PCs & Laptops For Dummies
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Power strips allow you to plug in more devices than you have available sockets in the wall. Plug everything into a power strip and then plug that single power strip into the wall, as illustrated the following figure.

Plug all your devices into a power strip.
Plug all your devices into a power strip.

Keep the following items in mind when buying and using a power strip:

  • Most power strips have six sockets, which is plenty for a typical computer system. If not, buy a second power strip, plug it into its own wall socket, and use it for the rest of your computer devices.

  • Try to get a power strip with line noise filtering. Even better, pay more to get a power strip that has line conditioning!

  • Don’t plug one power strip into another power strip; it’s electrically unsafe!

  • Don’t plug a laser printer into a power strip. The laser printer draws too much juice for that to be effective — or safe. Instead, you must plug the laser printer directly into the wall socket.

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