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For Best Quality Surge Protection

Many consumers pay lip service to surge protection when it comes to looking after those prized possessions such as HD TVs and Home Entertainment Systems. I think most people in the UK saw the dramatic pictures, particularly the video of a huge lightning strike on the Tyne bridge. What if that had been someone’s home, would electronic devices attached to the consumer electricity supply have survived a potentially huge voltage spike?

19^th July 2012
A local Technical Training company, NSTUK Ltd and seller of Electronics products is keen to inform the public of the benefit of spending a few pounds on surge protection devices to protect those expensive electronic products like TVs and Home Entertainment Systems. The recent storm highlighted the potential problem whereby thousands of electronic devices could have been damaged or destroyed by a lightning strike on a property.

So what is surge protection, how does it work and how much does it cost to provide the appropriate level of protection?

Ask yourself a simple question, “Are my prized electronic devices such as Computers, Home Entertainment Systems and Audio Equipment protected from harmful power surges or lightening strikes”? If the answer to this question is yes, then how old are the surge protectors, are they still functioning and are they providing enough protection? If they answer is no, then why not?

 

Modern home entertainment and audio equipment can be expensive to replace if anything goes wrong with it. Most people probably never give a thought to protecting it from power surges on the electricity supply lines, or worse still, from lightning strikes during a storm.  A single surge protection plug that costs on average between £4-£7 can protect equipment worth hundreds or thousands of pounds. A 4-way surge strip with 4 AC Outlets can also be bought for as little as £5 or £6, so it makes sense to make a small investment to protect against electrical damage to expensive items.

The function of a surge suppression or surge protection device is to detect and act against harmful surges in voltage on your mains power supply. These sudden increases in voltage are often referred to as voltage spikes, and can occur at any time. Good surge suppression devices will direct any excess voltage harmlessly to ground and away from the connected equipment.

Any surge protection product will have a joules rating to indicate how much energy the device can absorb when a power spike has been detected. Most commercial surge suppression products will have a joules rating measured in hundreds or thousands of Joules, and even with a simple surge plug you should be looking for a rating of at least 200 joules and preferably over 1000 joules.

A surge protection device will be designed to direct energy to earth when the voltage reaches a certain level, and this level is known as the Clamping Voltage. For a 240v supply, this voltage will normally be something  over 300 volts. Additionally, the time it takes for the surge suppression device to recognise and act upon a voltage spike is known as the response time, and although some manufacturers quote this time on their product literature and packaging, in reality a surge device utilising an MOV will always have a fast response time because that is the nature of an MOV.

Replacing ageing multi-socket power strips should become a priority if you consider your home entertainment, audio equipment or networking equipment to be important. Surge suppression strips are relatively inexpensive and will give peace of mind that when a power spike occurs, your equipment will provide the necessary Surge protection.

 For a great range of competitively priced surge protection products please visit http://www.ipexpress.co.uk or call 0845 519 7752 for more information.

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A Laptop Docking Station is designed to provide the means to connect your Laptop or Notebook computer to a number of peripherals, so that you can use your laptop computer in an office environment with all the benefits of having a desktop computer.

Some docking stations allow you to plug in your notebook and the station connects to the main rear connectors to link notebook to selected peripherals. Some other docking stations have a single connector such as a USB connector, and all your mouse, video, audio and network connections are fed through a single USB connection.

Most of the USB Laptop Docking Stations are made my manufacturers who design them to be universal in order to be used with virtually any Laptop Computer depending on the operating system in use. This means that you only have a single connection when you return to your desktop environment, and can access all the normal resources on your Notebook.

A docking station virtually turns your Notebook Computer into a desktop device, but maintaining the mobility of your Notebooks in seconds with a simple undocking procedure. Some systems are known as cold docking, whereby the Laptop is closed down before docking and undocking. Others have a hot docking capability, allowing you to dock or undock your Laptop Computer without the need to shut down the operating system prior to completing the operation.

Some docking stations are know as a breakout dock, which are  in effect a port replicator which provides thet existing facilities available on your Laptop plus a number of additional ports.

It can be a simple fact that your notbook computers may not have enough ports to allow you to used all the peripherals you would like to. One thing that a lot of Universal Laptop Docking Stations provide you with are additional  USB Ports. A lot of these docking systems also often provide DVI, HDMI or VGA ports to allow you to connect to an external monitor or display.

The USB Laptop Docking Stations are becoming the most popular models due to their light portable design, capabilities and value for money. To models that I have looked at are the Startech.com USBDOCK2 and the Kensington 60723EU

USBDOCK2

This docking station provides USB connectivity using the USB 2.0 standard. A number  of commonly used interfaces are provided including  3.5mm mini-jack connectors for headphones and microphone, RJ-45 10/100 Ethernet connector and an additional 4 USB 2.0 Ports. At under £35 I consider this device to be versatile and extremely good value for money. This model comes with a 1 year warranty and lifetime manufacturers technical support.

60723EU

This device has a different ergonomic design to that of the USBDOCK2 model, in that it comes in the form of a stand, whereby you simply slip your Notebook computer into the stand to have almost instantaneous access to all your connections. Like the previously mentioned model, it has 4 additional USB 2.0 ports to expand your capability. The stand also has the additional benefit or raising your Laptop screen for easy viewing.

So, if you want to expand the number of peripherals available from your laptop computer or want to give your notebook the feel of a desktop computer then consider buying a Laptop USB Docking Station, it could provide you with an enhanced user experience.

This article on Laptop Docking Stations was written by David Christie, MD at NSTUK Ltd,  Website http://www.ipexpress.co.uk/Notebook-Docking-Stations-Computer-Systems/b/1848156031