Home users who install their first computer often find that the home environment is far from hospitable. Seemingly innocuous household appliances such as hair dryers and blenders can disrupt computing, while household wiring generally lacks the site-wide surge protection and circuit breakers found at corporate sites.

The common practice of rolling brownouts (implemented when the utility faces a capacity crunch) is usually targeted at residential areas first. Homes are also much more likely to be serviced by riskier pole-carried power, and are also more likely to be far removed from the generating plant, increasing the risk of disruption as utility power has to travel further to reach your outlets.

Finally, those used to working in a corporation supported by an MIS group may find that the responsibility for power protection rests on them. For these users, surge protection on appliances and home electronics such as stereos is vital, while computer equipment, VCRs and other equipment with volatile memory should be protected by an APC Back-UPS and Power-Chute software where appropriate. Phone lines are an easy path for damaging surges so all fax machines and modems need SurgeArrest products with phone line protection. If your computer has a built-in modem, use a Back-UPS Pro with modem/fax protection. Sensitive printers should be protected with SurgeArrest or Line-R. All data lines should be protected with ProtectNet. Satellite systems need battery backup for consistent operation.

A tree 15 feet from the house took a lightning hit, blasting pieces over 200 feet away! A neighbor across the street had several electronic items, includ-ing his computer, totally fried. He had no surge protection of any kind. EVERY microprocessor controlled device in my house except the protected computer was brain-dead. EVERY electronic device attached to the telephone line except the (protected) modem got fried. This included the burglar alarm panel and a wireless phone base. .. I have over 20 years experience with electronics. My advice is to get the best protection you can afford...

Small businesses are often located in one of the worst power sites possible: strip malls. Anytime a large group of loads share one transformer, risk is greater. Moreover, small office settings may means different businesses share the same power circuits. For instance, Joe's Accounting Services can be on the same circuit as Suzy's Weld-While-U-Wait, leading to power disruptions which Joe, located three floors away, can't avoid. And since many small business insurance policies do not cover loss of data or computer services, full protection is mandatory.

For these users, surge protection on appliances and home electronics such as stereos is vital, while computer equipment, VCRs and other equipment with volatile memory should be protected by an APC Back-UPS and Power-Chute software where appropriate. Phone lines are an easy path for damaging surges so all fax machines and modems need SurgeArrest products with phone line protection. If your computer has a built-in modem, use a Back-UPS Pro with modem/fax protection. Sensitive printers should be protected with SurgeArrest or Line-R. All data lines should be protected with ProtectNet. Satellite systems need battery backup for consistent operation.

Now I can't imagine being without my APC unit. I realized after my experience that once you get your system up and running, the real expensive thing in the long run is your data. I offer my program to other physicians, and recommend that an APC UPS go along with the package standard.

Imagine tracking inventory, publishing circulars and getting customers into your store only to have a power problem force you to check them out by hand, or worse yet, not be able to check them out at all because they left the store? While there has always been a need to protect POS registers from voltage fluctuations, as these devices become more dependent upon the uninterrupted flow of data from both the in-store processor and the host at corporate, full protection at all critical links is mandatory. Here's some advice:

Determine how many emergency lanes you need. Consider how each lane handles data and what happens to the integ-rity of that data upon power interruption.

List all equipment at each lane. Focus on peripherals that require power to perform standard operations including scanners, scales, credit card and/or EFT terminals. Then list all equipment that interfaces with the lane such as in-store processors, modems, VSAT equipment, etc. Add up all the power requirements for listed equipment.

Protect the whole path. Take into consideration the way each store commun-icates with the corporate office. If there is a Wide Area Network linking all the stores together, then the internetworking equip-ment would need protection as well. The UPS solution you choose should have SNMP functionality to allow remote diagnostics when there is no expert at each store.

Install UPS software. The UPS solution should have the ability to properly shutdown and reboot your processors and controllers without the need for human intervention. This will enable store personnel to stay out of the back room and on the floor serving customers.

In sum, protect registers with Back-UPS, servers with Smart-UPS and PowerChute, satellite systems with Back-UPS, and any additional lab equipment with a Back-UPS or Line-R.

We were interested in making sure that thunderstorms and power inconsistencies didn't pose a threat to our store operations, said Madden. After organizing a comparative analysis, we switched all stores over to APC. We have been running without power interruptions as an organization ever since that day.