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Not the basic ones, went out and bought the $35 ones at Wal-Mart for all my computers. Also bought one for my TV as well. My computer guy said that the basic ones will not offer much protection and you should buy the good ones and replace them every 2-3 years if you live in Boise.
I think that is an extreme overexaggeration. I have lived in Boise for my whole life (32) years. My parents also live here, as do myriad aunts, uncles and cousins, and friends, including some who live right next to the river. In addition to all that, we have almost 100 rental properties around Boise/Meridian. Out of all of us, over that entire time, I have heard of one power problem that a surge protector didn't prevent.
About 2 years ago, we had the transformer box down the street from our office have a malfunction. If I understood it correctly, the grounding wire melted (they used the words "like jello"). This caused the power coming to our building to be at a constant 220, rather than 110. Since this was not a surge, the surge protector did not protect it, and it blew a lot of our equipment. In fact, it actually melted a CD in the drive of one computer. It blew soot out nearly a foot from one surge protector.
In 32 years, I don't know of a single other power problem anyone I know has had. I believe you that there may be isolated pockets of town that have issues, but your post makes it sound like this is a widespread problem, and I disagree with that assessment.
I live on Chinden and Cloverdale and I have talked to the customer service engineer 3-4 times about this issue. Our power grid goes across Chinden, through the gravel pit and then heads across the Boise River. So anyone who lives around HP deals with this. This particular engineer told me that they have almost 2000 service complaints in my area. What Idaho Power has told me is most of the problem is ducks and geese running into the lines by the river or heavy equipment at the pits accidently bumping into a line. I honestly have to reset the clocks in my house 1-3 times a month because of the power surges. My neighbors all have the same problem.
Since I bought the really good surge protectors I have not had any issues, it was the cheap $5 power strips that caused a lot of problems. I've lived all over the country and never had as much of a problem with power surges or electrical blackouts as I have experienced in Boise.
Dear Tim and other posters. I am a Telecom consultant for local businesses here in the valley. Internet speeds down/up and price are completely based on geographic location. For example if you are within a block of Fairview and Maple Grove, you could get a Bonded DSL circuit which would be up to 20Mbps down and up to 1.5Mbps up for $99 a month (includes 1 fax/voice line) plus taxes. If you would like more information please check out my website [url=http://www.boisephoneguy.com]Boise Phone Guy, Boise Telephone and Internet Services[/url]
So anyone who lives around HP deals with this. This particular engineer told me that they have almost 2000 service complaints in my area.
Interesting, because I have lived within a mile of HP for most of those 32 years, and I already told you my experience. For 12 years, we lived in the Hickories, which is the subdivision that backs to the HP complex. Before that, we lived at what USED to be the end of Five Mile road for 12 years, before they extended it. My husband works for HP, in a building across the street from the main complex. My office is about 2 miles from HP, and my current house is about 3 miles from HP. Most of my friends and family live in that area of town. I stand by what I said. One weird malfunction and no other power problems. I reset my clocks maybe 2 times a year for power outages. Maybe. I actually can't remember the last time I had to. It could have been a full year ago. And they aren't even on surge protectors.
Maybe it is only people to the South of HP, down in the valley by the river. Again, like I said before, I believe that your specific area may have a problem, but it is not a widespread Boise problem. Even down in the area you are talking about, I have to wonder if properties over off State street are the same grid, because the 16 rental properties we have in the Duncan/Bogart area have not had these problems either.
Don't know what's going on then, I live in the subdivision right next to the Hickories. Just know from personal experience and from talking to Idaho Power that the subdivisions closer to Cloverdale suffer from weird electrical glitches. One of these surges even knocked out the big metal box with the fuses that is in front of my house. Idaho Power had to come out and replace the fuse and I was without 220 power for the day. So no A/C, stove or using the dryer until it got fixed.
I'm near Eagle and McMillan and have never had power glitches. I've also used both ClearWire and Qwest. I've ran the speedtests using Internet Explorer, Firefox and Google Chrome. The only one that gives me near rated results is Google Chrome. Chrome was aprox. 3 times faster on downloads and 40% faster on uploads.
The new advertisement from Qwest is for areas that have fiber optic lines I believe. You could probably ask Qwest where the FO is up and running.
I live on Chinden and Cloverdale and I have talked to the customer service engineer 3-4 times about this issue. Our power grid goes across Chinden, through the gravel pit and then heads across the Boise River. So anyone who lives around HP deals with this. This particular engineer told me that they have almost 2000 service complaints in my area. What Idaho Power has told me is most of the problem is ducks and geese running into the lines by the river or heavy equipment at the pits accidently bumping into a line. I honestly have to reset the clocks in my house 1-3 times a month because of the power surges. My neighbors all have the same problem.
Since I bought the really good surge protectors I have not had any issues, it was the cheap $5 power strips that caused a lot of problems. I've lived all over the country and never had as much of a problem with power surges or electrical blackouts as I have experienced in Boise.
Don't usually bump up old threads, but found out I wasn't crazy when talking about Idaho Power. Just got a postcard in the mail yesterday from Idaho Power apologizing for the service in our neighborhood and how they plan to deal with it.
This thread is about internet speeds? You ever consider getting cable? Why bother with Clearwire, Qwest, centurylink.. That is all DSL stuff.. I cannot believe you couldn't get a 3MPBS upload with cable internet. I'm sure Comcast or Charter are in the area.
WRONG!!!!!!!!!!! We have the crooks at Cable One monopolizing the area. I don't recommend them to anyone especially since they have started to charge anyone big bucks (kind of like going over cell phone minutes) for those who exceed the bandwidth cap, and they cut your i-net connection speed in half if you download/stream more than 3.5GB during peak hours. I don't know of any upload speed in the treasure valley that exceeds 1Mbps on a consistent basis. In general we in the treasure valley are shafted on download and upload speeds. People in comparable size markets are paying $40-$50 a month (without a bundle) for 40-50Mbps connections. The closest thing we have to that is in some limited neighborhoods, qwest does have the 40Mbps connection for roughly $50-$60 a month for two years. Of the options, Qwest (now CenturyLink) is the best for the money. No real download/stream cap, your connection speed never drops more than 15-20% during peak hours and you get the fastest D/L speeds in the area for the money. The Crooks at CableOne claim a 50Meg connection but you can only get it with a pricey bundle option and still have their scumbag limitations. The other thing that stinks is that none of the service providers in the area provide streaming access through ESPN3.com (which Comcast, Verizon and AT&T do). So no sports streaming. Really irritating during college football season.
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