What a display....

[heehaw]

disconnecting is the safest way...but you can put protection where your phone line comes in the house to help...the problem is, you still have a length of wire between that entrance point and the equipment, that acts like an antenna to pick up high voltages via induction..so its best to have the protection close to the equipment too...for a home computer, a ups(uninterruptable power supply) works well..the APC units have protection built in....cost @ $50-80....depending if its on sale or not.
heehaw

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( the APC units have protection built in....cost @ $50-80 )</font>

I've been using a TrippLite Internet Office UPS for about 3 years, but the battery finally died on it. No local source for a battery or service and when I called TrippLite (no 800 number of course), they said they could send me a battery for about $40, but that sometimes when a battery was replaced, some other problems would appear, so they wanted to sell me another unit for about $90. Instead I went to CompUSA and found they had a wide variety of the APC units with prices from about $40 to $150 or more, depending mostly on how long you wanted the battery power to last if the regular power goes off. I bought one for about $70 and like it better than the TrippLite. The APC had the software on a CD to shut everything down properly if you're not at the computer when the power goes off, while I had to download the software from TrippLite from the Internet.

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

The UPS is something I use now so I'd probably stay with that. What is it that I'd use at the point the phone service enters the house in addition to the UPS as it will only be at one phone line? Thanks.

 

[heehaw]

TII sells all sorts of devices, as does ITW Linx...what you use depends a lot on what your going to hook it to...the new boxes the telephone co uses, make it a little hard to get to the wires to hook anything...some wires are under screws and some are "punched down"...do you have a graybar electrical supply near?? they carry a wide range of surge protectors..i have teleco split blocks at the "demarc"..which is where the teleco maintenance ends...so i use ITW Linx protectors at that location..if you only have one phone, or modem, a panamax faxmax is a good one...it goes at the device/modem, and the phone line goes thru the protector..2 plugs at the bottom of the protector..they will do a good job protecting your modem or about any other telephone line type equipment. i have a Transtector systems protector in my hand, model FSP-2004, it is installed in line, and can protect 2 separate lines...its about the size of a surface mount phone jack...2 inches square.
heehaw