Who's your favorite alarm monitoring service?

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 13, 2005 Posts: 3

Hi all,

I've read several threads here about people having various degrees of success using Vonage with different alarm systems. I thought I'd turn the tables, and ask from the other point of view: If you want Vonage but don't mind switching alarm companies, who would you pick?

I've seen some info that alarm.com sent me. They have a great service, but the price of their monitored service is more than I want to pay. I suspect that there may be some traditional providers who may have more friendly equipment, that may work with Vonage with no hassle. For example, if their panel lets you easily configure it to dial *99. Or maybe if they only dial at 9600 bps, etc.

Thanks in advance,
Dave

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 21, 2005 Posts: 6

I just switched from a local alarm company to NextAlarm.com. One of the reasons I switched was the the local company could not get my signals over the Voip. They told me it would be at least a year before they would be able to. This actually worked in my favor as NextAlarm costs less to monitor my system than the local company. Paying annually saves me about $150 a year! Very Happy

A couple of things about NextAlarm that I had to deal with was 1) the alarm panel I had could not be monitored by them which meant I had to replace it. This was not too bad as I've installed alarms in the past so it was kind of fun. 2) They would not monitor it over the Voip, you purchase a device that hooks up to your router and they monitor it that way.

All in all I am satisfied so far.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 20, 2005 Posts: 4

Personally, I think all of the alarm companies out there are sleezebags. Their practice of holdinig your panel hostage by not letting you know the Installer code is flat out extortion. That's why I love Nextalarm. After I contacted them, they informed me that I could find instructions to reset the panel and codes online at similar forums. I did and was amazed at how easy it was. So, for freeing me from the crooked SOBs in the industry, thanks.

As for price, $8.95 a month is awesome considering these other companies are mostly $25 and above.

Look, alarm companies are liscences to print money. Especially the companies that outsource their calls to call centers that take calls from multiple companies...most of these outsourcers are charging your alarm company about $1.50 per customer to monitor - so for those of you paying $30 per month, you're putting $28.50 in the alarm companies pocket every month - not a bad racket.

Anyway, I've been totally thrilled with their service and have recommended over 30 people to their service. I wish there was a referral program! Smile

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 13, 2005 Posts: 3

Hi - After scouting around the web awhile, I hear a lot of good reviews of NextAlarm. I thought I'd try it, they said I need the installer code, but my current provider won't give it to me. I didnt get the reset codes you menioned. Do you know some web sites, or have any advice, that would help to get around this?

I need some kind of fall-back position with my current service. Maybe if I tell them I'm cancelling my service, they'll give me the code?

Dave

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 20, 2005 Posts: 4

They'll never release the codes. Go to http://forum.homesecuritystore.com/index.php?board=17 . That's the site/forum I went to and found the instructions to reset my panel (that resets the installer code back to factory default). Get your manufacturer and model number (inside the alarm box) then poke around this site. Once you have reset the panel and have the default factory installer code you are all set. Post back if you can't find instructions for your model.

Posts: 8 · Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2005 3:02 pm Post subject:

Yes, if you search around on the net, you can find information on how to reset the panel and get it back to the default installer code, but then you will have to reprogram the system, which I understand is extremely difficult, if not impossible, for an inexperienced person. Does NextAlarm help with that?

bj

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 20, 2005 Posts: 4

Once you do a hardware reset and know the codes, all you have to do is call Nextalarm and they will tell you what to enter into the panel to make it work with their system. It took about 2 minutes and it is as easy as someone reading you numbers to press and you keying them in.

Posts: 102 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Jul 04, 2005 Posts: 102

without going to the site, and sine you guys have the nextalarm service, does nextalarm do all of the things you can do with alarm.com? get notifications via pda, phone, etc. go online and turn lights on and off, know when litle billy comes home and uses his code? for all of that, i dont mind paying 35/month. but if i can get that for 9 bux per monthm thats a no brainer...

Posts: 21 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: May 20, 2005 Posts: 21

The only companies that get $1.50 a month rates on the outsourcing are MEGA companies (if anyone). Any of your smaller or more local companies will pay about 3 times that. I ran an alarm company for almost 20 years and we never saw rates close to $1.50 a month (as of two years ago).

As far as it being a "racket" - try it for a while. I wish it was a license to print money. By the time you wade through all the deadbeats and costs to maintain everything, believe me - it's not as lucrative as you make it sound. It's simply a living.

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 23, 2005 Posts: 6

Iv'e also had great luck with NextAlarm. The pricing is great and the service is top notch.

My system had been with ADT when we bought the house and there was no getting the codes. My solution was pretty simple but I don't know if it will work for everyone...

I just pulled the power cord on the alarm system, pulled the leads off the battery and let the thing sit for a few minutes with no power and no battery back up. Plugged it back in and NextAlarm was able to dial right in and get to work. They did the upfront programming on the phone with me. They are careful not to get into the business of holding your hand through upgrades and add-ons, but they do seem to help out for the first round of setting it up on the service. They sent me the installer code and the pdf of the manual so I've been working it myself ever since. I'm a big fan of NextAlarm.