&gt; <i>Quite a change from a few years ago when all she could get was 21.6Kbps dialup, and I had to send her a literal pile of USR Courier modems with instructions &quot;if you have a lightning storm and the modem won&#x27;t work the next day, throw that one in the trash and plug in another from the stack.&quot;</i><p>With all due respect, that seems very decadent.  Back when we lived in the sticks, the (simple) rule was to just unplug (from power as well as POTS) all electronic equipment when not in use.  Never lost a modem to a thunderstorm in those days!