In article , NY wrote:
"charles" wrote in message
...

My UPS - an ebay purchace - is an APC one and it self-tests its battery.

Actually I've got 2; one for my desk computer monitor and a small one
form the incoming FTTC router.

Ours was an APC - I think it was 700 VA. I've no idea how long it was
*supposed* to power a computer for - presumably at least long enough to
trigger and complete an orderly shutdown of the OS. In my case, the
answer was "a few microseconds for a 60 W load" :-(

Annoyingly, my router and computer are in separate rooms so I'd need two
UPSes like you. Hopefully any modern UPS is able to provide a glitch-free
transition from mains to battery, otherwise it's no benefit because the
computer will still crash during the changeover, even if it then comes
back for while until the battery goes flat or the mains comes back.

In our case, almost every power interruption has been for about 5 seconds
- I think only one was for as long as 5 minutes: just long enough to
feel my way in the pitch dark from my study through the lounge and
kitchen to the bedroom where I knew there was a torch. And just as I got
there and turned it on, the power came back.

my original reason for getting a UPS was because we used to get glitches
overnight which usually frightened my old ADSL router in going into lockout.
Since it wasn't easily accessible, rebooting it was tedious.
I continue to use a UPS since I statrted doing DTP work for others, I don't
want to have to redo 5 minutes work if everything died.

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England
"I'd rather die of exhaustion than die of boredom" Thomas Carlyle