"HeyBub" wrote in message
m...
MaryL wrote:

One thing the SuddenLink technician said surprised and confused me:
He said that they "preferred" that homeowners not use *any type* of
surge suppressor. He did not request that I disconnect mine, but I
don't understand that statement. Does anyone know why the cable
company would take that position. He also said, "They don't do any
good anyway." Actually, I had a small surge suppressor that proved
its worth a few years ago. My microwave would not work after a major
thunderstorm, and I thought it was ruined. It turned out that the
surge suppressor had been destroyed, but it had done its job -- the
microwave worked perfectly after I discarded that surge suppressor.



Well, there you are. Your microwave worked after you discarded the surge
suppressor. Obviously surge suppressors can fail.

So ditch the surge suppressors on your computer equipment and see if the
problem goes away.

If the problem disappears, add the surge suppressors back, one at a time,
until the problem reappears.

If you have the "cheap" surge suppressors (less than about $30), they will
degrade.


The surge suppressor on the microwave did its job. It "absorbed" the shock
during the storm (obviously, not a direct hit), so the suppressor was then
burned out but the microwave still worked.

As for the computer equipment, it's definitely not the surge suppressors
unless there is some reasonable explanation for why the cable company would
prefer that we not use *any* surge suppressors. I have one surge suppressor
(Philips) for the laser printer, Zoom modem, phone, router, and small TV. I
have an APC backup USP for the CPU, monitor, and cable connection. Both of
those units are new, and the problems I described pre-date them. In fact,
the only thing on my current system that is *not* new is the router. So, it
does seem likely that the router is the problem, and I am willing to buy
another one. However, I am concerned because the technician tested it when
he was here, and it was fine. The cable company could also "ping" it when I
called them. Nevertheless, the technician suspects the router. I am going
to follow the advice of one of the people on this group and try to call
LinkSys before I try to change out the router.

MaryL