Home Alarm Monitoring

[OpenYourEyesTulsa]

I am shopping around for a home alarm company.  I am looking for something cheap and possibly able to monitor the system with my iPhone.  I have a GE alarm system in my house already that is connected to a phone line (through Magic Jack).  I cancelled my old alarm company because they were horrible.

Any recommendations?

[nathanm]

MagicJack isn't much of a monitor. If your computer crashes or gets turned off, it no workie. If you insist on using VoIP, at least get a separate ATA and pay as you go account from one of the popular cheap VoIP companies (I like Callcentric). Generally you can get outgoing-only service for no monthly fee and you pay 1-2c/min only for the minutes your alarm uses.

Better still is to get a box for your system that will allow it to be monitored over IP directly. There are people advertising IP monitoring service for $9 a month, which seems a little high to me (I bet you could find someone at around $6 a month). I still wouldn't trust it.

IMO, an alarm without cellular monitoring (or IP monitoring hooked up some sort of DIY wireless data) is pretty much worthless. Any burglar who wouldn't be stopped dead in his/her tracks by window film and a reinforced door jamb will cut your cable and phone lines.

[OpenYourEyesTulsa]

MagicJack isn't much of a monitor. If your computer crashes or gets turned off, it no workie. If you insist on using VoIP, at least get a separate ATA and pay as you go account from one of the popular cheap VoIP companies (I like Callcentric). Generally you can get outgoing-only service for no monthly fee and you pay 1-2c/min only for the minutes your alarm uses.

Better still is to get a box for your system that will allow it to be monitored over IP directly. There are people advertising IP monitoring service for $9 a month, which seems a little high to me (I bet you could find someone at around $6 a month). I still wouldn't trust it.

IMO, an alarm without cellular monitoring (or IP monitoring hooked up some sort of DIY wireless data) is pretty much worthless. Any burglar who wouldn't be stopped dead in his/her tracks by window film and a reinforced door jamb will cut your cable and phone lines.

I would prefer an IP security system.  Can you or anyone else recommend an alarm company?

[Conan71]

The little sign out front and window stickers are still the primary line of deterrent to the average burglar.  They will look for an easier mark unless they know that house has some seriously valuable contents worth risking setting off an audible or finding a house with a cellular uplink.

[dbacks fan]

I found out out here, that a trick the burglars use is to shut the power off if they see an alarm control panel in the house. A lot of people never check the battery back up for their system. Kill the power, panel goes dark, no alarm. The reason it's an issue here is that most homes have the circuit breaker panel as part of the meter panel, and by code they are outside on the front of the house. So I locked mine to prevent that.

[patric]

I found out out here, that a trick the burglars use is to shut the power off if they see an alarm control panel in the house. A lot of people never check the battery back up for their system. Kill the power, panel goes dark, no alarm. The reason it's an issue here is that most homes have the circuit breaker panel as part of the meter panel, and by code they are outside on the front of the house. So I locked mine to prevent that.

That would not work for any modern security system, and if anything, put it in more of a heightened state.
A low battery condition is silently communicated to the central station, who will usually contact you to arrange a replacement. 
If weeks go by and you do nothing, and the battery condition deteriorates further, that is also communicated and is usually accompanied by a visual "trouble" light on the keyboard and an occasional yet persistent "chirp" to annoy you into action.   A failure of AC power is reported much the same way.

Most monitoring agreements include some sort of maintenance arrangement where the alarm company would replace the battery before it became critically low.  Even if that were ignored, there would still likely be just enough power to immediately communicate not only a loss of AC, but the battery's negligent status as well as any simultaneous alarm condition.  The central station could look at these distinct bits of information and conclude that the system was under attack (which is information they could pass on to give the report urgency). 

So attacking the breaker box before violating an alarm just adds weight to the alarm, and wouldnt be a smart thing for a bad person to do.

If your alarm doesnt behave this way, it's definitely time to upgrade.

[wildgoose]

I use TNT security, never had any complaints, plus they are cheap and local.

[brunoflipper]

advance alarms...   local and excellent service... mines battery backup and has a gsm chip... text msgs me the instant it goes off...

[AngieB]

We've been very pleased with Guardian. Been with them for almost three years. My parents have used them for at least ten. No complaints.

[patric]

We used one of the oldest and most trusted alarm companies in the state for about two decades.

We upgraded our panel a few years ago, and a few years after that added some new hardware.  It was during the testing of some new zones that we found the monitoring company was not able to report back any information (including the automatic daily tests).  This went on for some time as we added different filters and re-checked our communicator to try and solve the problem, but to make a long story short, the problem ended up being on their end.  One of their tech people mentioned that there had been a company "computer problem" and our account info was restored using old information.  The result was they were "listening" for our old, long-gone panel, and ignoring the newer one in service, and we were essentially unmonitored.

They then decided the fix was for us to sign a new contract and pay for a service call to reprogram our system, even though all that was really needed was for them to correct the information on their end.
We declined.

My advice for any alarm monitoring is to make a habit of doing manual tests of random zones, and see if they are accurately getting the information.  Call them ahead of time so they know they are only tests.  Also check to see if your contacts and instructions are up-to-date.

[patric]

The little sign out front and window stickers are still the primary line of deterrent to the average burglar.  They will look for an easier mark unless they know that house has some seriously valuable contents worth risking setting off an audible or finding a house with a cellular uplink.

Sometimes, sometimes not.  This morning, for instance:

"They just kicked it open. They just kicked it open," Larry Dame said.
Larry Dame says luckily, he was at work when criminals kicked down his door.

Where Dame got even luckier: his neighbors saw it all happen.
One neighbor's security cameras were rolling the whole time. Down the street, another neighbor watching out the window called 911.

"I have an ADT sign in my front yard. How stupid can they be?" Dame said.
That alarm scared the burglars away from Dame's house. All they left with was a big mess.

Larry Dame calls the break-in brazen.
"They don't care. They don't care," he said. "Broad daylight. They don't care."

A high-speed chase down U.S. 169 ended when the suspects pickup swerved into traffic, severely injuring the driver of another truck and closing 169 for several hours.

[TUalum0982]

we use TNT....I believe they were recently bought out by someone. I remember getting a letter a month or two back.  We dont have a home phone line, its uses cell towers I believe? Regardless, the many times my wife or other family member has set it off, I quickly get a phone call.  If no answer, they send out the police.  The jenks police love me I am sure.

I pay 27.99 which includes 3 dollar a month maint or warranty.  I have had no issues with them at all.  I would say 75-80% of the houses in our neighbhorhood use TNT as well.  Atleast, according to their signs in from of the house.

[Breadburner]

Make sure they changed the number your auto dialer calls to 918 XXX XXXX

[OpenYourEyesTulsa]

Just wanted to update this thread in case anyone references it later.  I went with NextAlarm:  http://www.nextalarm.com

They are a national alarm company mostly for those that already have a system and looking for cheaper monitoring service.  They have a unit that you hookup between your alarm and the internet.  It is rather technical to do yourself but I am a computer guy.  You can then control your system from any computer or your iPhone.  It will text message you based on what criteria you setup.  They also offer security cameras that are integrated with the alarm service and I will be purchasing some soon.  I am not worried about someone cutting off my internet because if the alarm company loses connection to the alarm they will text message me.  I mainly like the cost and the ability to have complete control of the system from anywhere.

[patric]

Just wanted to update this thread in case anyone references it later.  I went with NextAlarm:  http://www.nextalarm.com

Do they charge extra for having smoke detectors and things like that?  Ive run into that among wholesalers that want to look less expensive than they actually are.