What home security company

[Quick01GT]

Recently they broke into my truck in front of my home, took a $200 stereo but destroyed a 1k dash doing it.

2 weeks ago I put up Christmas lights and the bastards cut them with a knife!!!
There have been a couple of break ins in the neighborhood (usually really nice and quiet) but now I'm getting a camera surveillance system installed next week and want to do an alarm so my wife feels safe, what do you guys recommend as far as home security? My friend works for ADT but I want something good not just something I can get cheap unless they are a reputable company.

Please help me,

Mario

 

[Killer95Stang]

Expensive doesnt always mean they are good. I use an eyez-on network card in my DSC alarm system and have Eyez-on monitoring for $8.50 per month. So far so good, but then again I haven't needed them yet.

 

[RVDan]

A local alarm is as good as anything. Monitored alarms are only good for stopping the after the fact looters from taking advantage of your already broken into house.

Theif breaks a small window to get in, motion sensor trips thirty seconds later as Theif runs down hallway into your master bedroom and tossed every drawer for watches and jewelry. At one and a half minutes thief has all your valuables in his backpack and is grabbing the kids game systems and smashing their piggy banks as the alarm company phones you to see if it's a valid alarm. As you're hanging up the phone the alarm company is phoning the police and Theif is frantically looking for laptops and tablets on his way out the door and into your garage. You're two minutes from home and Theif has all your jewelry, small electronics, and easy to pawn tools in two backpacks and is pedalling your bicycle down the street with your wife's bicycle in tow. You slide sideways into your driveway with your heart beating a hundred miles an hour ready to tear this punk into a hundred pieces only to find the garage door open and nobody in sight. After your quick survey of the house you jump back in the car to go hunt down the Theif who can't be far away just as the police show up and waste your valuable time telling you there's nothing they can do and you should not take matters into your own hands.

 

[matt_i]

Must harden any land line connection.

 

[garrett1812]

AlarmGrid.com
Reasonable price and great support, if you want to go the DIY route.

Never used it but have heard good things about SimplySafe also.

 

[Showkey]

DIY.........Simply Safe

 

[bhonshell37]

Ask your home owners insurance company what companies they honor for an insurance discount.

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[Dirtydan69]

A local alarm is as good as anything. Monitored alarms are only good for stopping the after the fact looters from taking advantage of your already broken into house.

Theif breaks a small window to get in, motion sensor trips thirty seconds later as Theif runs down hallway into your master bedroom and tossed every drawer for watches and jewelry. At one and a half minutes thief has all your valuables in his backpack and is grabbing the kids game systems and smashing their piggy banks as the alarm company phones you to see if it's a valid alarm. As you're hanging up the phone the alarm company is phoning the police and Theif is frantically looking for laptops and tablets on his way out the door and into your garage. You're two minutes from home and Theif has all your jewelry, small electronics, and easy to pawn tools in two backpacks and is pedalling your bicycle down the street with your wife's bicycle in tow. You slide sideways into your driveway with your heart beating a hundred miles an hour ready to tear this punk into a hundred pieces only to find the garage door open and nobody in sight. After your quick survey of the house you jump back in the car to go hunt down the Theif who can't be far away just as the police show up and waste your valuable time telling you there's nothing they can do and you should not take matters into your own hands.

Sad but true. But an alarm and signs will cut down your chances of a break in. Add cameras and signs that they are there even more.

 

[D45]

Are you 100% certain someone cut the lights with a knife?

Small ground critters LOVE to chew on the wiring

 

[ddawg16]

Alarm companies.....'letting you know 'when' you got broke into.

Motion sensing lights - When they come on...it alerts you and your neighbors....and the guy who is where he should not be.

Big dog - I've never taking a burglary report at a house with a large dog

HD POE Cameras with motion sensing (check out Lorex NVR) - I get email alerts when someone walks down my driveway. I can schedule it to ignore weekends. I can also watch it from my phone or work computer. And most dirtbags will pass on the house with cameras......especially if you have a big dog....I have a 113lb Lab....who will lick you to death if I introduce you....or eat you alive if you try to enter the house and I'm not there.

 

[stang2007]

so I have had this alarm for about 2 years.

Its a good reliable unit (I have a 2010 SQFT 2 story house) if you want a notification when away it will do it with a regular land line (it calls you with a recorded message) and is capable of being monitored(though I dont pay to have anyone monitor it). since its wireless and battery powered for the sensors and has a battery backup for the unit and alarm it will work in a power outage.

Mine has given me two years with no issues, i am going to replace the batteries soon as I noticed some of the senors giving the yellow low battery light.

 

[Richard Cranium]

Just make sure your house is not the easiest on the block,
Look at your house like a thief would look at it.
Is there a easy way to get in.
Large bushes to hide behind if a car comes down your road
do you have a sliding glass door? If you do drill a small hole in the track and put a cheap pad lock on it. A lot of people will put a stick in the track. Now the burglar just breaks that glass and knocks the stick out of the way and still enters your house.

 

[Killer95Stang]

Alarm companies.....'letting you know 'when' you got broke into.

Motion sensing lights - When they come on...it alerts you and your neighbors....and the guy who is where he should not be.

Big dog - I've never taking a burglary report at a house with a large dog

HD POE Cameras with motion sensing (check out Lorex NVR) - I get email alerts when someone walks down my driveway. I can schedule it to ignore weekends. I can also watch it from my phone or work computer. And most dirtbags will pass on the house with cameras......especially if you have a big dog....I have a 113lb Lab....who will lick you to death if I introduce you....or eat you alive if you try to enter the house and I'm not there.

I'm with ddawg on a complete package. I offered up Eyez-on, because they handle the monitoring part (insurance discount), that will get me some text alerts when doors are opened, even telling me who entered the specific code at a fair price. Plus the alarm system gives me alerts if a flood sensor goes off, or if one of the smoke or heat detectors goes off. Plus they will roll fire under those situations. With that I have HD POE cameras that record off motion and send alerts under predefined conditions. Also have that 100 pound lab loaded and ready... but not sure what he will do in this type of situation, since he hasn't eaten anyone yet.

At the very least, I'll be able to see the suspect, give a good description, including car info, since I have the ability to see 100 yards each direction down the street. Then I'll phone my buddy a few houses down to chamber a round in the AR, just incase I make it home before the Police do.

 

[nes999]

Does anyone have a picture of these hundred plus pound labs? My great Dane only weighs 120 and is 34 inches tall.

 

[msarti216]

The black lab/ chessie I'm petting was 95lbs at 10 months old. The black lab at the top is just about to turn 1 year and weighs 115. At the time of the picture he was 4months. My lab the chocolate weighs 65. But I've never met an lab (and I've been around alot) that has been a mean dog. Yes they will bark and sound like they are going to rip you to pieces. But unless it was trained as an attack dog they will most likely flee.
What I'm getting at is don't depend on your dog to protect your home. Although a barking dog will make a burglar think twice about coming through the door. Some news station did a story a while back on dogs protecting the household. And all but one dog ( a trained guard dog) just let the burglar take whatever he wanted.

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[ard]

Does anyone have a picture of these hundred plus pound labs? My great Dane only weighs 120 and is 34 inches tall.

lol

 

[tthornto]

lol

Looks like a great guard dog, if you only want to guard his food bowl.

 

[Killer95Stang]

About 95 pounds in this picture... but he's 9 years old now and not eating everything in sight like before.

 

[Stuart in MN]

I use a local monitoring company (their office and phone center are actually only about 4 blocks away from my house.) I like the idea that they know the neighborhood, rather than one of the big national companies who have a call center in some other part of the country. Check around in your town to see what's available, talk to neighbors (or look around in people's front yards to see what security company's sign they have displayed.)

My opinion is they can deter burglars - I've had more than one break in over the years (fortunately, the neighborhood has been cleaned up a lot so it's been years since the last one) and on several occasions the very loud alarm horns scared the burglars away before they had a chance to grab anything.

 

[Showkey]

Ask your home owners insurance company what companies they honor for an insurance discount
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They ( insurance ) ask if the home has an alarm........never been asked what alarm company or type of equipment.

 

[Killer95Stang]

They ( insurance ) ask if the home has an alarm........never been asked what alarm company or type of equipment.

My experience with Farmers and State Farm, they require a certificate or proof of monitoring from the monitoring service.

 

[theoldwizard1]

Must harden any land line connection.

There are dozens of DIY systems out there now. Some good, some not so good. What I don't understand is why now have come up with a simple, reliable interface to a cell phone. The onboard processor could easily dial the owner (or other non-law-enforcement personnel) and verbally announced what event has occurred. Many MVNOs allow an add-on line for as little as $6/month (plus taxes).

I find this very odd, because the capability has been there for POTS for many years.

 

[prostreetamx]

Got rid of my monitor service as soon as the contract expired. We came home one day and opened the garage door but did not go inside right away. Had a sensor on the door but no siren outside to hear the warning beep. After the alarm went off we tried to call the company with no contact, wrong number to report false alarm. They called the wrong numbers to check on issue. Sent a monitor around 3 hours later. Had to pay a response fee. Now have a 2 terabyte DVR 16 camera Samsung security system. All exterior doors and vehicles are covered 24/7. System helped when my concrete guy helped himself to his final payment without letting us know and then wanted to be paid again. All my doors and windows are hard wired including my new garage and I'm looking into a self monitored alarm system that will alert my cell phone. My previous system would only work with a hard line which I no longer have. I'm sure they make a unit with cell phone capability and I have nosey neighbors which also helps. and 2 Huskies.

 

[shaveradam]

My wife and I have the Comcast / XFinity system in our house. We had it in our townhouse and when we just moved set it up at the new place as well. I believe as part of our monthly Cable / Internet package it's like $30 per month. It includes a touch screen controller that is the "brains" of the unit. That base station connects to all of the sensors wirelessly via the zigbee network. It also connects to its own gateway / router that is installed after my whole house network and allows it to talk wirelessly to 4 security cameras. Purchasing door / window sensors is expensive if you go through the company however they can be found on ebay and amazon cheaper. You can message me for the info you would need to add them to the system or can search for "installer code" that opens up the touchpad to add additional cameras / sensors. We like it because we can check on our dogs throughout the day and with your smartphone from anywhere can arm, disarm or look at the cameras.

 

[ratdoggy]

lol

Put his food dish by the front door and while he's laying there they will never get the door opened

 

[Ijhursh]

I have a 2gig system and use alarm.com, so far I have been very pleased.

 

[ddawg16]

Here is my 113 lb Lab.....

 

[landlord30]

Must harden any land line connection.

Most cental station based alarm companies have switched to cellular.

 

[nes999]

Here is my 113 lb Lab.....

With all due respect it looks like a mix. Deffinatly not a standard lab. There is no reason for a 100 pound lab unless they are severly overweight, or they we abnormally large.

 

[theoldwizard1]

Here is my 113 lb Lab.....

I am betting his bark is worse than his bite. He would knock the bad guys down and slobber all over them !!

Nice looking dog !

 

[ddawg16]

With all due respect it looks like a mix. Deffinatly not a standard lab. There is no reason for a 100 pound lab unless they are severly overweight, or they we abnormally large.

You are correct.....we think he has some Rot in him.

I am betting his bark is worse than his bite. He would knock the bad guys down and slobber all over them !!

Nice looking dog !

Slobber? Only if I introduce you. No one has been brave enough to try and mess with him

 

[RVDan]

Just make sure your house is not the easiest on the block,
Look at your house like a thief would look at it.
.

They look at my house and decide it's not worth the risk of running into the guy who would live there.

 

[atavuss]

Must harden any land line connection.

How?

 

[jmarkwolf]

How?

Run the line inside galvanized pipe as it exits the house and down into the ground, or wherever it goes. Prevents perps from cutting the phone line.

 

[1938flatty]

The key is stoping them outside with enough equipment so they think twice about going in. Motion Sensing lights only work at night. People do this stuff durning the day when people are at work. Get a motion sensor what turns on some kind of noise outside so they no somethings up. My dad had has a system that senses someone had entered the property. It turns on lights outside as well as a few in the house so it looks like someone got up and stated moving around. It also turned on a flashing Amber light outside for day time activity with a small and faint beeping noise that you can hear only when you get close to the house. Nothing that the neighbors can hear.

The trick is to never let them get all the way in. They see enough deterents outside they will move on. Good luck.

 

[LS6 Tommy]

What I don't understand is why now have come up with a simple, reliable interface to a cell phone.

They do. It's called Ecobee...

Tommy

 

[karl1672]

Happy with SimpliSafe and Arlo cameras from NetGear. Easy to install, but wish both were integrated. I like the fact that the alarm is cell based.

 

[theoldwizard1]

They do. It's called Ecobee...

Through a WiFi/Internet connection. Cut the cable and you are dead in the water.

 

[chase237]

I just went the DIY direction. I put the initial shopping list together at alarmgrid.com and called with a few questions to confirm I was going down the right path. Their customer service is excellent.
I have a big house and I was concerned about signal strength throughout the house. For example, just the garages have 3 motions, 2 glassbreaks, 5 door sensors, and the plan to add 4 sensors on the windows.
The install was easy, they walked me through the activation of the controller and am currently self monitoring while we get used to having an alarm. I'll eventually go to fully monitored.
The system I went with is Honeywell Lyric. The technology between the sensors and controller is encrypted to prevent hacking and completely z-wave compatible which makes adding things like thermostat, driveway alarm, lighting, locks etc easy and controllable via my cell phone.
I would recommend.

 

[LS6 Tommy]

Through a WiFi/Internet connection. Cut the cable and you are dead in the water.

And how else does everything interface to a cell phone?

Tommy