Modems, UPS, surge supressors

[firephoto]

Well on friday I had a little snow, which in some way causes a surge or a spike or some unknown. My one month old modem, usr 5686E (external), doesn't work now. Seems the line interface part went out, which seems fairly common with these when there is a static or surge situation. (one day of google research) Waiting on USR to see if they will rma it. Probably going to just get a 5610B internal. Anyways...

The modem was plugged into the surge suppressor, Belkin Surge Master II super duper gold or something. Well it turns out this, and most others it seems, surge strip isn't so great. It has the unlimited warranty on connected equipment, which works if you have the original receipt, send it in on request, send the damaged equipment to them (maybe not this), then there was other things, and they wanted your left pinky finger too i think.(I just quit reading it). Is there truly a surge suppressor for the equipment end that works? I have read a lot on the whole house surge setups, and probably will do this to one of the panels (400A outside, normal 200A inside). Does anyone have thoughts on these setups, particularly Delta Surge Protectors? http://deltasurgeprotectors.com/

They seem to have what looks like a good product from the specs there.

On to the UPS.
I was looking up info on them last night and came across some made by Powercom. There price is really good, and the specs are good too. http://www.powercom-usa.com Anyone use these or heard anything?
I know APC is probably the standard, or Tripp Lite, but they also have had a fair amount of bad things said about them too. Thoughts?

Overall I just want reliability, and protection from the bad power things. Lightning isn't too frequent here and I am low in the valley in the foothills of the Cascades so most of the strikes are up on the hills, where they light fires, and burn grass, bushes, trees, and get really close to irate (at times) homeowners, while we are there with our firetrucks. (oops strayed a bit. lol) I seem to have frequent power problems tho, brief outages once or twice a year, some brown outs in the past. Probably far less than most, but for having two large hydroelectric projects 12 miles away (one each way), I would expect less problems. Oh well.

Any and all comments, suggestions welcome.

Tom

[James_F]

I use APC for all my UPS needs at home and at work. Never had a problem and their management software is built into Windows 2000 Pro and Windows XP Pro.

Delta surge protectors are really good, but I have no experience with them. Mostly I use Tripp Lite surge protectors or APC UPS surge protectors.

When the monsoons start up here in Phoenix, we lose power almost twice a month in the summer and I've never had a APC unit fail on me or fail to shut down a computer (unless it didn't have the management software loaded on it).

I'd say any UPS is better than none, but surge protectors are an important part of any computer and skimping on them is a really bad idea.

[firephoto]

I'm with you on the not skimping thing.

I really wasn't surprised too much that the modem failed even when it was "protected". In general, I use the surge strips for the multiple outlets and circuit breaker. It's just getting to the point that I want more than my good luck to keep things running. ;)

I've lost a couple of power supplies in the last 3 years, but they were just cheap ones on none critical machines. That flash out the fan hole when you flip the power switch always gets your attention. :grin:

Any particular APC models better than others in the low end range? All I need is power long enough to save things and shut down. I'd like to be able to replace the battery too (in a conventional way) when the time comes.

[James_F]

All APC units I've dealt with allow you to change the battery out when it dies. A quick trip to batteries plus and I'm back up. I think APCs website shows you what you'll need right here...

http://www.apcc.com/template/size/apc/

[Tomsoundman]

Most surge warranties want you to call power company first, get a "turn down" letter from them that they won't fix your stuff. Then do the same with your homeowners, get a turn down letter...

Then they will "take over" and give you the run around. Sounds like a scam but that is usually the basic procedure.

[firephoto]

I ordered another modem and a UPS the other day.

Internal USR5610B (not a winmodem) and I went ahead with a Powercom UPS the KIN-625AP

http://www.powercom-usa.com/ProductDetail.asp?ID=15

The Powercom (PCM) seemed to have good specs, and the price was right. $79 at newegg.com so I'm going to give it a try. It's a line interactive model. Seems they aren't new, just not too widely known in this country.

I got a legitimate reply from U.S. Robotics monday morning that said:

"Because of the circumstances of your situation we have chosen to issue you an escalation RMA instead of our normal RMA process. What this means is that we will ship you your replacement product within the next 3 to 5 business days, dependant on stock availability. Included with the product should be a pre-paid shipping label that you can use to ship the defective product back to us once your replacement has arrived."

So I will have an extra spare modem I guess now, or else I'll Ebay it.

Speaking of Ebay, I see what seems like good deals on used UPS' there sometimes. Some of them need batteries, but besides that is there anything major that is know to go bad with the UPS' that have been in use for many years? I can replace components as long as it's not surface mount devices(or too costly of course lol). Used ones WITHOUT the batteries don't cost too much to ship either. ;)

Tom