Monitored Alarm

pm.

Looking to get a..22 rifle but that will mean 5 guns in the house

I will have to upgrade the safe to a safe with more capacity and have a good alarm system in the house that I can monitor from my phone. Is this the definition of a monitored alarm?

freddieot

As with a lot of things, your local FO \ Super might accept what you are talking about depending on your overall security situation but in general, as I understand it, a monitored alarm means professionally monitored by a central station on a 24/7 basis.

German pointer

pm. wrote:

I will have to upgrade the safe to a safe with more capacity and have a good alarm system in the house that I can monitor from my phone. Is this the definition of a monitored alarm?

My superintendent requested a copy of my invoice from the alarm company to see the monthly payments. But others may accept what you already have

gunny123

Who is best for monitoring alarms ? I know eir do it, but if its anything like their broadband they can stuff it.

BattleCorp

There is a company called Smart Monitoring. Phonewatch also do it.

Cass

Have my Alarm and monitoring with PUMA and they do it [the monitoring] for €20 per month IIRC. Far cheaper than most (especially Phonewatch) and just as good. How i know is the alarm went off twice over the years (accidental) and both times i had a call within seconds.

As for your own security. The standards are minimum and the alarm for more than three or less than 6 unrestricted firearms usually refers to an alarm on the safes or the room with the safes, sometimes both. As a minimum you may be required to get a full house house alarm, and even monitoring but you are a "level" away from that yet, going by the minimum standards.

Luckysasha

Can’t understand why people pay a company to monitor their alarms for them. Just stick a gsm dialler on the alarm and monitor it yourself. I get a text as soon as the alarm goes off telling me which zone it activated on. I can unset the alarm and reset it with a text message and based on the information I get fro the alarm I decide to ring the guards or just a neighbour to throw their eye over the place.

Cass

Luckysasha wrote: »

Can’t understand why people pay a company to monitor their alarms for them.

Because it's required by law for level 4 security.

SI 307/2009 wrote:

Six or more firearms, of any type, kept in the same place.

In addition to the standards specified at reference number 3, the place in which the firearms are stored shall have an intruder alarm system, installed and maintained by installers licensed by the Private Security Authority, which complies with I.S. EN 50131 or an equivalent standard approved by the Commissioner of the Garda Síochána.The alarm shall be connected to a monitoring service, operated by a person licensed by the Private Security Authority, and supported with GSM Mobile telephone service back up signalling facilities.

garrettod

pm. wrote: »

Looking to get a..22 rifle but that will mean 5 guns in the house

I will have to upgrade the safe to a safe with more capacity and have a good alarm system in the house that I can monitor from my phone. Is this the definition of a monitored alarm?

It may be easier and cheaper to just get a second smaller safe. No trying to sell your existing safe privately, or haggle to get a half reasonable trade in on your existing safe.

Once it meets the required standards, I don't think there's an issue with whether you have one safe or two (in fact, some might argue that two safes are the better bet, given there's two sets of locks to get through, in order to access the combined contents).

Luckysasha wrote: »

Can’t understand why people pay a company to monitor their alarms for them. Just stick a gsm dialler on the alarm and monitor it yourself. ....

In addition to the point that Cass has made, which was a slam dunk in its own right, you are also putting your trust in a mobile network and depending on location, weather etc. that may or may not prove reliable.

Cass wrote: »

Have my Alarm and monitoring with PUMA and they do it [the monitoring] for €20 per month IIRC. Far cheaper than most (especially Phonewatch) and just as good. ....

Any idea if they are nationwide Cass, I can't see mention either way on their website ?

Also, do they monitor via a mobile or landline, if you don't mind me asking ?

It's certainly a competitive price, compared with what Phonewatch charge.

Many Thanks.


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Cass

garrettod wrote: »

Any idea if they are nationwide Cass, I can't see mention either way on their website ?

Genuinely don't know. They are midlands based and as i'm only 20 minutes from their offices i never think to ask. I do know they have done stuff in Tipp and slightly further afield so no reason why they couldn't.

Also, do they monitor via a mobile or landline, if you don't mind me asking ?

I've no landline and never had, so they have my mobile and a family member i nominated. If you mean for the alarm, either will work and mine is wireless/GSM.

It's certainly a competitive price, compared with what Phonewatch charge.

I was with phonewatch for a couple of years but the price started off high and kept on increasing. I had the PUMA alarm at the time and only used phonewatch for monitoring but other than the price increase they changed their terms to only include their own alarms. No third party installations.

When i mentioned it to Brian, owner of PUMA, he said he done monitoring. I never knew and to my embarrassment i never checked. Switched to them and never looked back.

Luckysasha

In addition to the point that Cass has made, which was a slam dunk in its own right, you are also putting your trust in a mobile network and depending on location, weather etc. that may or may not prove reliable.


What do you think monitoring companies use ? They use gsm to communicate with their control room. Some of the companies will hard wire to a phone line but there will always be a gsm unit taking priority. The phone line is a back up. I have been involved with a leading cctv company in Carlow installing their units to guard against copper theft and for all the state of the art technology they have, still are dependent on a gsm signal for comms. I have been on numerous remote sites where a quad sim gsm modem was installed with 4 different providers SIM cards to bounce between what signal was available at the time of activation. Your basically paying a monitoring company to receive a text from your alarm and ring you, that’s it. By the time everyone has rung each other the thieves will have been and gone. Where as I get a text from my alarm, I determine if it’s genuine based on the data I receive, I ring a neighbor and if needed I phone the local station and tell them my alarm is going off there is someone either trying to access my house or already are in the house and I have X amount of guns on the premises.

2011

Alarms can communicate over GSM, phone lines, broadband (which is not always on phone lines) and via other means including radio link. Every type of communication link is defeatable with the know how. Unfortunately it is not as difficult as we would like it to be. Normally the main vulnerabilities are due to poor installation techniques, so select your alarm installer carefully.

The way to reduce this risk is:
1) Install multiple communication paths.
2) Ensure that the alarm “polls”
3) Have short poll intervals.

Polling informs the end user / monitoring station that comma has been lost.

How far you want to take this should depend on your risk profile and budget.

Edit: For the record I am not an alarm installer and I don’t sell any related equipment.