Home Security Alarm answering telephone

[Kzinti]

Due to a series of events that began with a new phone system for
Valentine's Day, my husband and I have just discovered that our
security provider has the ability to dial in to our security system.
It took us a while to figure out what was answering the phone every
second call. When we found that something was answering when we
disconnected the line from our structured wiring junction box, but
nothing was answering when we disconnected at the demarc, we decided
it had to be the alarm system, and, after testing, we found that this
was the case.

A couple of questions regarding this. First, is this a common
practice in the industry? Second, the alarm is answering every second
call - how do I reset/change this so that every other call does not go
to the alarm?

Thanks for any assistance.

 

[RH.Campbell]

Yes, I occasionally have the same complaint from some of my customers. Most
progressive dealers will set up your alarm panel so that they can dial in to
make changes remotely for you, to check on the actual alarm events that have
happened, and depending upon the model of panel, perhaps even to check
backup battery voltage. This is not something that you should be unduly
concerned about, since only your dealer can get in with certain pass numbers
in your panel which MUST match those in his computer file before the panel
will allow him in.

Most dealers set "answering machine override" on, so that a certain sequence
of rings will cause the panel to pick up the phone (ie: two rings in, hang
up, ring back and the panel will answer after the first or second ring).
However, it is possible that normal traffic to the telephone can mimic this
sequence, causing the panel to answer the phone when it shouldn't. The
solution is to have your dealer reset this sequence so the panel will only
answer the telephone if it rings continually for (say) eight rings. The
downside to this is that if you have an answering machine that picks up
after three rings, the dealer will be unable to access your panel without a
certain amount of difficulty. However, most panels will allow the end user
to force the panel to answer the phone right from the keypad when the dealer
calls in, so this may not be as inconvenient as it might first seem....(also
good for getting rid of telemarketers....)) Resetting the sequence will
also help ensure your dealer goes in only when you know about it.....

Hope that helps

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

 

[RH.Campbell]

Oops, forgot to answer your original question ! Call your dealer and he can
dial in the changes necessary to make your panel answer after so many rings
only. You can't do this without access to dealer level programming..

RHC

 

[Jakes452]

My God ! If your familys saftey is a concern...DO NOT USE THIS GROUP FOR
ADVISE OR GIVE OUT ANY INFORMATION. If you deal with someone from this
newsgroup you better keep one eye
open while your sleep at night! this is the worse place to look for info
for your home security. This group is a hive of activity to get your
confidence then rip your off. Get "help" from here and next think your
house is
cleaned out and inexplicably your alarm didnt work......or worse.....
Be very very careful using this group.
Be sure to closely investigate (primarily if you
buy online) any of the online alarm seller, especially if they claim a ASA
certification, a totally false and misleading certification (see that
later). You wouldn't want to buy from someone whose sideline is
understanding your alarm system for the purpose of exploiting it later
byknowing your codes or maintenance access numbers. Be wary of those who do
not have a brick and mortar store.

When I was shopping and using this newsgroup some online dealers advertised
a ASA certification with a picture of a ASA emblem shown on their website.
It gives a good first impression but when you look into it you find out that
it was nothing more then some....guy.... creating a website to supposedly
post complaints, with no entries of complaints or follow-through. It was
analogous to someone flashing a police badge that turns out to be fake. The
ASA moniker is a badge without any accreditation and surely this is
misleading and a scam.

Some of the free advice you get is not because of someone's unselfish need
to make the world a better place to live. Most are giving you advice on the
hope of getting a sale or...."other" information. Listen but don't act on
the advice until you can confirm or gain some trust in the source by
researching them.

Sometimes you can learn a lot about sellers by plugging in email address or
screenname into a Google search of past news postings. You will be
surprised, .....no..MAKE THAT SHOCKED....AND I MEAN SHOCKED!!!!..... at what
you find out about those offering to outfit your alarm. How can our legal
system let these type of people sell home security!!!!!

This is a very unregulated online business, and especially risky for
something as important as YOUR HOME security.

good luck....and go talk to someone reputible.

 

[G. Morgan]

BTW, if you have the dealer level programming access code you can make the
change yourself but you'll need the installation or programming instructions
to do so.

Kzinti, Do NOT take the advice of Bass and attempt to enter
dealer-level programming. Obviously your system is monitored, and it
would be real easy to make a mistake in the program. If a mistake is
made such as inadvertently changing the central-station telephone
number for instance, your alarm signals will not be transmitted.

The best thing to do is call your alarm company and let them provide
an acceptable work-around. There should be no change to do so if all
they have to do is download some minor changes for you.

-Graham

 

[petem]

for once we agree on something...

first if a system is monitored the end user should not get to the installer
programing section..

next the dealer should not charge anything to the end user to modify how the
alarm react to incoming phone call if it disturb them..

 

[Kzinti]

I tried to post a follow-up question night before last, but it hasn't
shown up, so I will try to paraphrase now. First of all, thank you RH
and Robert for the information provided. I have a couple of follow-up
questions. We've tested to determine that the security system does
indeed pick up on the second call within 30 seconds but not outside of
that time frame.

First, the ability to load data to a security panel seems to be a
common practice, but I am concerned that a person with this ability
could also disarm the system and therefore enter the premises
undetected. I completely trust my installer who is also the owner of
his company, but the monitoring is outsourced, so I'm not sure who has
the ability to download information to my system. Who within our
security company and the monitoring service would normally have the
ability to load data to our panel?

In addition, if software allows someone to call into our security
system and make changes, isn't that a security weakness that would
allow a hacker to disable the alarm and enter the premises?

I really appreciate the advice of security professionals.

As to the person that warned against posting on this group, I have
this to say: I am intelligent enough to not post personal information
on any news group and believe that most of the people on these groups
are attempting to educate/assist others, as I have done on other
groups. However, if someone with malicious intentions were to somehow
find out my personal information and try to invade my home, they would
find that my husband and I don't only rely on the security system for
our safety (we are both very proficient with firearms in the
protection of our home and hearth).

 

[Kzinti]

I agree with both of you that I or my husband would not want to make
an installer change to our system ourselves. I am just trying to get
information that will allow me to understand what I might want to ask
our security system provider to change before talking with them.
Thank you for all of your input and please see my follow-up post with
additional questions.

 

[Aegis]

I tried to post a follow-up question night before last, but it hasn't
shown up, so I will try to paraphrase now. First of all, thank you RH
and Robert for the information provided. I have a couple of follow-up
questions. We've tested to determine that the security system does
indeed pick up on the second call within 30 seconds but not outside of
that time frame.

First, the ability to load data to a security panel seems to be a
common practice, but I am concerned that a person with this ability
could also disarm the system and therefore enter the premises
undetected. I completely trust my installer who is also the owner of
his company, but the monitoring is outsourced, so I'm not sure who has
the ability to download information to my system. Who within our
security company and the monitoring service would normally have the
ability to load data to our panel?

The monitoring service will receive the signals. The installing company has
the code to get in and make changes. I doubt he has it set up for the
monitoring co. to be able to make changes since he will be maintaining the
system. Your installer would be the one to talk to about this.

BTW, it's usually configured to pick up on the nth ring, not a certain time.
I.E. Call, ring, hangup (to defeat the answering machine), call, ring (n
times), panel picks up. He can set this to longer (more rings) if you like.

In addition, if software allows someone to call into our security
system and make changes, isn't that a security weakness that would
allow a hacker to disable the alarm and enter the premises?

Hackers know UNIX, Windows exploits, etc., not proprietary alarm panel
communications (typically). The Phreaks specialize in that kind of thing,
but they are more interested in the beeps and tones of the local phone
switch than someones alarm. The point is they would have to be extremely
advanced (if not from the alarm industry) to get into it. For someone IN the
alarm industry, all it would take is the computer (with appropriate
software) and a modem, BUT he'd still have to get through the download
passcode (assuming yours isn't the default or blank). He'd get, usually, 3
guesses before it hung up on him and I think it'd be pretty obvious with all
the phones ringing so many times that someone was trying to get in.

I really appreciate the advice of security professionals.

As to the person that warned against posting on this group, I have
this to say: I am intelligent enough to not post personal information
on any news group and believe that most of the people on these groups
are attempting to educate/assist others, as I have done on other
groups. However, if someone with malicious intentions were to somehow
find out my personal information and try to invade my home, they would
find that my husband and I don't only rely on the security system for
our safety (we are both very proficient with firearms in the
protection of our home and hearth).

Good for you! That Constitution thingie DOES come in handy from time to
time, eh?!

 

[Robert]

A couple of questions regarding this. First, is this a common
practice in the industry? Second, the alarm is answering every second
call - how do I reset/change this so that every other call does not go
to the alarm?

Thanks for any assistance.

First, regarding your second question, panels are commonly set to
answer when they detect a "call - hangup - callback" routine from the
alarm dealer, not just every other call. Occassionally, the panel
will be fooled into answering when two calls comes in one behind the
other. There are codes to prevent unauthorized users from getting
access to the panel programming, so the security of the system is
still intact.

Second, to answer your first question, the dealer uses this
call-hangup-call routine to access the panel for things like adding or
deleting arm/disarm codes for you or make other changes you request
(e.g. changing the amount of enty-exit time) without needing to send
out a technician to program that change. You can have the ability to
download turned off, but the consequences are you have to meet a
service tech whenever you want any program changes done and you
probably would have to pay for a service call for what is often done
free over the phone.

Many dealers program the panel to send a test signal every 24 hours,
usually in the middle of the night when you are not on the phone.
Sometimes the panel will start sending the test signals during the day
(often after a power outage) and the dealer will want to change the
test time before you call complaining the panel cut you off.

Also, many alarm panels have a logger that can record when the system
was armed and whether anything was bypassed. (Just because a panel
can log activity does not mean that the function is active however.)
Some dealers promise to send you a report of this activity every
month. To save you from being cut off the phone every time someone
arms and disarms the system or bypasses something, the dealer programs
the panel not to report arming/dsarming/bypasing but to record the
activity in the logger; the dealer will call the panel and copy the
logged activity. The dealer can then print the report from the logger
and mail it to you.