Linksys IP Alarm Monitoring Solution
The Linksys IP Alarm Monitoring Solution is the most popular Plug & Play IP upgrade on the market today. Simply connect any "off the shelf" Linksys VoIP adapter into your home Router or Gateway and use one of the built-in telephone jacks to connect your alarm panel. Check out the Installation & Provisioning Guide to find out what's involved on a technical level.
Once our custom alarm monitoring firmware has been downloaded into the device, you can use it for full dispatch monitoring service through our partner Nationwide Digital, or you can use it for self monitoring through our Virtual Monitoring platform.
Locked in to your Monitoring Provider?
No problem. When our special IPtoPOTS firmware is downloaded into a Linksys device, it enables the device to send alarm signals to your existing alarm company over your Internet connection. Calls go to our telco partners over IP and they transfer the call onto the landline phone network where it is connected to the alarm receiver at the alarm monitoring company. In summary, fifty percent of the call goes over the Internet and 50% goes over a landline. The IPtoPOTS service does not use your VoIP network at all.
No alarm panel programming required. In fact, your alarm company will have no idea that you have switched to VoIP!
Why you should not use a regular VoIP service for monitoring your alarm.
Some blame the problems associated with VoIP on alarm panels not meeting the specifications on signalling. For example, the Contact ID specification states that DTMF tones should be 50 milliseconds apart with a tolerance of plus or minus 10 milliseconds.
Our experience proves that even a panel that sends out DTMF tones at exactly 50ms intervals has no control over how long that tone will take to reach the receiver at the far end. The first tone may reach in 70ms, the second may take 90ms and the third may never arrive. The majority of VoIP services use the SIP protocol which is connectionless. There is no guarantee that an IP packet will reach its destination, even though it usually does. Not a problem for voice calls, but for alarm signaling its a different matter
If you have an alarm panel signaling over a VoIP service and you can get a signal through on Christmas Day, then you should be good for the rest of the year. The latency of Internet traffic on Xmas Day is usually sufficient to render many lower quality VoIP services close to useless.
The use of open/close and daily or hourly tests would highlight any potential problem systems a little quicker, but as there is usually an additional charge associated with these types of signals, they dont get used as often as they should.
Of course, none of this overcomes the problem that many VoIP providers do not have any form of redundancy and the fact that when their server goes down, the service goes down with it. A voice customer can just use their cell phone to make a call so its not a big deal. For the alarm panel, its game over.
The Linksys IP Alarm Monitoring solution solves all of the problems caused by VoIP and provides you with safe, reliable alarm transmission.
Low Cost, High Quality VoIP Compatible Hardware
Well known security industry manufacturers might seem large enough to provide cost effective alarm monitoring hardware, however, they pale in comparison to companies like Cisco who are able to produce millions of devices each year. This huge volume allows Linksys, who are part of Cisco, to bring the highest quality products to market at the lowest possible cost. One such product is a Voice over IP adapter that is normally used for Internet phone service. YourAlarm.com have adapted this product for Alarm Monitoring service and you are able to take advantage of superior quality hardware at a fraction of the cost of conventional security industry hardware in order to communicate with the Virtual Monitoring Platform over broadband. The Linksys PAP2T is available at most consumer electronic retailers for under US$50 and the SPA3102 only costs around US$20 more and allows you to plug in and use your existing cellular backup equipment in the bargain.
PSTN Sunset Around two million alarm systems were affected by the AMPS sunset and even with 10 years notice, the security industry blew the deadline. Compare that to 25-28 million (in the US/Canada) that will be affected by the POTS sunset and you start to get an idea of the scale of the problem the security industry faces today. Throw into the mix that one of the "easy ways out" (2G GSM) has an uncertain future and it complicates things even further. Consumers totally get new technology, as do a large enough percentage of Central Stations to handle the situation if they move quickly. The huge stumbling block will be Alarm Dealers. They REALLY do not get it. If the Alarm Monitoring industry is lucky, accounts will simply be transferred from lethargic dealers to tech savvy dealers and most will likely gain as many accounts from other Centrals as they lose. As all accounts would be staying "within the industry", there should not be too much of a problem. The risk is that the small number of dealers that do get technology and are able to upgrade systems to IP may not have the capacity to handle the demand. If large tech companies from outside the industry decide to cash in on the situation, then alarm monitoring companies and their dealers could lose out big time. Alarm Dealers need to convert around 400,000 systems a month for the next 6 years to beat the POTS sunset. At 5 systems a day, 50 weeks a year for 6 years, a single alarm tech can upgrade 1500 customers to IP/GSM before the POTS sunset. |
