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Do-It-Yourself Home Security?
pussycat asks: "Having recently purchased a home in an urban area, I am investigating monitored home security options -- I'll feel better when I'm away, and I'll get a break on my insurance. I am rejecting the big security services like Brinks because of their very high monitoring fees: $25-45+/month. I've found a cheap monitoring service (911Alarm has one for $13/month), but I'm overwhelmed by the choices for hardware. SmartHome has some nifty devices, but the hardwired stuff looks like a real pain to install, and the X10 stuff seems kind of cheesy. Does anyone have experience with setting up a do-it-yourself home security system? I'm interested in reliability (minimizing false alarms) and low-cost." Has anyone wired up their own home security system? What things should one watch out for when tackling a job like this?
My recommendation: find an ADT sticker, scan it, print a few, and stick it on your house. You'll get plenty of security that way.
Avoid ADT like the plague: They will try to get you to commit to a $22/mo *3 year* contract, that will automatically roll over for two further years after that. Now, remember what they do: the alarm goes off, they call your house. If there is no answer, or the person who answers doesn't give the passcode, they call the cops. THAT'S IT. It is NOT an active monitoring system, the alarm in your house calls them -- so you are paying $22/mo for someone to answer the phone and screen false alarms.
This is usually done by a simple monitoring of line voltage and/or continuity - as I understand it. This would be incredibly easy to work around with some jumper wires and a portable voltage source.
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A common house theif isn't going to have a portable voltage supply and jumper wires. I doubt if many of the people who would be robbing houses would even know if cutting the line would cause an alert.
I fully agree. Home security is always needed, whether that security is living somewhere thats plain isolated, or having a security system, or just putting your trust into ignorance or luck. I have yet to live in an area that is completely unaffected by vandalism, the random car stereo theft etc... at the least.
As for some of the best home security in my opinion, get a Mastiff. Theyre big nice dogs with a great personality, and should scare off/protect [whatever] from all but the most motivated break-ins. Caveat: They are expensive to feed (due to the amount) and because they eat a ton, they also crap a ton. Talk about landmines;) They also need at least a decently sized house and yard to be happy.
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youre probably almost completely right.
But you know all about counting on security through obscurity...etc...etc...etc...
(and hey, there are a lot of geeks without jobs right now....you never know which one of your old coworkers is going to show up to take that stereo/network server off your hands while your still at work...) yeah, its far fetched and all....still
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Better yet, you never know when a disgrunteled employee is going to show up at work after-hours and make his own severence package
Ultrasonic/infrared motion detectors are subject to false alarms due to pets or movement of plant leaves etc when the A/C kicks on.
Glass breakage detectors will sometimes trip if you "clink" glasses or dishes while loading a dishwasher. They also trip if you drop your keys.
As far as monitoring: by the time the alarm company has called your home and received no answer/reached someone who doesn't know the codeword to say, and has then called the police, the burglar and your belongings will be long gone.
Police departments assign a low priority to alarm calls from services anyway due to the prevalance of false alarms. (And some cities charge a fee per false alarm--50 bucks or so) For these reasons, I suggest foregoing the monitoring services and their subscription fees.
How about picking up a cheap 486, installing it in a secure/hidden place and running a webcam(s) to it. Motion detecting software will save images to the harddrive which you can later retrieve so that you or the cops have an idea who broke in. Maybe you could get the images run on the local crimestoppers show. If you want to get fancy, you could include a modem and have the computer page you when the system is activated. You then call the system and see who is in your house and whether you want to call the cops.
Good luck.
Beware of DIY security if you're angling for cheaper insurance. Some companies will only give this for approved installations by professionals, not some DIY geek... Nothing against you personally, but there's probably quite a few other numpties around who couldn't install a lock, far less a complex security system properly who would try to claim the discount. As such, your efforts would probably get lumped in with those.
burgler #1: hmm, we need some fast cash, which house should we rob?
burgler #2: well, we could rob the house down the street from us, in the high-crime, high police patrol area, even though we know the people in the house probably have nothing worth carting away..
burgler #1: or we could go to the nice neighborhood where the husband/wife both work two jobs probably and aren't home during the day, and because they both work, they'll have all sorts of goodies.
burgler #2: maybe we'll get an X-Box...
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if you're in a nice enough neighborhood, get to know your neighbors. that's what my parents did, they knew a lot of the people in the surrounding houses. we all talked to each other, and so we all knew when someone was out on vacation, or who of us worked nights instead of days. that way we knew that if there were lights on or a strange car in someones driveway, we knew something might not be right, and we'd watch a little more, looking to see what was going on.
or, start a neighborhood watch, volunteer to go cruising around your neighborhood looking for suspicious activity. the families in my sisters neighborhood all know each other too, and when her husband left the garage door open one night, a neighbor knocked on their door at 1am to make sure everything was ok.
even in the apartments i live in, which isn't in the nicest neighborhood, i make it a point to talk to my downstairs neighbor occasionally. sure, it's not perfect, but just the other day they told me that a couple of kids had been trying to break into my car (good luck, everyone in the complex knows that it takes at least 15 minutes to start on a good day). he scared them off and then came to my apartment to tell me. i'd do the same thing.
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hehe...
Yeah, but although that makes all the sense in the world, the fact of the matter is that high crime areas are high in crime for a reason--burglars generally don't go across town to do their business. People living in low-income/low-rent areas are far more likely to get ripped off than the average yuppie surburbanite.
This all plays into this theory I have about criminals--they tend to be very lazy. Most of them aren't really evil, they just would rather take something than work for it. They don't go out and 'case the joint' or actively look for crimes to commit--they just see someone's TV through the window and decide to go get it. That's more likely to happen in their own neighborhood than someone else's.
As for security systems, they're just a deterrent--like the old joke about the two hikers and the bear. The hikers come across the hungry-looking bear out in the woods, and the one hiker sits down immediately and strips his heavy boots off, pulling out a pair of tennis shoes and putting them on instead.
"What are you doing?" the second hiker asked. "You can't out-run a bear!"
"No," said the first hiker, "but I don't have to--all I have to do is out-run you."
You just have to make your house look less appealing to burgle than your neighbor's.
No relation to Happy Monkey
Pay ADT or whoever for it. That's the only way that if your hosue is left alone, Law Enforcement can be notified and can check it out. Other then that, I know of no other way to do it and do it as well as they do. ADT usually offers the system for free as well. Also, you mean to tell me your house and valuables aren't worth an extra 25 a month?? To me, even with home owners insurance, some of teh stuff I have is irreplace able and I feel so much better knowing when I am away I have our alarm on.
Gorkman
I wish I was building a house so I could put one in. The only problem is retrofits - that's expensive because the walls aren't already open
-- 73 de KG2V For the Children - RKBA! "You are what you do when it counts" - the Masso
If you're going to install yourself, and use your own equipment, Why not moitor yourself. Set up a computer with enough serial ports to monitor your equipment. Attach it redundantly to an ADSL or cable modem line, and the telephone line. Set it up so that it pages you through the Net, and through the phone line at regulat intervals as a failsafe. If you leave a mike active, you might even get it routed through the phone line to a cell call.
For hardware, use hardwired switches on windows and doorways, not wireless.
~ a low user id is no indication I have a clue what I'm talking about.