TSP-10 - Telephone line Surge Protector, in-line RJ11 Jacks, LED Indicator

This is a 2 or 4 wire analog (POTS - Plain Old Telephone Service) telephone line surge-suppressor. I'm not using it for its stated purpose, though. I am using it as an on-hook / off-hook indicator.My son is an at home Customer Service Rep. When he is on the phone with a customer, the customer is NOT to hear any other noise except for my son talking. I work out of my own home office in an office attached to his. When I need to shred paper or otherwise make loud noises, I don't want to do it when he is on the phone. So, having a way to know when he is on or off the phone is very helpful to me.I have a phone line in my office. I used to have a DSL modem in my office as well, so the second phone line pair was used as the data line. I no longer have the DSL so I don't need the data line. When my son had his phone installed, the phone company used my data line for his phone line. So, if I were to plug a phone into the data jack in my office, I would be using his phone line.Normally, with this product, you'd plug the TSP-10 into the phone jack on the wall. On the other side of the TSP-10, there is a jack to plug your telephone into. When the phone is not in use (on-hook), the LED glows red. It's not super bright, but it is clearly visible. When someone picks up the phone (takes it off-hook), the LED glows a very dim red. (I would say the off-hook brightness is about 10-15% of what it is when the phone is on-hook.) It is easy to distinguish whether the phone is on-hook or off-hook by looking at the LED.I have the TSP-10 plugged into the data phone jack in my office. My son's phone is in his office and not plugged into the TSP-10. So, it's probably not surge-protected but I can tell when he is on the phone or not. (My setup looks just like the picture. I have one end plugged into the wall and nothing plugged into the TSP-10.)I had another product that was designed to only show if the phone is on or off hook. It used a red light bulb. However, when it was plugged into the phone line, There was about a 25% drop in the loudness of the calls since the light bulb was drawing so much power. It made it very hard to hear the person on the other end. That is NOT an issue with this product as this LED takes hardly any power to run. (The other product and this TSP-10 are both phone line powered.)I would have prefered that the LED be completely off when the phone is hung up and completely on when the phone is off-hook. But, for the price, it does what I need it to do.Oh, as the phone is ringing, the red LED rapidly switches back and forth between its normal on-hook brightness and extra bright. Once the phone is answered the LED goes to dim.I would not hesitate to buy this TSP-10 again. It is the perfect end to a long search.

I live at 9000' in the Colorado Mountains. Lightning is common in spring and summer. I've lost a couple of cordless phone sets for static electricity from lightning burning the base unit. I got the phone line surge protector and after several close lightning experiences, by phone still works! I'd call that a success, and wonder why it took me so long . . . .

cant really rate it lighting hasnt hit to know if it works

The good points are it is small and cheap. The bad is it didn't work. I had this between my modem and the beginning of the phone line and the modem got fried during a storm. Oddly enough, when I installed a new modem, the "protector" continued to allow the signal through. I have used telephone line protectors before that didn't allow the surge through but got fried themselves.

VoIP services seem to be very flaky. MagicJack Go worked great for two weeks, then dropped incoming calls after two rings. At times, there was nothing but static after making the call. Outgoing worked fine. Bought the surge protectors to smooth out signal coming and leaving the phone. Didn't work. This isn't just a MagicJack problem. Seems that all VoIP providers are experiencing similar issues.

Easy to install, We'll see how well it works when we have our next power surge or nearby lightning strike.

I bought the surge protector to prevent buying new phones when we had an electrical storm. I hooked up the surge protector but it would not work. As I had already threw out the papers, and could not send it back, so I disposed of it. [email protected]

So far this product works for my DSL line. That's all I needed it for. For whatever reason, my phone line routinely gets hit by lightening, but so far I have not been hit, but I am confident that it will protect my modem.