Maintaining power in rural areas, or during adverse conditions (storms, etc), can be difficult. Many people have come to depend on internet access for communications (internet, online television, VOIP telephone, etc.) Often once you've lost internet - you may have lost all contact to the outside world.
In days of old, power came to you down the telephone line, so your telephone would often work even when your power went out. Nowdays, the internet signal comes down the cable or phone line even with a power outage, but if your router/modem has no line voltage - you've still got nothing.
So what can you do about it? Storms are inevitable, power outages will come. You need some way to maintain power to your internet router and computer even when there is no power to your neighborhood.
Of course there are expensive generators and "Un-interruptable Power Supplies (UPS)" you can purchase, but who wants to spend a ton of money on something they may use 3 or 4 times a year, only for it to last less than an hour? The solution I present here inexpensive, reliable, easy to put together, and down right practical.
You simply build your own semi-UPS using parts you can get from your local Wal-Mart.
Here's how you do it:
Go to your local Wal-Mart (or Ace Hardware)type store and buy one each of the following items:
Portable Cooler - best is the kind with wheels on it that you take drinks and stuff to ball games.
Car Battery - Get the biggest one you can afford. It will last longer.
Trickle Charger - a 12 volt car battery charger designed to keep your battery at full charge all the time.
A Power Inverter - get the one with the most AMPS you can afford. This will determine, more than anything, what and how many items you can power up.
A Power Strip - to plug all your important computer accessories into
Total cost - $120 or so (depending on your area and economy), and you'll NEVER be out of power again!!!
Put the car battery, the trickle charger, and the power inverter in your rolling cooler. Connect the charger and inverter to the car battery, and plug the trickle charger into the wall. The trickle charger keeps a charge on your battery all the time, so you don't have a dead battery next time you need to use it.
Plug your cable modem, network router, computer, and any other essential computer stuff (not your printer-just the essentials) into the power strip, and plug that power strip into the wall.
Next time you take a power hit - simply unplug the power strip from the wall socket, and plug it into the power inverter. The power inverter will now power up the modem, router, and other computer essentials so you have internet as normal. If you have satellite internet - don't forget to plug your satellite equipment in as well.
Unless the network itself is affected (most internet provider systems have their own battery backup system), you should have internet for many hours.
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