VoIP and Home Security Monitoring

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 28, 2005 Posts: 1

I was wondering if any of the Voip subscribers had their home security monitored without being forced to get a landline or the expensive "cellular backup". I don't have Bell or any other landline and use Vonage as my primary phone. Unfortunately, no security company would take up monitoring of our house.
Any thoughts?

Posts: 336 · Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2005 10:15 am Post subject: Security Systems

I have a security system from ADT, but it was installed when I was with Bell Canada. I know that ADT does not approve of the Voip phone system, and they sent a letter around a couple of months ago warning their customers not to hook the alarm system into a Voip phone system. Sorry ADT, but I did not heed to that warning.

The letter explained some reasons why do not want people hooking a Voip telephone system is because of the way the alarm system is hooked up. If the alarm is triggered, the alarm system will shut off the phones in your house to gain access to the phone line to dial out. This prevents the problem where the intruder may lift your phone off the hook disabling the alarm system from calling out. With Voip, you need to have the telephone feed from the ATA hooked directly to the alarm system, and then the alarm system supplies the telephone feed to the rest of the house. My easy solution to this was to use the 2 free wires in my wall jack to send my Vonage line to the basement where the alarm system is located. The yellow and black wires are generally never used since the phone system only requires 2 wires, the standard wires are always the green and red. However I have my Vonage line hooked into the yellow and black wires, which are then hooked directly into the alarm system. The wires coming out of the alarm system to the rest of my house are the red and green wires. Those wires activate all of the phones in my house. I found this relatively simple to do, but some may want to hire an electrician to accomplish this.

Another reason they do not like Voip is because they say the transmission of important computer data from the alarm system is garbled. They say this, but I have performed several tests on my alarm system, and each and every time ADT received the proper signal. I guess it depends on the quality of your Voip.

Another reason they do not like Voip is due to the fact that it is dependant on your internet connection. If your internet connection is down, you have no phone service.

I know at least one alarm company that is now offering broadband monitoring. Check out this site: http://nextalarm.com

In some ways I feel more protected with my alarm hooked into Voip. The reason is because I have my Bell phone line running down the side of my house, and the Bell line can be accessed at street level. No ladder, not even a chair would need to be used to access my Bell line (which is dead by the way). If I were a burglar, the first thing I would do is cut the phone line on a house prior to breaking in. If someone were to cut my dead Bell phone line, that would do absolutely nothing. My Vonage Voip line would continue to work through my cable line, and the alarm company would be contacted. As a result of using Voip, criminals may be apprehended due to this situation.

As a side note, I think that Voip is going to really take off over the next 10 years. If the alarm companies are not willing to update their systems to reflect the new technology that is going to be a huge loss of business for them. I good rule of thumb when operating any business is to always keep in mind that the surest things can change. If you live by that rule, you will be more versatile and more accommodating to your customers. Lol

Posts: 77 · Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2005 10:44 am Post subject:

Mon système d'alarme est relié à ADT depuis plusieurs années déjà. Quand j'ai remplacé Bell par Vonage, j'ai fait les modification nécessaires à mon câblage intérieur et tout fonctionne très bien malgré l'avis défavorable de ADT. Pour plus de sécurité, j'ai relié mon modem/cable ete mon adapteur Voip à un système d'alimentation de secours (battery back up)

Posts: 62

canvoip wrote:

I was wondering if any of the Voip subscribers had their home security monitored without being forced to get a landline or the expensive "cellular backup". I don't have Bell or any other landline and use Vonage as my primary phone. Unfortunately, no security company would take up monitoring of our house.
Any thoughts?

Although I am not in Canada (Atlanta, GA, here) I thought I woluld let you know how my system worked: I have Brinks Home Security monitoring with the "3000" model. When I activated the Voip household-wide I then contacted Brinks. The system worked perfectly with no additional configuration required by Brinks or me. Too, they were extremely polite regarding the entire matter.

Yes, of course, if the internet goes down so does the monitoring so, unless it is absolutely imperative to have the monitoring with no hitch, then . . . that's something to consider & just my 2 cents worth South of the Border. Wink

Of course to begin/start service is completely different alltogether.

Posts: 8 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 26, 2006 Posts: 8

Recently got ucontrol (http://www.ucontrol.com). It has most all the features one would expect from technology today. Multiple monitoring channels (broadband/cell/land line), doesn't need a land line, real-time monitoring, basic home automation via remote arming/disarming, notifications of when events happen (like when my kid gets home from school), a web portal that works on my phone, also. Its is pretty cool. They have a device that just attaches to your exisiting system.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Oct 08, 2006 Posts: 2

I use the Monitoring Center with Vonage. Works fine, the tech that came out to switch over the system was fantastic, and they have no problems with Voip. Add to the fact that it is only 9.99 a month and I'm a happy camper.