If you’re like most computer users, you have a UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply); these are available at all office stores. Most of you know these things as “the huge brick-like power strip that beeps really loud when the power goes out”.
Chances are that most of you have an entry-level UPS with 6 power outlets on it, with 3 being able to run off battery and 3 that cannot.
What should you have plugged into the 3 outlets that can run off battery?
1. Your laptop’s power supply
Murphy’s Law dictates that whenever the power goes out, your laptop battery will be 10 minutes away from being dead, so you’ll need to run if off the UPS battery. And since a laptop doesn’t consume nearly as much power as a PC does, even with the other two things plugged in (mentioned below), you should get 2 to 3 hours of use out of the UPS before it runs dead.
2. Your broadband modem
While true there are broadband modems that have a built-in battery backup (which is particularly true for people who have both internet and digital phone service thorugh the same modem), most people don’t have one. That being the case, you’ll need this plugged into the UPS for when the power goes out.
3. Your wireless router
This is usually the one thing people forget to plug into the UPS. Most consumer wireless routers barely use any electricity (3 to 6 watts at most), and you need it to connect to the internet, so obviously it should be plugged into your UPS.
What about a battery-powered wireless router?
Does this exist? It sure does, and it’s called the TP-LINK TL-MR3040. Is it expensive? No, and it’s quite affordable. It is bulky or large? No, as it’s small, sleek and dare I say.. stylish?
If you like the idea of a small battery-powered Wi-Fi router, you’ll really like the TP-LINK. When the power goes out, it will keep working for 4 hours because it has a more-than-adequate 2000mAh battery on the inside. Cool!
Like what you read?
If so, please join over 28,000 people who receive our exclusive weekly newsletter and computer tips, and get FREE COPIES of 5 eBooks we created, as our gift to you for subscribing. Just enter your name and email below:
Maybe I’m just “old school” but I always thought of my UPS as something that will keep my system running long enough to save what I’m working on and shut down properly. I don’t need the internet for that. I need my 1) PC and 2)my monitor and maybe 3) my printer to be able to finish printing. Those are the three things that i have plugged into my UPS.
I agree. For me the UPS is to keep the computer running through a brief power outage or to allow time for proper shutdown (by me or unattended) in the event of a power failure. I also keep the monitor (desktop PC), modem and router. The modem and router are just to keep them up during brief outages because I am on cable Internet and the service will go down the moment the nodes and amplifiers go dead from the power failure so I don’t have Internet anyway when there is no power. When I had DSL the story was different.
I don’t keep the printer on the UPS. Nothing is so important (for me) that cannot wait for power to come back. And don’t keep the powered speakers there either.
With multiple systems available and the possibility that power loss could affect a needed download I have a separate UPS for each computer, sharing one with the monitor, and one for the router, switch, and modem. Only guarantees that I will have a couple of minutes to got to clean shutdowns.
Power failures are musical, with probably 7 units all chiming at different frequencies.
First two are the necessary if you are a regular user. But I have been hearing the continuous plugin can harm your system. is it true, not sure.