Plug in surge protectors is like wearing a condom with a hole in it.
What is odd is that a number of web sites say that you should do both, use the whole house surge protector AND a surge protector at the outlet for any critical equipment. That makes no sense to me. If you have a whole house one that "catches" a surge before it hits your outlets, then I am not sure what those are doing short of making sure that one component on that surge protector doesn't go nuts and surge power back to the other components in that surge protector. Never heard of that, or at least it can't happen enough to be a real concern if you ask me.
Then again, I am not an electrician or electrical scientist. There must be some reason for both whole house and plug-in type. It does sound like a "Surge Strip" does almost nothing for protection on its own and needs the whole house protection to be effective.
EDIT: I found this video that explains why both types of surge protection:
Whole House and Outlet Level Surge Protection Now I still wonder if the $70 whole home unit I linked actually works or not, or if you need one of the "$200" units.
