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Have you ever been in a cab, watching the driver racing down city streets, buzzing traffic at top speeds, but for some reason, you don't feel fear? We put our lives into the hands of people we don't know, but we just assume they know what they're doing; they're "professionals." It's easy to do the same thing when you're on the road with your computer, trusting that the hotel you plug into is going to give you clean, uninterrupted power. But, your computer is vulnerable wherever you plug it in. Don't put it's life in danger (and for heaven's sake tell that cabbie to slow down!).
American Power Conversion recently released SurgeArrest Notebook, a new protector in their SurgeArrest line designed with mobile computing in mind. The small one outlet unit offers surge protection for your laptop and modem and in/out ports for the phone system (so you don't have to reach behind the furniture every time you want to switch between the phone and the modem). I took a unit on my recent vacation and, while I didn't have any surges to test it against, I did find it handy and comforting. With the luck I've been having with technology recently, it wouldn't surprise me to have a lightning strike and a fried laptop.
  The SurgeArrest unit is relatively small and lightweight. It's also sized and shaped so that I could plug my modem transformer in the same wall outlet. There's even a cap that goes over the three-prong plug when it's not in the wall to prevent it from getting bent up in your suitcase. A light at the top of the unit lets you know that it's on and working properly. The only drawback I found is that at $30, they could have made it a two-plug arrest. Many of us still have external modems with separate power requirements. It would be nice to have the modem protected as well. As the APC catalog points out, it's a good idea to protect all of the devices connected to your computer so that power surges can't enter through a peripheral. The SurgeArrest Notebook guards the computer power and the modem connection, but not the modem power. So you're not 100% protected (unless you have an internal modem). The unit comes with six feet of phone cable (always make sure you have more than this 'cause the phone in a hotel is usually by the bed, not where you'll be working) and a US$3,500 three year equipment guarantee.
- Gareth Branwyn [7/29/97]
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