Linksys CIT400: One Ball, Two Strikes

Not surprisingly, I've not heard back from Linksys on my CIT400 problems since Ernie explained what a busy signal was (thanks again Ernie - maybe you should be on "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?"), but that hasn't stopped me from experimenting some trying to figure out why the phone kept dying. And I think I've figured it out!

The first thing I did was somewhat counterintuitive. I moved the base station further from the handset - I hooked it up in a bedroom (all bedrooms should have ethernet ports). And the damned thing worked - I left it there for 24 hours or so, and each time I checked the handset, it had connectivity and could make calls. Ahhh, progress, feels good.

Then I moved it back to the home office, where I had first noticed the problem. The last time it was here, it was plugged directly into my router (Linksys BEFSX41), a surge-protected phone outlet, and a surge-protected outlet on my APC UPS. This time, I plugged the power into a "regular" surge protector, and left the phone and ethernet the same.. And it continued to work - for 36 hours now, in fact.

Tonight, I think I'm going to plug it back into the surge protected outlet on the UPS and see if it craps out again. Hopefully it will - it makes little sense why it fails in this outlet, but it's consistent at least.

All this talk about surge protectors leaves me wondering.. What if al-Qaeda picks up a couple surge protectors; will the President's carefully crafted and well thought out plans fail miserably?