Re: ARE YOU REALLY BEING MONITORED? READ THIS

["Stanley Barthfarkle" <sbarth@xxxxxxxxx>]

> In 15 years I've never heard of the Central Station calling a Customer
> to test the customers system (except by calling them and telling them
> to test their system).  Maybe that was just a failed experiment,
> certainly possible, but not practical these days.
>
> If you want that kind of supervsions these days the easiest way is via
> Internet Communicators with 5-minute checkins.  Traffic is free and a
> checkin doesn't create any traffic for the Central Station systems and
> logs.  The checkin is just tracked and an alarm is generated in the C/S
> if the checkin is not received from the system within a minute after
> the checkin was expected.  Dedicated lines are prohibitively expensive
> and undesirable to monitor.


Being with ADT, he might have been unknowingly referring to "Leased line"
systems- years ago we used Leased Lines for larger commercial accounts- a
real-time constant connection to the customer's equipment. Instant
notification of communication loss. With the advent of wireless
communication backup, there's really not much call for a VERY expensive
phone company leased line, not to mention that the phone company has been
phasing them out for years.

There are also a few local municipalities in very exclusive areas (Ladue MO,
for example) where the PD monitors alarms directly at the Police Station. I
believe they are doing away with leased lines, as well, relying on dial-in
communication.

One of my fist experiences as an installer was in Ladue- a very high-end
community with multi-million dollar homes. It was my first week as a rookie,
and we were taking out some older equipment of ours and replacing it with a
new Westec System. (I worked for the local Westec franchise at the time) Our
Lead Installer on the job neglected to check in at the PD before we went to
the premises, which is a huge no-no in Ladue, (ALL contractors and delivery
people going to a home in Ladue must check-in at the PD in Ladue) and we
proceeded to start removing the equipment. My foreman handed me the control
panel (which had a leased line going directly to the PD) after taking it off
the wall and told me to take it to the truck. As I stepped outside the front
door of the mansion with this giant blue Westec can in my hands, the police
had arrived and two officers proceeded to draw their weapons- one had hid
psitol and the other a shotgun- and pointed them at me and said "freeze".
Needless to say, it was a miracle that I didn't piss my pants on the spot. I
explained who I was and what we were doing (we got a fairly good truck
allowance for a 4 yr or newer truck there, so we drove our own unmarked
Install trucks) and produced my St. Louis County installer's license and
company ID. We had a good laugh about it later, but we never forgot to check
into Ladue PD after that.