work with home security system

[zhouzhilong]

Hi there,

does anyone know how to config the ATA to make home security system working with ATA adapter?

Yesterday technician told me the home security system not works with freephoneline, but it works with rogers home phone .

Any solution?

Thanks


ATA:Linksys 3102

[FONGO_steve]

Out of curiosity, what security company are you with?

Usually the security companies have a special filter and/or setup they have to do to make their system work over VOIP. I'm a little surprised yours outright said "it won't work".

[sukasem]

I think it's depend on how knowledgeable agents are. I tried a few time with United Alarm in Calgary. Some agent has no clue what I'm talking about and said it won't work you need land line, even tho I said on the website FAQ stated that it's possible.

Sukasem

[zhouzhilong]

Out of curiosity, what security company are you with?

Usually the security companies have a special filter and/or setup they have to do to make their system work over VOIP. I'm a little surprised yours outright said "it won't work".

I'm using Grand Alarm right now.

Actually after test, we believe the system failed connecting to the security company, the technician asked me to call the VOIP service provider for the detail.

The LED on the panel kept yellow when I used freephoneline line and turned to green when I changed to rogers home phone( new house with one year rogers home phone for free)

The technician is just a technician, I didn't expect him to say much about voip configuration. This is my first time to meet this issue, however I believe, as an administrator here,you should know something about it.

My question is , base on the fact, rogers phone line is ok , freephoneline is not ok, why. Hopefully you can give us a hint. Thanks.

[brentw]

I have setup FPL using a PAP2T at two different houses that use ADT alarms.
We called into ADT and said we wanted to test the signal (didn't mention anything about VoIP to them at all).
They told us the codes to punch into the alarm panel and they received the signal.
It even cutoff the phone line properly to take over the signal.

Both houses had Rogers home phone before, so we just unplugged the phone cord from the Rogers box and put it into the PAP2, so all the wiring for the alarm to have priority was still in place.

It likely depends on your specific alarm company and how they are setup though.
But for ADT it does work.

I would make sure you have all the proper ports forwarded from your router to your ATA.
And I have QoS setup on the router to give the ATA priority as well.
And make sure your can send the tones on a call from your phone, so call into an automated menu system like the 1-888-rogers1 and make sure it receives your keypad entries. I think not having ports forwarded properly can make this intermitent or not work at all.

[radio]

This is intresting as i am going to be doing the same thing re: fpl with security system.

Handful of companies have said FPL does not work but other voip companies work.

Anyone have security system running on reliant or other companies?

Most of the companies find with FPL if the alarm was tripped the system never dials or informs about the emergency.

[bridonca]

This is intresting as i am going to be doing the same thing re: fpl with security system.

Handful of companies have said FPL does not work but other voip companies work.

Anyone have security system running on reliant or other companies?

Most of the companies find with FPL if the alarm was tripped the system never dials or informs about the emergency.

I think freephoneline is getting a bad rap because it offers so much flexibility. The problem with that flexibility is that it is really easy to misconfigure SIP VOIP gear. A lot of it is frankly junk. So it might pass a voice call, but a fax or alarm system, reliably, not so much.

[radio]

This is intresting as i am going to be doing the same thing re: fpl with security system.

Handful of companies have said FPL does not work but other voip companies work.

Anyone have security system running on reliant or other companies?

Most of the companies find with FPL if the alarm was tripped the system never dials or informs about the emergency.

I think freephoneline is getting a bad rap because it offers so much flexibility. The problem with that flexibility is that it is really easy to misconfigure SIP VOIP gear. A lot of it is frankly junk. So it might pass a voice call, but a fax or alarm system, reliably, not so much.

so what you are saying is its the misconfiguration that causes alarm to "not" be compatible?

I configured a pap2t with my dads adt system and it worked fine so not sure yet if my alarm company reliance will work with pap2t or not... i know some alarm companies claim fpl does not work wiht them.
Do you have any input on why and how the adapter could be misconfigured?

[FONGO_mike]

Although some alarm company's will tell they are not compatible with our phone service (VOiP phones) a lot them offer other options. You may want to ask them if they have anything along thel ine of a cellular link (small battery charges a dedicated cell line to power the alarm/send out the call in case of emergency.)

[radio]

Although some alarm company's will tell they are not compatible with our phone service (VOiP phones) a lot them offer other options. You may want to ask them if they have anything along thel ine of a cellular link (small battery charges a dedicated cell line to power the alarm/send out the call in case of emergency.)

Mike,

So FPL doesnt block anything specific and if the ATA is configured correctly *ANY* security service should work?

thanks

[Jake]

I used to be an alarm engineer and consultant back in the UK. I'm sure some things are different here, but the basics are probably the same.

Back there we had 3 basic types of communicators.
Packnet - communicates over (basically) Vodaphone mobile phone network.
RedCare - works in a similar way to DSL and would not 'place' any calls but would piggyback over the line.
Dialler - this is the most common and would dial calls when needed, or accept calls from the central station.

I would imagine that most questions regarding FPL and security systems would be working on the 'dialler' setup. What you have to remember is when the dialler contacts the central station, it doesn't call up and give a spoken message. It sends fax machine types noises to transmit and say what it needs to say. So if your ATA doesn't support sending of faxes, the chances are it won't support your alarm either. The other big thing you have to remember is, if you don't have power, you don't have a phone line.

Personally if it was me, I would test it thoroughly before actually trusting in it, and I would set my ATA up on a UPS. When advising on house security I would always look for weak spots. Over here most houses seem to have electric meters on the outside. That is a very quick and easy way to kill the power in a house.

Talk to your alarm company and send test signals with them. The chances are they have solutions if you talk to the right people (which are usually the guys on the ground rather than behind the desk).

[FONGO_mike]

Back there we had 3 basic types of communicators.
Packnet - communicates over (basically) Vodaphone mobile phone network.
RedCare - works in a similar way to DSL and would not 'place' any calls but would piggyback over the line.
Dialler - this is the most common and would dial calls when needed, or accept calls from the central station.

There is also a "cellular" option. they basically set up a cell line that runs off a battery pack and sends out the alarm signal in case of emergency (break in, fire, etc, etc)

[Jake]

Back there we had 3 basic types of communicators.
Packnet - communicates over (basically) Vodaphone mobile phone network.
RedCare - works in a similar way to DSL and would not 'place' any calls but would piggyback over the line.
Dialler - this is the most common and would dial calls when needed, or accept calls from the central station.

There is also a "cellular" option. they basically set up a cell line that runs off a battery pack and sends out the alarm signal in case of emergency (break in, fire, etc, etc)

That would probably be the Packnet type communicator I mentioned above using the mobile (Cell for the non British) network.

[mitwtim]

I had our phone system working with FPL just fine for about a month. I had wired our house phones to use our Linksys PAP2T device and everything was working just fine. It tested out okay, when doing test trips of our alarm system.

But in the end, I got thinking about the real reason I was putting in an alarm system which was the security of my family - particularly when I am not here, and I decided I would be more comfortable if I had the cellular service. True it is costing me $10 / month plus the cost of the device, but I just wasn't comfortable relying on the FPL VoIP phone line, which in turn relied on our Rogers Cable Internet connection, and all those could be brought down with a $2 pair of wire cutters if someone walked to the side of the house and severed the CATV connection. So, that's just my personal experience, I opted for a cellular device.

[lobotiger]

Just wanted to post that I tested FPL to work with our home alarm system successfully. I'm using a PAP2T-NA adapter with Protectron as the alarm company. They told me that they received all of the signals from the sensors I tripped.

With regards to the cellular option for a home alarm, I too like the idea of it. You can look at it like this. The money you save from a home phone line (typically $30/month from Rogers/Bell) can be put towards the extra $10/month for a cellular solution. Granted, most of the alarm companies try and gouge you for a $200 installation fee but maybe if you term is done you can try and negotiate this for renewing for 36 months or something.

LoboTiger

[bridonca]

If you are in an area where there are Rogers towers. Speakout 7-11 would be pretty close to idea for a security system via cell phone. The SIM costs $10, and a $25 card lasts a year. $1.25 gets deducted every month for 911, but that leaves $10 or 40 minutes of calls for the year.

If you have a cell phone with bluetooth, you can hook up something like the Cobra PhoneLynx BT 215 Bluetooth Home Phone Adapter http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/review ... or-iphone/ to your alarm system. I see them for $50 at walmart. I have no idea if they work with an alarm system, but I cannot see why not.