Protect your expensive Mac from lightning and power surges with a UPS surge protector. I picked up a new Belkin Universal UPS 1200VA for $99.00.

The Belkin Universal UPS 1200VA is rated at 670W (enough to handle any G5), has automatic voltage regulation providing "clean" electricity and a battery backup system.

A UPS is almost a "must have" in lightning prone parts of the county, like Florida.

Belkin Universal UPS 1200VA >>

I support your statement totally - not lightning, but also a power surge, followed by a blackout. I have a APC Bac_UPS. The surge took out the UPS, but my G5 was unaffected.

And, yes, I live in Florida.

I used to live in Sarasota...just south of the "Lightning Capital of the World", Tampa Bay. I too have an APC Back-UPS 1500. I had to replace my Smart-UPS 700 because it didn't have enough juice for the dualie.

Cory

Sarasota was the first city I visited in Florida back in 1973. I went with a two twin friends of mine. Their older sister had just bought a condo on Siesta Key right off Sarasota for like $45,000.00. You know what it's worth now? Had a great time down there except for trying to get gas for our rental car. That was the period of major gas shortage. We had to sit in line for hours just to buy 5 gallons. We had a sharp new '74 Mustang II, but not much gas to get anywhere in it. Their sister was telling us about the lighning storms. Her TV and stereo had got hit.

Bmer,

I lived there for almost 6 years in the late 80's/early 90's. Nice town...expensive though. That condo on Siesta Key is probably worth about $300K or more now. You wouldn't recognize anything now!

Cory

Hey guys,
Living in St. Petersburg I've been hit more than once and have gotten lucky with only a modem burnout (when my G4 was new). Everything digital got wacked- phone wall warts, security light receptors and the stove which was burning through and real close to taking the house out if we hadn't come home from vacation when we did.

Anyway, all's well for now. Thought I'd add to your discussion as it seems I started one with my APC 300 not handling my beastly G5. Anyway, ended up with an APC 1500 (with shutdown software, even for O/S X). Here's the strange part. After my G5 had taken a dive a few times from lack of power, I started having a problem (unrelated at the time) where the Mac would be frozen when waking from sleep. no cursor, blinking colon: on time, nothing.
Started to freak that maybe my machine was a bummer. Finally spoke with AppleCare (India) and we trashed a preferences file relating to the Power Management Module. Well, that was the corruption (I pray) and all seems well.('8)')

Thanks again!
Capt. Russ

And the UK is not immune. I live in Shropshire and three years ago a two-month-old eMac we had bought for the kids was blown in an electric storm. MacWarehouse replaced it without demur- so we got lucky that time.

I agree with everyone here about surge protection. It's a must no matter where you live. However, here is another point to ponder. Protect the connection you have to the internet. Here in Arkansas, where lightening is also a big problem this time of the year, I have seen so many occurrences where the modems, base stations, routers, and anything connected to a LAN have been knocked out. It is imperative that what ever connects your computer to the internet be protected, or better yet disconnected during impending storm.