Belkin F6C1500TWRK 1500VA Battery Backup UPS

Bulldog Plus Monitor Software:

A UPS by itself is only a half complete product for a PC. When the power goes out the PC needs to safely save what it is doing and shutdown properly. For this, Belkin includes their own software called "Bulldog Plus", which consists of a service and a monitor program. Communication with the UPS is established via the included USB and/or serial cable. Both connections can be used on the UPS at the same time, allowing for two separate PCs to be directly connected to the UPS. Only one computer can be designated the "master" (it is what communicates and sets parameters on the UPS), the other connection has to be configured as a slave (can only read info from the UPS). Additionally more "slave" computers can be setup via some TCP/IP networking configuration to connect to the "master" PC.

As mentioned before, there are no external LEDs to indicate the battery or load levels, so this software is pretty critical to know what is going on. Belkin has taken the time to have it run not only on Windows, but also on Linux & Mac OS X. The interface looks more or less identical on all platforms from what I have seen of the screen shots in the manual.

By default when line power is lost, the software automatically starts a 5 minute countdown before saving all work and shutting down the PC. The shutdown timer and other settings can be configured using some easy wizards. There are also one-click options to "cancel shutdown", or to "shutdown now", making user intervention swift and easy if necessary. There are a whole slew of configuration options related to how things should be handled when power is lost (and when power is restored), for the most part it is quite robust.

A nice feature of the software is that it will automatically save unnamed documents to a file. When the computer is booted back up a window appears with links to the saved documents.

Knowing what's going on with the power is critical, especially for systems that run unattended. There is an event log that records any and all power events, and a history graph which lets you select various types of data and timeframes to see how the UPS has been running. There is also the option to have the software page users (via a modem), email, or even a local network broadcast of certain events.

One option that is missing, and the manual makes no mention of, is when the UPS comes back on after the batteries are completely drained. APC lets you configure this based on the percent of battery charge before restoring power. That way incase the power happens to go back out again there is enough time for the UPS to shutdown all the PCs. From my own tests, the best I can determine is that the Belkin will turn itself back on as soon as the power is restored. Modern PCs will usually stay off, but dumb devices will power back on. If the power happens to keep flashing while the battery is drained there is the potential for something bad to happen there. I pulled the plug a second time and the UPS again shut itself off in less than 30 seconds. Plugged it back in and everything turned back on. Having a feature where you can specify a minimum battery charge or wait time would be nice so that devices won't be power cycled should the batteries be drained and the power keeps flashing.