Voip And Home Security Monitoring:
It is ironic that many consumers switch their telephone service from a traditional land line to VOIP service to save money, then discover after the fact that their alarm system is not compatible with VOIP. This requires them to keep their regular phone line, or use cellular and/or radio for alarm transmissions. This, of course, can offset or eliminate any savings that they may have enjoyed using VOIP in the first place.
So what Is VOIP, And How Can It Interfere With My Alarm System’s Monitoring Capabilities?
VOIP is an acronym for Voice Over Internet Protocol. It simply uses your broadband internet connection to place voice calls digitally over IP based networks. Generally, a consumer will pay a flat monthly fee for local and long distance calls, often for considerably less than a regular analog land line.
Using VOIP And Alarm Systems Can Pose Problems Because:
Using VOIP And Alarm Systems Can Pose Problems Because:
1. An alarm system is designed to send its signals over an analog phone line. To transmit emergency signals properly using VOIP, the signal must be converted to digital, then converted again to analog. It is during this conversion that problems develop. Usually the signals arrive at the central monitoring station with errors, or not at all.
2. Your alarm panel comes equipped with a back up power supply in the event of a power failure. Because traditional phone lines will still work even if your power is out, your monitoring station will still receive the proper signals. With VOIP, your phone service (specifically your IP router and/or modem) will not operate during a power failure, preventing any kind of signal transmission from your alarm to the monitoring station. You can prevent this with the purchase of a UPS (Un-interruptable Power Supply) for your PC.
3. VOIP services tend to be more prone to “mysterious” technical issues and dropped calls. Your alarm panel may be communicating vital data to your monitoring station, and a dropped call will obviously interfere with this. Or, your alarm’s signal may go through without a problem on one attempt, but will fail on another for no apparent reason.
4. Similar to a land line, your VOIP line (specifically your cable connection) can be cut or disabled by a potential intruder, severing your link to the monitoring station.
Here is a more detailed and technical guide to VOIP and alarm systems.
2. Your alarm panel comes equipped with a back up power supply in the event of a power failure. Because traditional phone lines will still work even if your power is out, your monitoring station will still receive the proper signals. With VOIP, your phone service (specifically your IP router and/or modem) will not operate during a power failure, preventing any kind of signal transmission from your alarm to the monitoring station. You can prevent this with the purchase of a UPS (Un-interruptable Power Supply) for your PC.
3. VOIP services tend to be more prone to “mysterious” technical issues and dropped calls. Your alarm panel may be communicating vital data to your monitoring station, and a dropped call will obviously interfere with this. Or, your alarm’s signal may go through without a problem on one attempt, but will fail on another for no apparent reason.
4. Similar to a land line, your VOIP line (specifically your cable connection) can be cut or disabled by a potential intruder, severing your link to the monitoring station.
Here is a more detailed and technical guide to VOIP and alarm systems.
So What Is Being Done To Make VOIP And Alarm Systems More Compatible?
The VOIP and alarm systems manufacturers are still working with alarm companies on a permanent solution to these transmission problems. For now, you can use cellular or radio monitoring as the primary method of transmitting your alarm signals (at additional cost, of course). These methods were originally designed as a back up to your regular phone line in the event it is disabled, and may not be available in all areas (especially radio monitoring).
The VOIP and alarm systems manufacturers are still working with alarm companies on a permanent solution to these transmission problems. For now, you can use cellular or radio monitoring as the primary method of transmitting your alarm signals (at additional cost, of course). These methods were originally designed as a back up to your regular phone line in the event it is disabled, and may not be available in all areas (especially radio monitoring).
Surely There Are Alarm Companies That Offer Reliable Monitoring Over VOIP?
Yes, there are alarm companies that claim to offer a solution to the VOIP issues. Next Alarm uses an ABN (Alarm Broadband Network) adapter to transmit signals directly over your broadband connection. Essentially, it sends the signal alongside, rather than through your VOIP service. The adapter is $119, and the monitoring rates are comparable to regular land-line monitoring.
Alarm Relay claims to have broadband monitoring over VOIP, although their system will only work with certain major VOIP providers such as Comcast. At the time of this writing, their system is not compatible with Skype. This could change however, and we recommend that you contact them for confirmation. Alarm Relay is generally aimed at the "do it yourself" crowd who plan to install their own alarm, or already have one installed.
Alarm.Com also claims to have a VOIP compatible system, but it is really a signal transmitted through their own wireless network. So it is VOIP compatible in that it doesn’t need VOIP service (or even a land-line, for that matter) to transmit your alarm’s signal.
Yes, there are alarm companies that claim to offer a solution to the VOIP issues. Next Alarm uses an ABN (Alarm Broadband Network) adapter to transmit signals directly over your broadband connection. Essentially, it sends the signal alongside, rather than through your VOIP service. The adapter is $119, and the monitoring rates are comparable to regular land-line monitoring.
Alarm Relay claims to have broadband monitoring over VOIP, although their system will only work with certain major VOIP providers such as Comcast. At the time of this writing, their system is not compatible with Skype. This could change however, and we recommend that you contact them for confirmation. Alarm Relay is generally aimed at the "do it yourself" crowd who plan to install their own alarm, or already have one installed.
Alarm.Com also claims to have a VOIP compatible system, but it is really a signal transmitted through their own wireless network. So it is VOIP compatible in that it doesn’t need VOIP service (or even a land-line, for that matter) to transmit your alarm’s signal.
We also received a message from Ucontrol who offer a similar service to Next Alarm:
“We solve the VoIP issue in a couple of ways:
1) We transmit the alarm system's data to our monitoring station via broadband (Ethernet or Wi-Fi). Therefore, we travel alongside VoIP and don't depend on it for a communication path.
2) If broadband is unavailable, our equipment (the uControl Link), detects this inside of the home and attempts to communicate via our
Digital Cellular path. Again, we don't depend on VoIP as a back-up in this scenario either.
3) Finally, if the broadband and cellular paths are unavailable, we can transmit alarms over a home phone connection that is VoIP. This is done by using a protocol that we designed specifically to transmit over VoIP. We usually won't find this channel up if broadband is already down; however, this path is useful if the consumer's Wi-Fi is out, but their broadband is still operational.
We also provide 24/7connectivity monitoring to our customers. Our customers can monitor the status of all three channels from their home (broadband, cellular and phone line) from our web and cell phone portals. They can also set up outage alerts via email and SMS to notify them when they lose their broadband connection, the power goes out in their home, their phone line is cut, etc.
Last but not least, we provide a virtual connection to the users alarm system via our web portal. The user can arm/disarm their system remotely, check on the status of their system, and set-up real-time email and SMS alerts concerning events in their home such as alarms or zone faults (i.e. - receiving an SMS alert when your daughter arrives home from school).
Our service works with existing, installed security systems. You can see the list of compatible systems here -
http://ucontrol.com/compatible.html. We ship the uControl Link to the customers home, they install it onto their existing alarm system (takes about 20 minutes - here's a video - http://ucontrol.com/install_demo.html) and then they are up and running.
Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any additional questions.”
“We solve the VoIP issue in a couple of ways:
1) We transmit the alarm system's data to our monitoring station via broadband (Ethernet or Wi-Fi). Therefore, we travel alongside VoIP and don't depend on it for a communication path.
2) If broadband is unavailable, our equipment (the uControl Link), detects this inside of the home and attempts to communicate via our
Digital Cellular path. Again, we don't depend on VoIP as a back-up in this scenario either.
3) Finally, if the broadband and cellular paths are unavailable, we can transmit alarms over a home phone connection that is VoIP. This is done by using a protocol that we designed specifically to transmit over VoIP. We usually won't find this channel up if broadband is already down; however, this path is useful if the consumer's Wi-Fi is out, but their broadband is still operational.
We also provide 24/7connectivity monitoring to our customers. Our customers can monitor the status of all three channels from their home (broadband, cellular and phone line) from our web and cell phone portals. They can also set up outage alerts via email and SMS to notify them when they lose their broadband connection, the power goes out in their home, their phone line is cut, etc.
Last but not least, we provide a virtual connection to the users alarm system via our web portal. The user can arm/disarm their system remotely, check on the status of their system, and set-up real-time email and SMS alerts concerning events in their home such as alarms or zone faults (i.e. - receiving an SMS alert when your daughter arrives home from school).
Our service works with existing, installed security systems. You can see the list of compatible systems here -
http://ucontrol.com/compatible.html. We ship the uControl Link to the customers home, they install it onto their existing alarm system (takes about 20 minutes - here's a video - http://ucontrol.com/install_demo.html) and then they are up and running.
Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any additional questions.”
We have sent messages to many of the larger alarm companies (i.e. ADT, Brinks, etc) to hear their views on VOIP and alarm systems, and steps they are taking to solve these compatibility issues. After two weeks, we have not heard back from them, but we will surely update this article when we do.
"Next Alarm uses an ABN (Alarm Broadband Network) adapter to transmit signals directly over your broadband connection".
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