Airport Extreme ?

[e.mkeene]

> Also, if you have Applecare on it, and the modem or WAN ports get hit
> by lightning, don't tell them that or they won't cover it. Ask me how I
> know this. :-(

If you are using the ABS at home for personal use, depending on the 
size of your deductible, it might be covered by homeowners insurance. 
If anything else was damaged, it might be worth checking out. According 
to my homeowner's policy, any computer equipment I use for personal use 
is covered. If I use the equipment professionally, I can get a business 
use rider for it. Also, any personal use equpment that is in your car 
that gets damaged or stolen is also covered by your homeowner's policy.

Did you have it connected to a surge protector that had an insurance 
policy on it? If so, that is another avenue to pursue. If not, get one. 
Most people forget to connect modems and cable/dsl modems to surge 
protectors. In actuality, this is the most vulnerable part of your 
entire system if it isn't protected. You are lucky only the WAN port 
and ABS got fried. Modem surges have a nasty habit of taking out the 
logic boards.

While I am on my surge protector soapbox, get good ones. The cheap ones 
have puny MOVs and these can wear out quickly if you have dirty power 
lines. Since the MOVs are the critical point in stopping surges, if 
they don't work, you have no protection. The better surge protectors 
use very robust solid metal MOVs that have an entirely different design 
from the cheap ones which are just twisted wires.

If you have cable, you will also need a coax connector to be fully 
protected. It is still difficult to find coax equipped surge protectors 
at affordable home use prices. If you at least get a surge protector 
that has an ethernet connection, you can isolate the computer from the 
cable modem especially if you put the cable modem on its own ethernet 
equipped surge protector. That way, the worst you will get hit is the 
cable modem and the surge protector.

Small dog has a small ethernet connection surge protector for $20. I 
got one of those and use it for the cable modem. The rest of the system 
is on an UPS. That way, the cable coax stops at the cable modem and its 
surge protector should stop the surge. I connected the cable modem to 
the airport which is not connected to the system. The system uses an 
airport card to access the modem. So the airport may be at slight risk 
if the surge protector fails but the system should be safe until I can 
find an affordable coax option. When I told Small Dog about the missing 
coax connector, they said they would try to find something for the home 
user.

Mac Computer Show and Sale December 13th
Info at www.wap.org