UPS or Uninteruptable Power Supply are the most important and most neglected computer accessory. As computer equipment as advanced and become more powerful, it has also become more subseptable to voltage changes. Some of these changes are undectable but cause problems with Router, Hubs, USB Modems and Network cards. Voltage changes are the most frequent reason computer equipment becomes unresponsive when communicating over the Internet using DSL or T1 circuits. UPS do much more than remove voltage spikes, this is why surge supressors are basically useless. We strongly suggest UPS's to be used for all equipment.

Units we have tested and suggest:

Tripp-lite SMART1000LCD

APC BR900 Backup UPS

APC BR1200 Backup UPS XL

APC BR1500 Backup UPS XS

APC SC620 Smart UPS

Although you may not perceive a power problem, electronic equipment is much more susceptible to these issues. If there are fluxuations of voltage in your building, your DSL router or bridge may get stuck and need to be re-started. In other instances, the unit may just begin to have corrupt data and you will see your connection speed go down.

All routers and bridges should always be connected to something that is going to clean up your incomming power.

Unfortunately, the common person will think that they have already done this by plugging the unit into a power strip that has surge suppression protection. Although surge surpression is important to avoid damage to equipement, it actually does not help with the problem being discussed here.

You need to find a unit that provides Automatic Voltage Regulation (AVR) at the least. AVR will try to maintain a stable voltage to your router, switch, hub and/or bridge. All units are not alike, depending on what type of equipement you own and how sensitive it is to power issue will determine what type of unit you should purchase.

It is actually possible to have an Uninteruptable Power Supply (UPS) that is not able to provide the proper protection to prevent your Internet connection from being unstable because of the amount of time it takes to react to the situation. Any unit that takes longer than 4 miliseconds to react will most likely do nothing to help.

The shorter the reaction time the better. Unfortuantely the shorter the reaction time, the more expensive the unit as well.

The ideal unit to protect your Internet connection and networking equipment would be a UPS that supplies the equipment connected to it from the battery at all times. The battery would and is continuously being recharged as long a the unit is plugged in and there is electrical power being supplied. These types of units have no reaction time at all since they are already on battery power. They are of course the most expensive.

Any of the above units should stablize and improve your Internet connection greatly if you are having power issues. Remember, you may not even be able to tell if there is a power issue. Installing a UPS or an AVR will greatly improve your Internet connection.

This is especially true if you use an application that sends great deals of data over a long period of time. Connection instablity could make these application not perform properly or appear to be frozen.

The only way to be sure if there is no power problem is to make sure there is none by installing a UPS with AVR.