My Home Alarm System

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 06, 2008 Posts: 4

i have no idea about alarm systems. the vonage tech just left, he told me, i cant have the vonage hooked up directly to the security system, that i need another line so it can register my alarm.

if i have to do that, i dont need vonage. i just went with vonage to save money on a phone, because we rarely use a house phone. so im going to cancel and get a regular land line.

well the thought of paying 20 a month was wonderful, but fleeting now. thanks for all your feedback. i am kinda of ticked that i have called several times and they never once told me the issue about the phone and the alarm system.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 12, 2008 Posts: 2

Vonage is working fine with our alarm system. The problem for Vonage, and alarm companies, and alarm dealers working with hardware to accommodate any VOIP service, is that all the equipment and all the reporting protocols are highly variable between installations. Ergo, my alarm system works fine, yours may not. No two alarm system installations and configurations are exactly alike. Because of that chaotic variability, it's wiser and legally smarter for Vonage to tell everyone that its service won't work with alarms.

If it helps anyone, our alarm system reports to the monitoring station in Contact ID format. This is a relatively contemporary format and so may offer more resilience during central station communication. I actually work at the very monitoring station we're hooked up to so I was able to verify right down to the receiving report that all signals sent during our post Vonage-install alarm test came in fine.

The biggest issue facing Vonage customers who decide to brave it with the default Vonage install is battery back up. If the Vonage box goes down during a routine power outage, your alarm panel, with its own internal battery back up, will still work to set off the audible alarm during a breech. But your phone won't be live to report to central station unless your internet router AND your Vonage router also have battery back up. So, if you intend to make your Vonage work with your alarm, and can, make sure you invest in some sort of battery back up for both your Vonage and network routers.

It's worth me pointing out that the trend in alarm installations these days is to abandon the notion of using the phone line for any sort of alarm reporting, period. Many alarm companies are now switching over to digital radio reporting networks (and there are many to choose from) for exclusive communication, whereas before, they were either not used at all, or only used as a back up to the phone line. Many of these digital radio networks interface with existing alarm systems quite easily, and are another option for new Vonage users. Ask your alarm dealer.

Finally, to address the original poster's issue with the alarm sounding every time the phone network goes out - some alarm configurations (remember, I said they're all different), explicitly treat loss of a phone line as a burglary attempt. The assumption being a burglar has just cut the line (not to prevent someone from dialing 9-1-1, but to prevent the alarm from dialing out). This would be something the alarm dealer would have configured, perhaps as part of their standard practice. It's also possible that the general drop in voltage on the line triggers the alarm somehow, but I'm gambling it's more the former.

Dave