This is a deep, deep subject. Most surge protectors that are light
enough to carry in one hand degrade with time. Our power company
supplies surge protectors that go on to the meter socket, but, come to
think of it, it is probably time to bug them about replacing it (for
free). I have my own surge protectors right up close to the
computers anyway.

We have a single phase lead and a common (ground) coming down our mile.
It is interesting to note that that ground wire is connected to a driven
ground rod on every other power pole in our mile, but on the poles not
so connected, lightning has arced through the wooden pole itself,
causing burns to the pole!

Electronic devices are much better protected these days from line
problems. The worst situation, short of a direct hit on your house is
when you get a low voltage problem down the line someplace. And that
problem manifests itself in electric motors that try to draw more and
more current to make up for the shortage of voltage. If that happens, I
shut down any air conditioners, refirgerators, etc asap!

As far as phone lines go, I have an RJ-11 jack right up by the main
computer's keyboard and I pull the plug (which removes all but one POTS
phone from the lines whenever there is a threat of lightning. This
eliminates the fax, satelite receiver, 2 line electronic phone, DSL
device from harm. We used to go through one or two modems every summer,
but no more.

As the other poster said, a good ground (in damp soil) and a neutral
tied to it well are absoluteley necessary anyway. When I ran the power
and signal line conditioning program for the company I worked for, we
found that the quality of the ground varied a lot around the nation. I
think Texas, in general, had the worst (highest on average) ground
resistance.

Pete Stanaitis
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Dave W wrote:

A little off topic, but we do seem to have a lot of electricians here. We
had a loss of neutral problem a few years ago (it was on the service pole,
CMP paid for all the damage). Recently we installed a whole house surge
protector to prevent loss in the event of losing the neutral again, to
protect against surges as the power flickers; happens a lot here in the
woods and to not have to buy surge protectors for all the electronic stuff
we seem to be collecting. Question is are these things any good? We had an
Intermatic installed by a licensed electrician; it came with a replace
equipment damaged warranty but only for five years. All thoughts are
welcome.
Dave