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reading over the list of suggested items for my son's college dorm apartment i see we did neglect to consider a surge protector strip. if he plugged in everything at once into one outlet it would be:
MacBook Pro
Speaker system
iPad 2
HTC Vivid Phone
desk lamp
laser printer (not purchased yet - waiting for a deal)
are surge protectors strips all basically the same? and no, i'm not buying him a UPS Back up battery. maybe next year.
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Some schools, including the one I work at, require that power strips and surge protectors strips have overload protection (a circuit breaker or fuse). So you may have to make certain the one you get has that. After that they are not all the same. With the proliferation of wall warts for everything, look for sockets on the strip to be spaced to allow for them.
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12-outlet Belkin with a couple of USB ports thrown in for good measure:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004CLYJ1E (see also chart on same page; Belkin has some good offerings of this type)
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Strip for college? For tuition and books but anything after that is just reckless,
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Graylocks,
No... All powerstrips are definitely not the same. Some are just additional outlets. Others have surge protectors. Others have surge protectors for the outlets as well as for phone lines. Some have USB ports for charging devices like an IPhone. The key to any of them is how much protection is offered against surges.
Cheap low-quality models offer minimal protection or none at all. Higher quality models offer superior protection. And they aren't cheap. Expect to pay in the $20+ mark for a decent model. Best place to get them is either a home depot type store and/or micro center type store.
Here is a good guide:
Robert
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....remember.....you can leave your hat on......
_____________________________________
I reject your reality and substitute my own!
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Well, I just lost my cable modem and Airport Extreme during a recent storm. They were plugged in to a Kensington surge protector, but only the power cord, not the ethernet cables. Comcast man came and replaced the modem, but told me not to use a surge protector on the coaxial cable - he said they cause too much interference. I did a little research and learned that lightening strikes can come via ethernet cables (I think?). Anyway, the surge protector did not help with the AirPort Extreme nor the cable modem - both fried. So, today, I am going to Apple store to get a new base station, probably AirPort Express this time, and a new surge protector.
I say don't skimp on what you get. The loss of modem and AirPort Extreme has caused a lot of headaches for me.
