xrongor wrote:
what you propose is pointless. 'ground' is relative. without your
electrical service being 'grounded' to the same ground as the
coathanger its
just a floating ground. same as if you just used a pair of snippers
and cut
the third prong off the plug.

This is actually a pretty good point. A makeshift ground may do more
harm than good; in the extreme worse case, suppose you "ground" to a
water pipe which is not itself grounded (suppose the water service has
never been upgraded and is still lead, or has been upgraded recently
with plastic). Then a fault on your grounded computer energizes all the
plumbing in the house. A wire out the window to a coathanger is not a
ground, it's an antenna, and it's anyone's guess what that'll do for
your computer.

What you can consider, which is code-compliant in the US and Canada and
a safety benefit, is to have the ungrounded outlets replaced with GFCI
receptacles. This does not provide ground but will protect against a
lot of what can go wrong. GFCI's come with stickers that say "no
equipment ground" that you put on the faceplace when you do this.

If the "site wiring fault" light on your surge suppressor bothers you,
put tape over it.

Chip C
Toronto