Alarmforce backup

[R.H.Campbell]

Alarmforce in Toronto claim that they have a way of signalling the station
if the phone line is cut. Knowing this company, and the mickey mouse crap
they install, I very much doubt it; however, can anyone shed some light on
this claim of theirs. Surely they can't keep making this claim unless there
is some truth to it...

Reg Siemens or Bob Skinner...anybody.....any ideas...

R.H.Campbell
Home Security Metal Products
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
www.homemetal.com

 

[joe]

Alarmforce in Toronto claim that they have a way of signalling the station
if the phone line is cut. Knowing this company, and the mickey mouse crap
they install, I very much doubt it; however, can anyone shed some light on
this claim of theirs. Surely they can't keep making this claim unless there
is some truth to it...

Reg Siemens or Bob Skinner...anybody.....any ideas...

R.H.Campbell
Home Security Metal Products
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
www.homemetal.com

cell back up, IP, radio, buddy system next door..........

 

[R.H.Campbell]

I'm only guessing but I suspect cell backup would be too much for them as
well as any form of IP backup. Buddy next door I can believe...)

But I am trying to find someone who actually knows how they do it. I have
been told that when pressed, they admit what ever they are doing is really
not an effective backup, but it sounds good for marketing purposes. But this
was hearsay; I need to find out actually what they are doing....

RHC

 

[Bob Worthy]

I'm only guessing but I suspect cell backup would be too much for them as
well as any form of IP backup. Buddy next door I can believe...)

But I am trying to find someone who actually knows how they do it. I have
been told that when pressed, they admit what ever they are doing is really
not an effective backup, but it sounds good for marketing purposes. But this
was hearsay; I need to find out actually what they are doing....

Anyone would just be guessing not knowing or seeing what they have. I doubt
that this type of technology would stay the best kept secret in the
industry. Do you know what panel they are using? Is it totally proprietary?
After admitting it is not an effective backup, my guess would be that it is
simply some scam sales tactic and at best be a line monitor unless they have
some majic fairy dust in their pocket. Set up an appointment and have a
sales rep come to your home. Tell them to bring equipment (panel-keypad)
for size and cosmetic requirements. Get a good look at it then.

 

[coord]

Wireless?????

http://www.alarmforce.com/alarmplus.html

 

[Mark Leuck]

http://www.alarmforce.com/alarmplus.html

if I had to guess I'd say cellular backup

 

[R.H.Campbell]

The couple I've seen are the Ademco Lynx "squawk in a box" arrangement with
no line exclusion, but plugged into a phone jack. Those installs definately
didn't have wireless backup, although their website would seem to imply
that.

RHC

 

[Robert Skinner]

Analog cell back up. The advanced proprietary equipment is not ULC. There
is no supervison on any wireless devices. For a real laugh, see how much
extra they charge to install and extra motion or door contact.

When they get the "line cut" they call the premis to see if the system was
accidently unplugged before dispatching their "private security guard
service". They don't dispatch the police unless the customer agrees to pay
any and all false alarm fees which can vary from $150.00 in Durham to $87.00
in Toronto.

 

[Frank Olson]

Alarmforce in Toronto claim that they have a way of signalling the station
if the phone line is cut. Knowing this company, and the mickey mouse crap
they install, I very much doubt it; however, can anyone shed some light on
this claim of theirs. Surely they can't keep making this claim unless
there is some truth to it...

Reg Siemens or Bob Skinner...anybody.....any ideas...

R.H.Campbell
Home Security Metal Products
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
www.homemetal.com

It's cellular back-up, Bob. They made a big deal of it when the released it
in the Vancouver market. "Unfortunately" Alarm Voice won't work with the
back-up (the CS can't talk to the customer if their phone line fails)...
)

 

[joe]

The couple I've seen are the Ademco Lynx "squawk in a box" arrangement with
no line exclusion, but plugged into a phone jack. Those installs definately
didn't have wireless backup, although their website would seem to imply
that.

RHC

how do they figure 2 way comm is exclusive to them!?

 

[R.H.Campbell]

Thanks Robert (and Frank) ! I met a guy in a locksmith shop awhile ago up in
the small town where my inlaws live. Being a locksmith myself, we compared
notes on various things. Somehow the subject of Alarmforce came up, and he
told me that he had once been one of their senior technicians. He told me
(without a word of a lie) that he used to spend no more than 20 minutes on
each installation. And he sometimes put in a couple of dozen installations a
day......

And I thought ADT was bad news ! They look like professionals compared to
these guys.....

RHC

 

[Frank Olson]

Alarmforce in Toronto claim that they have a way of signalling the station
if the phone line is cut. Knowing this company, and the mickey mouse crap
they install, I very much doubt it; however, can anyone shed some light on
this claim of theirs. Surely they can't keep making this claim unless
there is some truth to it...

Reg Siemens or Bob Skinner...anybody.....any ideas...

R.H.Campbell
Home Security Metal Products
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
www.homemetal.com

The correct spelling of the company is "Alarmfarce", by the way.

 

[R.H.Campbell]

Oh yeah ! BTW, they are the same company that had a radio ad running in the
Toronto area that virtually broadcast to the burglars to cut the phone lines
to disable a conventional alarm. Granted, it doesn't take a rocket scientist
to figure that out, but that is still two levels of intelligence beyond most
young burglars. And all this to supposedly gain some advantage in the market
over conventional alarmcos so they can sell their mickey mouse shit......

The sad part is it works, which doesn't say much for the average alarm
system buyer....

RHC

 

[petem]

The correct spelling of the company is "Alarmfarce", by the way.

Now thats a good one

 

[julian]

The couple I've seen are the Ademco Lynx "squawk in a box" arrangement with
no line exclusion, but plugged into a phone jack. Those installs definately
didn't have wireless backup, although their website would seem to imply
that.

RHC

I have to deal with those Alarmforce noodleheads and their crap all
the time.

The wireless backup is a simple 'cloned' analogue cellphone. ALL their
wireless backup units have the same incoming number, but since no
calls are ever placed TO the device, there is no problem. The cell
units only call the CS.

AFAIK, the cell unit is only active if the main line goes down AND the
'alarm' is tripped. I don't believe Alarmforce even knows the main
line is down.

If the local Alarmforce installer installs equipment other than the
standard crap equipment, it may or may not have the wireless backup.

 

[julian]

how do they figure 2 way comm is exclusive to them!?

You have to listen to the ad carefully. It says...
"Alarmforce is Canada's largest installer of 2 way voice alarms"

Yeah, sure biggest. That's only because Alarmforce is the ONLY company
hanging its hat on 2 way voice exclusively.

But even the AF installers know what crap it is and go on to install
more professional equipment, but not necessarily professionally
installed.

Julian

 

[R.H.Campbell]

Thanks ! I appreciate the information. This is very interesting stuff, and
from what I have seen, is probably the best part of their service offering.
It's certainly nothing that any legitimate dealer couldn't easily duplicate.

I read a post on another newsgroup from an Alarmforce customer who seemed to
think her service was the best thing going. But it was also evident that she
knew very little about alarms in general, or what the industry has to offer.

I guess ignorance is bliss!!

RHC

 

[Okitoki]

I would also like to give information on some of the applications that
we implementing presently in Europe and the Middle East.

Besides using technologies such as Cellular, RF, IP... we have many
countries that have installed a very small yet very effective software
on their main telephone company switchboards regionally. All modern
switchboards have software to detect whether the phone line is open,
short or parallel. So we just developed our own software in functioning
with their major software that tracks all informed phone lines (the
ones connected to alarm systems) and sends them to our main server via
internet. We then share this information with monitoring companies at
certain rates. As soon as a problem occurs with the phone line, the
monitoring company receives information on the event.

Our monitoring automation (A-traq for those that don't know yet:
www.a-traq.com ) picks these signals up and informs the operators in
less than 3 seconds from the event occuring. We even prepared a
presentation for the telephone companies that they can charge extra for
such speciality phone lines. So actually it is a win-win-win deal. The
phone company gets extra payment for phone lines connected to the alarm
system. The monitoring company is able to track almost real time phone
line activity, and the customer knows that their phone line is traced
so they too have peace at mind.

There is no initial cost and just extra dues. But in the long run it
has much more advantages.

I know that this might be out of the main topic but I just wanted to
give you information on international developments on monitoring.

Take care.

 

[Okitoki]

This would seem like an easy way for phone companies to earn extra bucks

with little effort but there must be some drawbacks I don't know about cause
none seem to be interested.

I would fully recommend that if you do want to implement a service such
as this into your market, do not ask for the phone companies to do it.
As you mentioned... they won't! Instead I recommend that prepare a
super presentation to insurance companies and say that this is a method
to reduce risk. If they do come to the idea that this service is
needed, they themselves will do the rest of the work. This may seem
like a small business but in the end you may earn big bucks by setting
up the main database server for receiving all the info and then selling
dedicated information to the monitoring stations.

Within the last couple of years we have earned heaps as we are the only
supplier of such software for phone companies in many countries.

Give it a thought and good luck!