pedro2, You have tried AnchorFree HotSpot Shield, (no charge) right? Don't understand why it works for me and not for you. We are located in Bermuda Landing just north of the bridge. Chris Barenfanger has no problem with Skype either as long as he's running HotSpot Shield, yet his foreman Mike Madrid who lives in town has constant problems even with HotSpot running....maybe there's a charm north of the bridge?!

Yes, but I've also tried the two pay versions. Successively each worked for a while and then failed. But I do know someone living pretty close and also using Coral Cable who is still able to use one of the pay versions. Mine simply doesn't connect.

Belkin is a well known brand. Also APC. APC handles a lot of the server/workstation protection, so you know it is good. Belkin targets the home market, but also is very good. Just get one with sufficiently large surge protection. The link I provided is certainly what I would recommend. Nothing too less than that.

Are there any UPSs currently available that use an external 12v battery? I had one years ago in Africa and it was so much better than having a small battery built in.

Never heard of such a thing, but sounds like an interesting concept... what did you do, clamp it onto an auto battery?

In effect yes. Worked very well. In the wilds of Africa you could use anything to charge the battery - mains power if available, a mobile generator, or even run it off a Land Rover - and then use radio & basic electronics for days on end (depending on the size of battery). And you could easily couple in a newly charged battery and remove a dead one without interrupting the available power. Seems so obvious.

Convert one yourself, we did it out at Lamanai. Used a decent sized UPS (Minuteman, available in Belize) and then wired in a bunch of deep cycle 12V batteries. We were able to run 3 offices for about 15 minutes.

We use a bank of 2 6 volt golf cart batteries connected in series charged by an old UPS. works great. Many old UPS are thrown away as to buy new batteries for them costs more than a new UPS. Mine keeps me going for a long time for the satellite modem and computers.

Every time you launch HotSpot Shield, a different IP address is assigned......can't imagine BTL being able to keep up with it.

Yes, that is correct for that version. That is not a viable solution to those who may move here with the intention of running a business, as was implied via the original post. For this you need a stable IP with consistent results - 365 days a year. BTL seems to revolve blocking in chunks, meaning 2 mnths ok, 2 mnths not so good etc.