Many times it's not the surge through the power line but through the phone line that gets you. I've lost two modems that way, one of my friends lost his motherboard with a built-in modem because of lightning. I knew the lightning would be a problem when I saw the power transformer and the pole burning and then I found part of my phone wiring was toasted. My UPS warbles all the time from voltage and line variations. I've got both my router and cable modem plugged in to it. Maybe I'm paranoid, of course I live on a lake in Missouri where trees fall on the power lines all the time, we have thunderstorms and the occasional tornado and the all too common fried squirrel on the transformer. Mike mmcfadden(a)cmh.edu