Make Sure Your Alarm System Works With Voip
I didn't do this with my ADT alarm system and I didn't even know my alarm system wasn't working. I had the system set up with a regular phone line and a cell tower backup, then I dumped my regular land line and ordered voip. Bad move.
The reason it was a bad move was because the alarm system just dialed and dialed, trying to access the phone system, but never actually rotated to my cell phone backup. Don't find out the hard way, make sure your voip works with your alarm system before installing it.
VoIP and Home Alarm Systems
By: Michael Salerno
Imagine this scene, you are home alone at night, and just drifting off when suddenly… you hear something. Glass shatters and you are jolted awake by an unmistakable bump in the night. You rise out of bed and grab the first blunt object you come across. Your pulse races as you descend the stairs to the ground floor. You enter your empty living room to find… you’ve just been burglarized!
This is just the type of scenario people are trying to avoid when they purchase Home Alarm Systems. Companies like ADT, Brinks, Slomin’s and many others usually offer home owners a free alarm system with the purchase of a certain amount of months monitoring. Many of the 25 million US homes with these systems have also installed VoIP phone service recently. While most VoIP users are aware that 911 emergency calls are affected by VoIP, many are unaware that Alarm Systems must also be factored into the equasion.
Since alarm systems are typically connected to the monitoring company via the customer’s telephone line, should you replace that traditional line with VoIP service, the security system must also be rewired. If there is an alarm event, the alarm system’s control panel needs to take control of the home’s telephone line to send a signal to the company’s monitoring center. To initiate this “line seizure” scenario the control panel must be located near the point where voice service enters the house. With traditional phone service, this may be in the basement or at the rear of the property, however, since DSL and/or Cable Modem entry points tend to be in living rooms or home office locations where a computer or TV resides, this re-wiring procedure is necessary. If not, the alarm could be deactivated simply by taking a phone off the hook.
There are also power failure issues involved, whereby battery backup equipment would be needed to keep the VoIP system operating. Also, issues related to network down time and the loss of packets over the public internet must be addressed. Both of these problems can be solved through the use of a private network. VoIP providers that offer a private IP network ensure that their connection is not subject to the cyclical congestion and heavy usage times that the public internet experiences. As a result, Quality of Service (QOS) is not affected as the full amount of bandwidth neccessary is utilized translating to high voice clarity.
NBS is such a provider, offering VoIP services and systems to both commercial and residential customers. On the residential side, they assure their VoIP users that their home alarm system will continue to work. They have technicians on hand who can rewire your telephone connection, and install battery backup and any other equipment necessary. And, in most cases, NBS V.o.I.C.E. signals are carried over their own private backbone network and not the public internet. For more details on this issue please visit the National Burglar and Fire Alarm Association’s web site at www.alarm.org or call your current alarm system provider. To learn more about home or business VoIP services, you can contact NBS toll free at 1-888-474-4968 or visit their web site at www.nbsvoice.com.
NBS
155 Willowbrook Blvd.
Wayne, NJ 07470
Dir. Tel: 973-638-2149
e-mail: MichaelS@nbsvoice.com
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