Correct wiring for power strip?

[Randy Schneider]

Interestingly, as Jack found out, ohm meter checks don't help! There is no indication of resistance between pins 2 and 3, but the light is wired between the two!

Yes, the ohmmeter checks can tell you where the switch contacts are, but as you've found, they don't help much with locating the light. If those AC switch indicator lights are still neon bulbs (like they used to be), the ohmmeter test voltage is nowhere near enough to cause them to conduct.

[Mike Wheeler]

Interestingly, as Jack found out, ohm meter checks don't help! There is no indication of resistance between pins 2 and 3, but the light is wired between the two!
The correct wiring to make the light work with the switch:
#1 Hot in
#2 Hot out
#3 Neutral

So, as I said in my previous post, reversing the wiring to pins 1 and 2 (as Jack shows in his pics) will allow the lamp to be turned on and off along with the A/C voltage.

Jack's wiring keeps the lamp on all the time because the incoming A/C voltage is across pins 2 and 3.

[Jim Sliff]

The single most important thing is to have the hot "switched". To do this the rest of the wiring must enable the hot side of the wall outlet to be connected to the switch and hot side of the strip outlets.

If it's reversed the switch never truly turns power off. Switching neutral may seem to shut off power to the strip outlets but technically all of them are still "live" - only the neutral line is disconnected, a very unsafe condition.

This causes all the supposedly-neutral wires to actually be "hot" and potential electrocution sources if anything connects to them and a ground source - like a hand on each..

This is a major safety issue and why polarity is so important in AC circuits.