Surge Protector Settings

[Danger]

Hi, all.
When the company that I worked for went out of business, I obtained a surge protector power bar from it.
There is no brand name, but it's made in Taiwan. I don't even know if it's meant for full-time usage.
The label on the back reads exactly thusly (including line spacing, case, and relative character size):

TEMPORARY POWER TAP AND TRANSIENT
VOLTAGE SURGE SUPPRESSORS
MODEL TL-660-3
125V 60HZ 15A 1875W E99662
800V L-N
400V L-G AND N-G
CAUTION - TO REDUCE THE RISK OF
ELECTRIC SHOCK - USE ONLY INDOORS
AND DRY LOCATION 9510
ATTENTION - N'UTIUSER QU'A
L'INTERIEUR
DAN DES ENDROITS SECS MADE IN TAIWAN

(There's a wide gap between 'location' and '9510' and between 'secs' and 'made in Taiwan', but this text editor keeps ignoring the spaces.)
There's a UL label with text wrapped around it which reads: '87K9 listed temporary power tap'. Below that is a CSA label with 'LR 61599' under it, and below that is 'TIC'.

The front has the words 'Protection Indicator' on the corded end, with a red indicator light between them. It's lit as long as the thing is plugged in. Below that is a 2-position rocker switch labelled 'EMI / RFI / Surge'. It's supposed to be illuminated, but it just flickered a couple of times, so I assume that it's a neon bulb near the end of its life. The UL and CSA labels are on either side of it. Below that are 2 phone jacks. The left one says 'FAX/MODEM' and the other is 'PHONE'. Finally, there are 6 grounded outlets. There's what I take to be a reset button on the side near the corded end.

Now to the questions.
Is this thing meant to be used as a regular power bar, or is it just some sort of short duty-cycle emergency thing? If it can be used full-time, which position should the rocker switch be in for my computer set-up? Would it be the same if I were to use it for my entertainment system rather than the computers? Finally, what are the phone jacks for? If they weren't labelled separately, I would think that it was a pass-through system, but it looks as if each one is either an 'in' or an 'out', with no partner. :confused:
Thanks in advance.

[Greg Bernhardt]

Bumping this to see if anyone can help.

[turbo-1]

You probably have an inexpensive power strip with some MOVs in it. They are very common, and they can get ruined with one good surge. Their job is to dump excess voltage to ground so that it doesn't get to your equipment. There may also be a small toroidal coil in there to help filter noise in the line current.

The phone jacks (in a properly-designed surge protector) should also dump excess voltage to ground. This is important because voltage spikes from lightning strikes can come in on the phone lines and damage your equipment.

Since we don't know much about your surge protector, it's not possible to say what the light in the rocker switch is telling you. It may be an indicator of the condition of the MOVs, in which case it would be a good thing to know the default indicator state. Is the light supposed to be on when everything is OK, or is it supposed to come on to warn you that the MOVs can no longer handle surges?

My recommendation would be to go out and buy another surge protector, and if the indicator status, etc isn't marked on the protector, cut the instructions off the packaging and tape it to the bottom of the unit for future reference. I wouldn't trust my electronic equipment to what might have been a $5 throw-in with a computer system.

I use a belt-and-suspenders approach. My PC gear and fax/copier/printer are plugged into a Cyber-power UPS and that in turn is plugged into a surge protector to help stop large transients from getting to the UPS.