Internet service and power outages?

[Rich Braun]

Scott Ehrlich <scott-DPNOqEs/LNQ at public.gmane.org>
> Now, DSL is phone-line offered.   If the central office has its own power
> source, and I have mine, if power did go out, I should still have
> uninterrupted Internet service unless/until my UPS dies.   Yes or no?

Hmm, your post got me to wondering what the applicable DOCSIS standard is on
this particular matter.  But I came up empty trying to find it (at
cablemodem.com and/or Google).  I know the service here (Comcast in Cambridge)
works when the power's out.  But I don't know for how long, and I don't know
if it meets the same standard as telco distribution equipment standards (12 or
24 hours of battery time, I think).  Very likely you'd have to have a monster
UPS to last longer than the ones installed by cable companies.

Footnote 1:  the Xantrex Powersource 400 units I bought last year have been a
very satisfactory purchase.  I still get hours of backup time with them (I
forget how many, I think it was 7 or 8 hours for my 48-watt Samba server). 
Nothing I've ever bought before those has come anywhere close.  Wish I'd kept
my Windows PC hooked up to one of them, I lost a lengthy email composition
earlier this evening when NSTAR winked out on me for a brief time.

Footnote 2:  a few more days remain on the NSTAR discount deal for those
PowerCost Monitor units for the energy-conservation fanatics among us
(especially those who, like me, have a half-dozen Linux boxes lying around
sipping and/or chugging the juice).  I got a couple of them and installed them
a couple days ago.  I'd like them better if they had a computer interface so I
could make up a little web page to present the data, but alas all these
consumer electronics companies build fancy little LCD wall displays that can't
be connected by anything less than a webcam.  That said, they should prove to
be a useful purchase.

-rich


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