cs handshaking

Not sure exactly what you're asking.

If your alarm is on the same line as the cable service and your alarm system reports to a central station if the alarm goes off (and the alarm system is PROPERLY wired to the phone line for line seizure) it will disconnect anything else on the line so it can send out without any problem.

That being said on my house I have cable TV, my alarm's primary dialer, and my broadband internet connection all on the same line without any problems.

Many of the tcp-ip alarm monitoring systems check the control panel or communicator as often as every 6 seconds. We operate a two way long range wireless system that will poll the communicator every 6 seconds.

Ron Wies Monitoring America Alarm Co-op

Thanks for the info. I read where on a POTS the cs checks in once a day if that often

I think you mean the radio system polls every 6 minutes, don't you? That's the UL spec. Six second polling would limit you to just a small number of radios, since the radio data transmission speed isn't all that quick. If I'm wrong, what radio system are you referring to, and how many two-way radios can you have on the same frequency and maintain a six second polling rate?

- badenov

It's outgoing...your cs doesn't call into your panel..your panel calls out to the cs...frequency depends on what your alarm company sets it for. I test all my panels every 24 hrs..some big companies obviiously can't do that (can you imagine 1.7 million test signals coming in daily?).

Bottom line is if your alarm can dial out ok your cable polling is not going to affect the alarm.

Crash, if the cp is not working how does the cs know there is a problem?

The CS looks for the test signal at specified time and time interval - with a pots line we treat it as a trouble not an alarm though.

Crash, is this true for ul sites, if the cp not responing does not generate an alarm at the cs then what pervents crooks from just knocking out the cp and any backup alarm transmission signals?

Radio backup does. If the system is properly installed there's no way the bad guy can get to the radio fast enough to stop the signal.