Monitoring station response time

all the dealer installs i subed went to aurora colorado for adt

The issue will be resolved shortly.

My alarm company contacted the monitoring station for a written report of the incident. Their timing shows roughly 3 1/2 minutes response time before phoning my residence. This is the second time this month in as many alarm calls that response time has been excessive.

The alarm company has agreed to transfer the account to another local monitoring station. I've heard nothing but good reports about the station and feel this is the best approach to restore my confidence in the system.

The owner is out of town for two nights, but has left instructions at the office to have the paperwork ready by Wednesday. At that time he will get in touch to give me the new phone numbers and account number.

Warren wrote:

If an area is hit by a major catastrophe be it flood, hurricane or earthquake it really makes little difference if the CS is local and goes down with the rest of the area or if the CS is located in another State,since if the power and phone lines are down locally then most signals won't be going anywhere anyway, and even if they do the local authorites are not going to be in a position to respond.

Doug L

We have redundancy...not five...just one, but have never had to use it.

And actually no, we don't have snow, or hurricanes, and only abt 4 inches of rain a year. We do have wind, dust, and power outtages and some "theoretical rain" during monsoon season, but we make allowances for that.

We ain't fancy smancey but we are FM and we do a good job, we're NOT some podunk outfit with a reciever in a closet.

Hey, I'm not knockin' youse guys, just wondering how you handle all the traffic...I can't imagine how you handle 2 million test signals coming in everday...your phone bills must be enormous :-)

| >I wonder what ADT does with 8 zillion alarms if their cs goes down? | >

| | ADT has 5 customer monitoring centers in the United States connected | in a fully redundant load balancing network. If any one is shut down | or becomes overloaded, the traffic is rerouted to the others. | | Of course central stations never go down, so you're just fine with the | local guy down the street with a receiver in his closet, right? | | A few examples where ADT had to use their redundant network: | | A blizzard in Colorado piled enough snow on the roof of the Aurora | center that the fire marshal ordered it closed for the safety of the | employees. ADT's customers never knew it. | | The Great Northeast blackout overloaded the Rochester, NY center. | Traffic was balanced to the other centers. | | Last year the Jacksonville center was evacuated because of a | hurricane. All traffic was rerouted. | | Of course your area doesn't have snow, hurricanes, or power outages, | right? | | |

ADT has 5 customer monitoring centers in the United States connected in a fully redundant load balancing network. If any one is shut down or becomes overloaded, the traffic is rerouted to the others.

Of course central stations never go down, so you're just fine with the local guy down the street with a receiver in his closet, right?

A few examples where ADT had to use their redundant network:

A blizzard in Colorado piled enough snow on the roof of the Aurora center that the fire marshal ordered it closed for the safety of the employees. ADT's customers never knew it.

The Great Northeast blackout overloaded the Rochester, NY center. Traffic was balanced to the other centers.

Last year the Jacksonville center was evacuated because of a hurricane. All traffic was rerouted.

Of course your area doesn't have snow, hurricanes, or power outages, right?

I stand corrected

Doug L

That is not always the case, My company is temporarily monitoring a few thousand accounts from several companies in New Orleans that lost their local central station. Also the authority problem that we all saw in the last few weeks in NO only affected a limited area compared to the coverage of those local central stations. As far as the phone situation its more often than not the phones WILL work all too well as I get to witness the massive amount of incoming signals anytime a hurricane hits :)

BTW I heard today that Home Automation Inc in New Orleans had their factory totally destroyed although I haven't verifyed it yet

"theoretical

The phone bills can be pretty big although you should see how well a few SurGard MLR-2000's handle the traffic. I know ADT has a few of them and a standard receiver just can't compare in that regard

We have a MLR2000 too.

| > And actually no, we don't have snow, or hurricanes, and only abt 4 inches | of | > rain a year. We do have wind, dust, and power outtages and some | "theoretical | > rain" during monsoon season, but we make allowances for that. | >

| > We ain't fancy smancey but we are FM and we do a good job, we're NOT some | > podunk outfit with a reciever in a closet. | >

| > Hey, I'm not knockin' youse guys, just wondering how you handle all the | > traffic...I can't imagine how you handle 2 million test signals coming in | > everday...your phone bills must be enormous :-) | | The phone bills can be pretty big although you should see how well a few | SurGard MLR-2000's handle the traffic. I know ADT has a few of them and a | standard receiver just can't compare in that regard | |

nope. we all know smaller is better.

This *isn't* going to become one of those "mine's bigger than your's" kinda threads is it?? :-))

Incredible devices aren't they? Makes every other receiver obsolete. What amazes me is even after 7 years of being on the market nobody else has tried to do the same thing.

It depends, we have 5 MLR-2000's, my bet is Crash has just one.....with only

.....just sitting in the corner not even unpacked from the crate...no I bet they haven't even picked it up from the shipper yet

It's not really the area where the alarm originates that matters. With most of the local alarmco's farming out their monitoring to third party centrals, a remote central station could easily be knocked out while thousands of subscribers are not effected by the disaster until their alarm fails to summon the authorities.

Also, hurricanes normally affect only a small portion of coastline, tornados are normally less than a mile wide, etc. We haven't even mentioned the possibility that someone may intentionally render a central incapable of monitoring signals.

The technology at ADT's monitoring centers is truly amazing. Regardless of your feelings about the company, the infrastructure to support 6 million customers is truly impressive. I've got a CD around here somewhere that has details on the technology. I'll try to dig it out and post details if your interested.

Very!!

I dunno, I don't get involved with CS stuff too much. I know we have one, a couple of 6500's, a ITI, and I think a 485 still too...only god knows why.

| >

| > This *isn't* going to become one of those "mine's bigger than your's" | kinda | > threads is it?? :-)) | | It depends, we have 5 MLR-2000's, my bet is Crash has just one.....with only | 20 line cards.....in fact I bet it's not hooked up either.... | | ....just sitting in the corner not even unpacked from the crate...no I bet | they haven't even picked it up from the shipper yet | | | | |

It is amazing...and expensive.

Most of my gripes are with the dealer program and the quality of their work - 9 outta 10 installs I've taken over have been just nightmares.

I do think you must have an incredible setup to handle all that traffic and I would be interested in seeing more.

Thanks!

R.

| >And actually no, we don't have snow, or hurricanes, and only abt 4 inches of | >rain a year. We do have wind, dust, and power outtages and some "theoretical | >rain" during monsoon season, but we make allowances for that. | >

| >We ain't fancy smancey but we are FM and we do a good job, we're NOT some | >podunk outfit with a reciever in a closet. | >

| >Hey, I'm not knockin' youse guys, just wondering how you handle all the | >traffic...I can't imagine how you handle 2 million test signals coming in | >everday...your phone bills must be enormous :-) | | The technology at ADT's monitoring centers is truly amazing. | Regardless of your feelings about the company, the infrastructure to | support 6 million customers is truly impressive. I've got a CD around | here somewhere that has details on the technology. I'll try to dig it | out and post details if your interested. |