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Comcast Offering Home Security Bundle
vaporland writes "Bloomberg reports that media giant Comcast has begun offering home security bundles with cable or phone service in selected markets. From the article: 'The Philadelphia-based company is starting Xfinity Home Security in seven markets for $39.95 a month. It lets users remotely adjust lights and thermostats, watch cameras, and get e-mail or text alerts when doors and windows are opened and closed. Customers can watch live video of their homes on an Xfinity website or with an Apple Inc. iPad application.'"
Convergence: When your home automation, grid power, security, telephone, TV, internet and wireless companies are all owned by the same conglomerate
What could possibily go wrong!
Rogers, Canada's largest telecom, also started offering a similar service a few weeks ago.
Well maybe they'll finally start providing some decent upstream bandwidth then. Who woulda thunk it.
Failure formatting five FAQs of financial facts.
" Customers can watch live video of their homes on an Xfinity website "
And what makes anyone think Comcast won't be doing the same whenever they want?
So now, someone can break into Comcast and easily see which houses have good stuff and don't have anyone at home. That must be very handy for thieves.
As a customer, I already don't trust Comcast and think they cost too much. Why would I pay them $40 a month for this? Especially since it would take away from my internet bandwidth?
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Well, if when you buy things from Comcast you get the privilege of paying twice what people in other markets pay for comparable products.
You get relevant targeted advertisements from consumer electronics companies right after you stereo gets stolen.
Kaspersky is not home security, moron.
http://www.comcast.com/homesecurity/iControlSMA/index.htm Only Window/Door Sensors (4) Motion Detector (1) Wireless Keypad (1) Keychain Remote (1) Touch Screen (1) Cellular and Battery Backup Included what will more Sensors cost $0.25 /m each? Motion Detectors at $2 /m?
added keypad $5-$10 /m?
added Keychain Remote $3 /m
see how much they bill you rent the cable box + they also bill you to rent the remote as well. That cost can go up fast.
Also is there a Cellular modem rent fee like how you have to rent the emta that is not part of listed price.
Comcast Exec: [logs into service] hmm, why does my home thermostat read 666?
-- How I want a drink, alcoholic of course, after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics.
In Soviet Russia, cable watches you.
"...Customers can watch live video of their homes on an Xfinity website or with an Apple Inc. iPad application.'"
You misspelled Criminals.
You get to pay for their terrible service and fund their acquisitions in their attempt to take over the world.
OMG, Comcast is pinky and the brain!
Philadelphia Police: Sir, we caught this man trying to break into your house at approximately 1:30 this afternoon after receiving an urgent notification from Comcast.
Homeowner: Who is he?
Philadelphia Police: He claims he is from "Verizon" and that he was here to "install FiOS", whatever that means.
Only thing missing seems to be razor wire fencing and automated gun turrets...
comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
this better be SELinux compatible
I would NEVER put the security of the house in the hands of Microsoft
"I don't pitch OpenSUSE Linux to my friends, i let Microsoft do it for me
Why wouldn't we give one of the least ethical companies in the world access to everything we do at home? They already inspect and record everything we do online.
Yeah, I was scratching my head on that. Kaspersky? Home Security? Nahhhh - but maybe I should google it?
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Automated Gun Turrets would make me consider subscribing, making sure they were connected only to my LAN, and then unsubscribing.
I was thinking of programming a system that links up to a modern computer and buying cheap webcams. Then you could monitor your house from a Flash Enabled Phone, and get alerts if motion sensors are triggered with the video feed. I was thinking with how cheap web cameras are now(practically free), all you're really paying for is cables and installation. You could probably wire a house for $500, and clear 300$ profit or more.
Has anyone else considered this as a business?
God spoke to me
I have the service. Allow me to enlighten you as to what it is ( and isn't ).
First, you MUST have a router feeding the house network. You need an available eth connection as well for the alarm head unit. The unit is NOT static IP configured, it's dhcp so it will be begging the router for an IP address. Force a static on it from the router and it will be thrilled. Head unit is listening on port 80 so you need to forward the port through the firewall to allow net access. Yeah every scan on Earth will see it so I suspect your router logs are gonna jump an order of magnitude or so. Hitting the unit asks for the install code ( 16 digit ) but I didn't test it past that.
The whole system is wireless so the main unit needs to be centralized if possible so the sensors can talk to it. The install tech has to add the sensors to the head unit and you don't get to play in the config once they're done. Preferred package is four door / window sensors and one motion sensor. Additional sensors are horrendously expensive ( $170 for a motion sensor ?! ) but the system is General Electric based so you may be able to buy your own ( Z-Wave compatible ) but they will have to configure them in the head unit. Head unit also has a battery backup with a cellular system in the event of a power failure or loss of cable signal. Head unit is broadcasting it's own SSID and appears to be running with at least WPA.
They fail to mention on their site that the customer is required to obtain an Alarm Operators Permit from your local municipality. Not expensive ($25 first year, $15 renewal) but necessary as the fine for the police showing up on an alarm call if you don't have one is expensive.
Email and text messages for damn near anything can be configured. System arm / disarm, tamper switches trigger, individual triggers for every sensor, etc. Make sure you have a decent messaging plan.
Remote monitoring, arm / disarm and system / sensor history are available once you log in using your info. Same for the IPhone app.
They need to add a swivel bracket to the motion sensors for better placement options IMO. Three year contract. $200 install and $39.95 month. Qualifies for insurance discount. IS a monitored service. Seems to perform fairly well. No real complaints to speak of so far.
Maybe now all the established security vendors will create a decent offering that works over IP, rather than plugging their old technology into a voip box. I wouldn't trust my home security to Comcast, but the established security vendors need to upgrade their products off of telephone modem technology badly.
If you were on IP, a simple "ping" could be run periodically to make sure you haven't had your connection cut. And you can get more advanced, like viewing the status on a web page (we already have banking online, so this can be done right) or getting a feed of the audio and video during a break-in to give police a heads up if it's a likely false alarm or send pictures of the criminal so police know who to look for. The alerts would also be sent faster, and can be encrypted over IP, rather than waiting for the modem to dial out.
Comcast offers new, unnecessary product at exorbitant rates.
And you just know every bit of that service will count against their cap.
Today is red jello day - all workers must eat all of their red jello. Failure to comply will result in five demerits.
... but the first I think of is the irony that Orwell had it wrong. The govt won't have to force people to install cameras into their homes, we will do it ourselves...
Evolution: love it or leave it
I asked the question: Will Comcast charge me extra when intruders hack their security and start monitoring my cameras 24/7, pushing me over my 2.5GB monthly data quota?
Ask Me About... The 80's!
Who else .. .. gets to see this feed .. gets to know my entry and leaving times .. gets to enable and disable my alarm?
I like the idea, but there is no chance in hell I'll ever allow anyone else to place a camera inside my home or be 100% in control over its defenses. Notifications, fine, outside cameras, maybe, but no internal feed is ever going to leave my place unless a member of the family permits it.
Oh, and no alarm system of mine is ever going to be solely dependent on a single Internet provider - I have seen that mistake too often..
Insert
RTFA FTW.
I can already do all these things Comcast is trying to sell, and it didn't take much for the customers employee's to destroy it all and go back to robbing the employer blind.
I can only imagine the fun consumers will have with this. Or the free tap Comcast may be giving the Govt...
- Dan.
~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.
We will be releasing a new product in two months time that will allow you to monitor your home before they break. You receive SMSes with links to video trigger from sensors outside of your house and then you can set off flood lights, alarms, send SMSes, E-mails, gateway to other systems of your own etc etc. It encodes the video to WebM (I expect it's the first security product to do that) so you can save the events and all this is under your own control, not an external company. It's highly configurable and you can take input from and control devices connected via X10 or via a generic digital I/O board (Phidgets).
http://www.hydracontrolfreak.com/
Note, the website is in pre-release state as we haven't released the product yet. We expect it to be released in about 2 2/12 months.
Cheers,
Kim
Especially when you happen to piss off one of the 'customer service' people on a call. They and their co-workers will just tap in and try to find some good video of you and your family.
Note to self: cut landline AND cable TV coax before breaking and entering
It is Zwave compatible....
Comcast has offered a home security product in a number of markets for a number of years. This isn't something new.
don't like the idea of video feeds in my home that are centralized to any company. If I ever set up video feeds, I'd want to host them on my own server/router and login to view.
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
This looks like transcribed verbiage right off the sales brochure. At least in the past the Slashdot folk have rewritten the ad to be a bit more oblique. What's next? \/1agr/\ by Comcast ads in Slashdot?
In any case, anyone who would trust their security with Comcast is a fool, just as is anyone who uses their internet service.
That is all.