumour I heard was they lost a (maybe a class action) court case.
I'd suggest you start investigating
btw, in Belgium we's on 230V 50Hz
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You help someone with a similar problem if you tell us what worked.
When you do, please post solution in the original thread?
Kind regards, Jaak
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I thought I might add that the main cause of the brownouts and "whatever the opposite of a brownout is called"(this is where a 60 Watt light bulb looks like a 500 W light for a few seconds before blowing) was due to the fact that Hydro Quebec (our provincial mononpoly power corporation) had spliced the main power line at 3 places between the utility pole and the meter where it comes into the house. Whenever there was enough wind to move the cable around, it would stretch the splices and create some really high resistance creating the problem. I found out that it was only our house effected when I started asking the neighbours if they were suffering from this too, and they said no.
I suspect that this is also what caused my drier, our electric furnace, water heater, refrigerator compressor and pump for the well to have burned out prematurely too. https://discussions.virtualdr.com/ Unfortunately I didn't think of this at the time as I was so preoccupied with having lost everything on my 8 month old HD.
Lesson learned the hard way as so many of us do when we are new to computers...
Kinda related to this is the phone line which I have had replaced twice in the last 6 years. As soon as it rained I would get a crackly line and poor performance on my 28.8 modem. This was due to the fact that the phone line comes from the line on the street to the mast on my house and sags to within 8 inches of my tin roof. In the Winter I get up to 2 feet of snow on the roof and then on a sunny or mild rainy day the whole mass of snow starts sliding and stretches the phone wire, eventually causing cracks in the insulation. I asked Ma Bell's tech to feed the wire from a different angle, but he didn't listen. So now I have to go out after every snow storm and use a 16' piece of lumber to push the wire up out of the snow at regular intervals.
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Just trying to give others a friendly hand.
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Jaak,
Interesting about your cable service. About two years ago, before I got cable internet service I just had cable tlevision. I was getting a poor picture so I called for a service visit. When the guys came, they fixed the problem by locating and repairing a signal leak. However, while they were here, they changed the location of the cable from one side of the house to the other. I asked them why they did this and they told me it was because they were changing everybody's service so that the the cable was entering the house near where the electrical service was installed. They then attached a ground wire to the electrical service grounding spike that was already sticking out of the dirt. They also did some work up the pole as well. Perhaps they installed some protection. Never gave it much thought until now. Thanks for the information.
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I want my Win98 Emachine back !!!
MAXXIMILIAN'S
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Herring, Maybe you should mention safety and mumble liability to the SW people. They are getting like some of the computer manufacturers on answering questions and getting something done.
Thought I'd bring this comment Bistro made forward. "Might seem overkill, but this is how my system is set up for surge protection: Wall outlet to computer grade strip (with phone line protection)> UPS plugged into strip, computer into UPS>additional power strip plugged into UPS and AC adapters, etc. for speakers, printer, etc. plugged into that strip. That way, when I switch off the UPS, everything goes down. But even with that, when a thunderstorm comes in, I unplug the primary strip from the wall outlet and disconnect the incoming phone line. Put too much into this system to take any chances."
And along with that statement, the question at the moment is is how do you know what to buy when you arrive at the electronics dept? How do you sort this out?
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You're looking for a computer-grade powerstrip, NOT an "office strip". It should be advertised on the box as such. Look for joule rating--that also should be clear on the box--recommend 700 joules minimum. Should also have phone line protection. Some of the better ones have alarms. If you are going to plug in AC adapters, make sure the outlets on the strip are oriented to accomodate them without the adapter covering up the extra outlets (that too is usually advertised on the box--not all strips have this feature; but it's nice convenience to have). Generally, if it costs less than around 35-40 dollars (unless it's on sale), you're getting a cheapo. Look more to the 60 to 80 dollar range if available.
APC, Curtis, or Tripp are good brands to look for.
As far as UPS's: recommend the APC brand. Even a small one will afford you time to save and power down. Recommend have at least two outlets on the back--smaller ones often have only one; in that case, get an additional power strip and plug that into the UPS, then plug the system, adapters, etc. into the strip. Depending on the size, they'll give you anywhere from 10 minutes to a couple of hours of battery time.
Frankly, for a home PC, if you can't save your work and power down in 10 minutes, you are WAY too busy. https://discussions.virtualdr.com/
Just a note to confuse the issue https://discussions.virtualdr.com/: Just because your computer store is carrying 'power strips' doesn't mean they're quality ones or computer-grade. Have seen computer stores carry plain old office-type strips(some have had only those; no computer-grade strips https://discussions.virtualdr.com/)--they're more than willing to sell those "cheapies" to you; even tell you they're OK for computers. Don't believe it. Get quality, not a quick fix.
Regular(office-type) power strip
Computer-grade strip--(Click on "Surge Arrest" for close-up)
BTW, maxx: On that 2nd link, click on the ProtectNet entry--might be what you're looking for.
[This message has been edited by bistro (edited 05-31-2001).]
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Thanks for that Bistro. https://discussions.virtualdr.com/
Any other questions on what to buy for surge protection?
If not, What about power dips, voltage drops, interruptions. What do we need to know here?
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[This message has been edited by greengoose1 (edited 05-31-2001).]
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That's where a good UPS comes into play. Any of the three may sound the UPS alarm; might just be a short 'bleep' though; but in most cases, the drop, etc. won't cause the system to crash--as it would if plugged directly into the outlet. A good UPS will have power conditioning to accomodate small, intermittent dips and spikes without sounding off(although that additional feature will cost you). If after installing the UPS you get a lot of bleeps, then perhaps it's time to have someone check the house wiring. (It should be a rare occurence).
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Thanks bistro. https://discussions.virtualdr.com/
The data line protection stuff seems to be the critter. https://discussions.virtualdr.com/
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I want my Win98 Emachine back !!!
MAXXIMILIAN'S
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I have an APC Back-UPS 450 that was given to me by my nephew and I LOVE it! Only thing is that I only got the UPS and not the cable that hooks to the com port and enables the UPS to shut down the computer. I tried using a serial cable (hey it fit! https://discussions.virtualdr.com/) but the software couldn't find the UPS so I take it the cable has to come from APC.
Here's the question, does anyone use this feature and is it really worth it to me to get the cable and run the extra software?
The thing was originally used to back up a buisness voice mail system so I figure that's why there's no cable.
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There are no dumb questions only dumb looks....
If it doesn't work hit it with a hammer. If hitting it fixes it great! If it breaks, oh well it didn't work anyway.
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"Cute", maybe even beneficial feature, but what if you're in the middle of a project and need to save it before shutting down? I'd rather hear the alarm go off, save, then manually shut down.
The original main idea of a UPS was to keep the system going so as not to lose data until you can save then shut it down.
That feature would be handy if you are one who leaves the system on 24/7, or for some reason have to leave the system on and unattended for a duration. That's probably why it was used for that mail system--unattended machine/server. (Still, with that feature running and while in attendance, you run into the problem of it shutting down on you in the middle of something).
[This message has been edited by bistro (edited 05-31-2001).]
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Bistro makes me think of an issue. For those who seem to leave their systems on 24/7, obviously they must be content to rely on any surge/power protection they have implemented to weather them through a storm (no pun intended). Frequently they must not be around when a storm hits and therefore can't unplug anything. You hear all the time (here and other places) when people are talking about leaving their systems on how they'll be on for weeks (or more) at a time. Odds are a storm or two caught them by surprise. Obviously they don't fear any direct strikes. Perhaps the next time the subject comes up about leave-on-or-turn-off one of the arguments for turning off should be protection from storm related hits.
It seems ironic if one of the reasons people who advocate leaving-on do so is to reduce wear and tear from component stress, contraction and expansion of the on/off cylcles, yet the wear and tear of a massive electrical charges entering their systems presents no worry.
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Good point DrMDJ.
Now more questions. Does anyone know how these rolling blackouts will affect the electrical power input to homes when it hits. And what happens to input electrical power in a brownout since we all stand a chance of experiencing them. How can we protect our selves in these scenarios?
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[This message has been edited by greengoose1 (edited 05-31-2001).]
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Aside from a good kick-in generator, pack up everything and move to the Antartic....
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I hate to think of the voltage jolt that goes through a major grid when they institute a rolling blackout.
One brownout was enough to tell me I never want to see another. It happened while I was at work and everyone home tried to fix the computer before dad got home. The answer to correct the problem was a overinstall of window. As I lost count of how much stuff could not be found when windows tried to startup. And people with the recovery/restore type disks , well they will lose everything they had, when they use them.
But, I have seen some computers go through 10 at work and have no problems yet.
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What is your recommendation then?
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