I know I'm not an engineer folks but it seems that surge protectors might be a bit misaligned here. Yes, a "good" (in my book, that means lifetime warranted with insurance protection-not a $10 blue light special) surge and modem protector can protect against lightning but not necessarily. I have seen them do so in homes where other devices were blown away, such as garage door openers. Suppose the surge protector were to blow but not the devices attached to it. That means protection to me as the protector would be replaced at no charge by the manufacturer. Sorry but to question whether RJ-45 or RJ-11 protectors are a scam simply isn't true nor fair unless the surge protector doesn't meet the 2 specs I've listed above. And yes, I think Lee already answered that one. There are different guts to these units with different qualities of protection. One way (it seems the most common) they're measured is joules. The higher that number, the better the protection. My opinion is that a 3 digit joule rating is fair with a 4 digit number being much better. Of course, that's not the whole story but it's a good start.
I agree with Lee Larson's answers on MOVs however, it's tough to get a client to spend more than $30 on a surge/modem protector and that's what you usually get for $15-30. He also writes about good uninterrupted power supplies. There's another potential misnomer. What you see at Sams and the like for under $100 (or thereabouts) is NOT a UPS. They are SPS', or standby power supplies. Most of those folks do not run off the battery at all times. In fact, they have a slight (micro or is it milli second) switchover time. You don't find true UPS' in the $100-200 range. They are much higher end. For Marta's sake, I'll very briefly mention line conditioners and brownout protection. These are a bit different than UPS' and SPS'. Something I'd recommend for all of you who have BellSouth for your local phone service and pay for on site service. I found out the hard way years ago that my incoming circuit wasn't grounded like it should have been. Even though I wasn't paying for service with them, they were still kind enough to ground me outside the house in the ground underneath the phone box. As to LG&E, I can't remember what it was but there was something they didn't protect with their whole house protection. Of course, they aren't going to keep us from being zapped over the phone or cable lines as that's not their job. It seems that if they still offer that service, it would be a good idea on new construction. If it's as expensive as Suzanne wrote, then they better offer some kind of huge compensation if you do get zapped! I'll do my best not to beat this dead horse any longer. ;o) Have a good week. Jeff Slyn, Owner SLYN Systems & Peripherals (502) 426-5469 serving Kentuckiana clients 7 days a week since 1985! On Mon, 1 Sep 2003 12:19:19 -0400 (EDT) Henri Yandell <bayard at generationjava.com> writes: > > However, someone has pointed out that a lightning strike will go > through a > surge protector. > > So I have the facts that: > > * Surge protectors do not protect against lightning. > * RJ-11/RJ-45/Cable do not 'surge' without lightning (?) > > so it seems that the RJ-45 etc surge protectors are a scam. > > Does it have to do with how close the lightning is? How does > lightning hit > an underground cable line? > > I know phone lines carry power [or they do back home, I assume they > do > here too]. So I can see how they could surge. But I'm assuming cable > doesn't > carry power in anyway, and I know RJ-45 doesn't usually carry > power. > > Confused :) > > Hen > ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today! | The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will | be September 23. The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>. | This list's page is <http://erdos.math.louisville.edu/macgroup>.
