Whatever you do, don't count on the Telco surge arrestors to protect anything except an old fashioned rotary dial telephone and maybe some of the old pushbutton touchtones. Your modem, ansering machine, fax machine, and computer can all go up in the proverbial puff of smoke if you do not install additional protection.
I had an answering machine back in the 80's that ate some lightning. Luckily, the manufacturer thought they had enough additional protection built in & they gave me a new one free just so I'd send them the dead one so they could do a post mortem. The jolt even blew a few of the covers off the machine.
If you're smart, you won't talk on anything except a cordless phone during an electrical storm.
Tom
[This message has been edited by Tom (edited 10-04-2001).]
