UTV BB & Phonewatch

mobpd

Hi
I have read plenty of details here about needing to adapt / filter my Phonewatch box to work with BB. The helpful guide in the Sticky to doing it yourself is still too scary for me
I just rang Phonewatch who said that they would send out an engineer to do this within a week for 75 euro - includes parts and labour time - seems cheaper than previous posters here have suggested.
Anyway they said I should do the self install UTC BB first then arrange the Phonewatch to be adpated. During the intervening period they couldnt guarantee that my alarm would be monitored correctly.

shakenbake

75 euro! Jasus thats a bit extreme.

You can do it yourself very easily. AFAICR all you need is to get an RJ45 microfilter (the same connecter as a common network cable) as opposed to the ones that fit into your phone, which are RJ11. Ask UTV to send you one out, or else ask eircom ... as they send me out the special filter.

Once that's connect to your alarm all you have to do is set it off and if you get a call from eircom you know its working

brettmirl

Hold up there a second.

I have Eircom PhoneWatch and UTV ClickSilver BB. I never had to do anything special to make the BB work. No special filter. No engineer charing €75.

Both work fine.

The Security ma

and when is the last time your alarm activated, Mick??

I presume you've done a comms test with phonewatch, to make sure their receiving the signals??

dub45

I inquired in the UTV support group for a friend of mine who is moving into an apartment with phonewatch and was interested in getting clicksilver. UTV said that its far too problematic and they wont take on a customer who has phonewatch

Redshift

dub45 wrote:

I inquired in the UTV support group for a friend of mine who is moving into an apartment with phonewatch and was interested in getting clicksilver. UTV said that its far too problematic and they wont take on a customer who has phonewatch

Do they specifically reject Phonewatch customers? I have said many times there is no difference between phonewatch and other monitored alarms with respect to causing problems with DSL connections. And many people with either find that DSL works just fine in any case. The DSL signal shouldn't cause any problems with your alarm either becuse the alarm signals are transmitted as DTMF signals on the normal voice band.

LFCFan

We have a monitored alarm and when signing up the only question UTV ask is if you have Phonewatch. I figured there must have been something specific to Phonewatch that was a problem. Otherwise I would have expected to see the question 'Do you have a monitored Alarm System'. Anyway, we have Clicksilver since October and DSL work fine. I am however wondering if the Alarm is being correctly monitored now. We were having an issue with a test signal being sent every day since we had the alarm installed and this was registering as a phonecall to the same number every night. Since we've had DSL, that number is no longer being called. I am thinking that I'll ask the alarm company to sort it out or I'll just cancel the monitoring contract, especially if they want to charge something rediculous like €75 to filter the signal.

RicardoSmith

I know someone who just got eircom BB and they have phonewatch aswell.

How do you do a comms test with phonewatch?

brettmirl

The Security ma wrote:

and when is the last time your alarm activated, Mick??

I presume you've done a comms test with phonewatch, to make sure their receiving the signals??

it went off about a month ago and the people on my phone list got contacted!

I dont have the wire-free alarm from phonewatch as my house came pre-wired for an alarm. would that make a difference maybe?

The Security ma

Now theres a thing!!!
Here's the explanation to everyones questions - (Listen up, UTV & Smart telecom...)

Phonewatch have TWO products; WIRED and WIREFREE.

The WIRED system uses a standard digi (modem), which is the same as in any other monitored alarm system.
These modems use a transmission format called 'FAST FORMAT' - there is no problem whatsoever with this being used alongside broadband, UNLESS YOU ARE USING BROADBAND WHEN THE ALARM ACTIVATES - then there's a problem (I've proved this with my own system). Although there is a wider bandwidth present on the line, its not as high as when its in use, therefore doesn't cause a problem.
It would be highly unusual for your alarm to be even SET, never mind activating, whilst your sitting at the PC surfing! - however a DSL filter will rectify this if you feel you might be robbed while online - otherwise you don't need to do anything.

The WIREFREE system is a different kettle of fish.
It uses a 'CONTACT I.D' format. The high frequencies and quantity of these tones, combined with the high frequency tones present from DSL, make communication virtually impossible. - therefore the wirefree system MUST be filtered at all times .

You COULD be lucky the odd time, but I wouldn't depend on a signal getting through from an 'unfiltered' wirefree system.

Then, you have the people (like me) who don't like Phonewatch whatsoever - Smart telecom, UTV, etc. - they just don't want the bother of having anything to do with it, so they just say 'NO'.
Can't say I blame them. Phonewatch have a habit of changing their equipment more often than I've had hot dinners.
(Leaving the customer with an out-dated sytem of course...)

bigpaddy2004

I totally agree with the security ma, I regularly install alarm systems, and have them monitored by top Security sytsems in Dublin. There is never a problem with the digi dialling out to report an alarm or fault. The likes of eircom are just trying to make a quick buck.

The Security ma

Thanks Big Paddy -

And they're probably all in it together - Phonewatch charge you €110 for the call-out, €40 for the filter and Smart/UTV probably get a 20% commission out of it!