Alarmforce backup

cell back up, IP, radio, buddy system next door..........

I'm only guessing but I suspect cell backup would be too much for them as well as any form of IP backup. Buddy next door I can believe...:))

But I am trying to find someone who actually knows how they do it. I have been told that when pressed, they admit what ever they are doing is really not an effective backup, but it sounds good for marketing purposes. But this was hearsay; I need to find out actually what they are doing....

RHC

if I had to guess I'd say cellular backup

Anyone would just be guessing not knowing or seeing what they have. I doubt that this type of technology would stay the best kept secret in the industry. Do you know what panel they are using? Is it totally proprietary? After admitting it is not an effective backup, my guess would be that it is simply some scam sales tactic and at best be a line monitor unless they have some majic fairy dust in their pocket. Set up an appointment and have a sales rep come to your home. Tell them to bring equipment (panel-keypad) for size and cosmetic requirements. Get a good look at it then.

Wireless?????

the phone line is

doubt it;

keep making this

The couple I've seen are the Ademco Lynx "squawk in a box" arrangement with no line exclusion, but plugged into a phone jack. Those installs definately didn't have wireless backup, although their website would seem to imply that.

RHC

Analog cell back up. The advanced proprietary equipment is not ULC. There is no supervison on any wireless devices. For a real laugh, see how much extra they charge to install and extra motion or door contact.

When they get the "line cut" they call the premis to see if the system was accidently unplugged before dispatching their "private security guard service". They don't dispatch the police unless the customer agrees to pay any and all false alarm fees which can vary from $150.00 in Durham to $87.00 in Toronto.

how do they figure 2 way comm is exclusive to them!?

Thanks Robert (and Frank) ! I met a guy in a locksmith shop awhile ago up in the small town where my inlaws live. Being a locksmith myself, we compared notes on various things. Somehow the subject of Alarmforce came up, and he told me that he had once been one of their senior technicians. He told me (without a word of a lie) that he used to spend no more than 20 minutes on each installation. And he sometimes put in a couple of dozen installations a day......

And I thought ADT was bad news ! They look like professionals compared to these guys.....

RHC

It's cellular back-up, Bob. They made a big deal of it when the released it in the Vancouver market. "Unfortunately" Alarm Voice won't work with the back-up (the CS can't talk to the customer if their phone line fails)... :-))

Oh yeah ! BTW, they are the same company that had a radio ad running in the Toronto area that virtually broadcast to the burglars to cut the phone lines to disable a conventional alarm. Granted, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out, but that is still two levels of intelligence beyond most young burglars. And all this to supposedly gain some advantage in the market over conventional alarmcos so they can sell their mickey mouse shit......

The sad part is it works, which doesn't say much for the average alarm system buyer....

RHC

"Frank Olson" a écrit dans le message de news: MF8Ce.1965868$6l.1448054@pd7tw2no...

Now thats a good one

The correct spelling of the company is "Alarmfarce", by the way.

Thanks ! I appreciate the information. This is very interesting stuff, and from what I have seen, is probably the best part of their service offering. It's certainly nothing that any legitimate dealer couldn't easily duplicate.

I read a post on another newsgroup from an Alarmforce customer who seemed to think her service was the best thing going. But it was also evident that she knew very little about alarms in general, or what the industry has to offer.

I guess ignorance is bliss!!

RHC

I have to deal with those Alarmforce noodleheads and their crap all the time.

The wireless backup is a simple 'cloned' analogue cellphone. ALL their wireless backup units have the same incoming number, but since no calls are ever placed TO the device, there is no problem. The cell units only call the CS.

AFAIK, the cell unit is only active if the main line goes down AND the 'alarm' is tripped. I don't believe Alarmforce even knows the main line is down.

If the local Alarmforce installer installs equipment other than the standard crap equipment, it may or may not have the wireless backup.

You have to listen to the ad carefully. It says... "Alarmforce is Canada's largest installer of 2 way voice alarms"

Yeah, sure biggest. That's only because Alarmforce is the ONLY company hanging its hat on 2 way voice exclusively.

But even the AF installers know what crap it is and go on to install more professional equipment, but not necessarily professionally installed.

Julian

Geez, around here the cellphone carrier caught on pretty quick when I did that because many times two systems would report in at the same time from two different places. I guess they don't monitor that where they are.

Dang, those old bag phones are cheap too and can be converted in a couple minutes.

I would also like to give information on some of the applications that we implementing presently in Europe and the Middle East.

Besides using technologies such as Cellular, RF, IP... we have many countries that have installed a very small yet very effective software on their main telephone company switchboards regionally. All modern switchboards have software to detect whether the phone line is open, short or parallel. So we just developed our own software in functioning with their major software that tracks all informed phone lines (the ones connected to alarm systems) and sends them to our main server via internet. We then share this information with monitoring companies at certain rates. As soon as a problem occurs with the phone line, the monitoring company receives information on the event.

Our monitoring automation (A-traq for those that don't know yet:

) picks these signals up and informs the operators in less than 3 seconds from the event occuring. We even prepared a presentation for the telephone companies that they can charge extra for such speciality phone lines. So actually it is a win-win-win deal. The phone company gets extra payment for phone lines connected to the alarm system. The monitoring company is able to track almost real time phone line activity, and the customer knows that their phone line is traced so they too have peace at mind.

There is no initial cost and just extra dues. But in the long run it has much more advantages.

I know that this might be out of the main topic but I just wanted to give you information on international developments on monitoring.

Take care.

We used to have a line monitoring service available in the US that phone companies could offer and it was offered by various phone companies for a time. The charges ranged from $3.50 per month to $11.25 per month but in my area Southwestern Bell wanted to offer it at $30. per month so it never happenend here. From what I have heard from various guys around the country the service never was very popular and has gone away.

This would seem like an easy way for phone companies to earn extra bucks with little effort but there must be some drawbacks I don't know about cause none seem to be interested.

In the SBC areas they seem to be concentrating all their efforts on unloading that crappy ADSL garbage that simply isn't worth walking across the room to get. Yet their crappy ADSL is now causing me a ton of service calls related to all that hash on the phone lines that you cannot knock out without installing an expensive router.