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Following the recent weather events in my village (see related question) I'm looking at better power protection for my equipment, specifically a UPS and a set of replacement surge protectors which, it turns out, have all been worn out.

I see some of the more expensive surge protectors include phone and network protection also. The backbone of my home network is a Netgear Powerline-type connection, with just two adaptors. How can I most effectively protect this connection? I believe the Powerline adaptors have to be plugged directly into the wall, so protection on that side of the circuit is not possible. However, would it be useful or effective to protect the CAT-5 cable via one of these surge protectors? Or is the network and phone protection feature just marketing fluff that's not actually needed?

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Getting an AC line conditioner for your residence would indeed be the fix. This will keep your UPS devices and surge protectors from going bad before their time. A line conditioner on the AC mains provides a perfect cosine power wave at 50 or 60 Hz depending on where you are. There are devices that do this on a per outlet basis as well but those may not prove as useful.

The surge protection is not a trivial feature at all. I have terrible power spikes and surges all the time and I can tell you without UPS devices and phone line protectors I would be replacing equipment all the time.

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    Your mileage may vary, but you may be better off working on a per-outlet basis. The whole-house conditioners I've worked with tend to be flaky, and not necessarily reliable for decent surge protection.
    – Keck
    Commented Aug 14, 2009 at 13:38

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