Geoarm, NextAlarm, others -- where to get objective reviews

With my M1G almost done, I need a monitoring company, one preferably that can do both POTS and IP. Want them to also monitor for regular automated tests, and basic central station functions. And willing to work with a DIY'er.

I see a lot written but having trouble finding anywhere people have done objective comparisons.

Someone recommended Geoarm. I am surprised not to see it hear anywhere. Is that a bad sign?

A vendor recommended NextAlarm, a little put off by them being German (off shore to me).

But really, they all seem to say they do the same thing (at least the little they actually say under all the sales fluff). And searching turns up mostly crap from vendors (including some pretending not to be from them), and old or pretty specific issues..

Any pointers to recent and/or objective information? Are are they indeed more or less commodities?

Surprising no interest (or info), but let me share what I found out, and what I did.

First, I ended up wanting to do POTS + GSM, I canned the idea of doing IP and also of using dialer capture. And no cameras. So my choices were driven by those needs.

I looked at Geoarm, NextAlarm, Alarm Relay, SafeMart. I called Frontpoint but the did not do monitoring for anything but GE.

Safemart initially looked very good, yes to everything, good cost -- but they later said "we do not support the uplink". I pointed out they sell it themselves on their website, the guy checked, came back and said "it is for people who want to buy from us and have other people monitor". I actually doubt this, I suspect they can support it, but I decided convincing them would be frustrating, so said "no thanks".

Geoarm had a weird aspect -- they would not do any kind of web reporting (e.g. log history) for uplink accounts. None at all. This seemed to speak toward a low level (perhaps not Contact ID) support for uplink, so I decided to pass on them. But again, could be a guy who didn't understand.

Alarm Relay had what I wanted, but seemed a bit strange in terms of features. Web mail was an extra cost, came bundled with items like periodic test calls. None of it was expensive, but it was a confusing structure, and the sales lady said some of the things bundled were also free (like periodic testing, though she wasn't sure if they charged more for weekly/daily). They were less sure about uplink but "pretty sure". They said it would take 2-3 days to get through the process.

I ended up using NextAlarm, because they were pretty much immedaite, and one fee for everything, and no real contractual commitment (you pay a year, but can cancel and get a refund of unused portions).

I signed up online, and was surprised that the signup rolls right into an activation, it tells you what to put into the dialer, you do a test, you see on line if the test is received, and can test to your heart's content then say "activate". You then go into limbo for a day while they process your actual account setup.

in my case I did all that, but with POTS. I needed the uplink activated. I called, in about 30 minutes they called back and said "done". It wasn't activated for ContactID. Called back, they understood (mostly) and said "the guy I need works eastern time, will have to call you tomorrow".

They called this morning, he said "all set", I waited a couple more hours my account was fully active, I gave it another test and it worked perfectly.

So in less than 24 hours (and really only about 30 minutes of active work - most of which was keying in my zones) I am up and running with both GSM and dial backup.

Have not had to use them yet to see if their dispatch called, but the initial experience was delightful.

For what it is worth.

Thank you very much for your reviewing efforts. I'll be at the same point in a month or so. My wife just asked me last evening about who will be providing monitoring services for the new system.

I should add one mroe component -- I set up two way listen in, and only Safemart said they supported it. Well -- Alarm Relay said both "no" and "for $20 extra". And the "no" was "not even if you pay for it". So not sure.

I also found that Geoarm and Alarm Relay and (though they sounded less sure) Safemart would support a proactive call if you had a test timer setup and it did not communicate. NextAlarm does not, though they (and probably the others) will do things like send you an email if it DOES work. Frankly this question was one of the more confusing, as all of them that do IP monitoring do this normally, and they seemed unable to understand the concept in the context of phone or GSM.

All of these guys have salespeople that are trained to handle Aunt Susie calling who doesn't quite remember where the alarm is, so when asking for something outside of the norm (like the UPlink on an M1G) it is hard to make sure they actually understand the question and get you through to someone who can answer. Almost without exception the first-answer person will give you an answer (I think they are trained not to say "I do not know"), you really have to push for details and ask some checking questions.

BUt I was quite disappointed after wiring up and getting listen-in to work, that none of them use it.

It really depends on what your phone company charges for a basic POTs line. The charges are regulated and vary by municipality. The biggest problem with POTs line is all the extra taxes and surcharges.

From the all the posts indicating problems with XEP IP monitoring, I suspect this option would be one for last resort and self monitoring. Unfortunately, the Internet is unregulated. There’s no guarantee that your alarm packet will arrive at its destination.

Several forum members have had good luck with HAI communicator. Perhaps, the HAI communicator is close to tower and high reliability is possible. With the HAI, there are no extra Cell monitoring charges.

I have been going back-n-forth myself on switch over to Internet VoIP. The problem is VoIP service is an additional charge, so the savings are not large enough to cover the higher risk that critical packets may be dropped or VoIP codec compression problems. If you read the AT&T U-verse terms of service at http://www.att.com/u...-of-service.jsp, you will notice some very long language relating to Alarm service - even though AT&T claims their VoIP service reliably interoperates with ADT.

I have never had a problem with my POTs line in regards to alarm system. It’s has had a 100% alarm notification rate thus far. When the alarm (mistakenly) goes off, I just wait by the phone to verify the false alarm. Since my phone does not have voice mail, I don’t have to worry about call mistakenly going to voice mail.

I personally have not had any problems with NextAlarm. I like their web site and the numerous zone configuration functions. They are quick to call back whether I am at work or home. My only problems with NextAlarm is they don’t seem to understand Elk trouble codes.

I use NextAlarm with HAI without problems. Used to use POTS but now use their Internet solution. A few years back I had to work with them and HAI together because they were not correctly decoding all HAI codes correctly, but I got them on the line and HAI, and they all figured out the problem and fixed it. You may have to do that with NextAlarm and ELK if ELK is receptive to such things.

Does nextalarm support IP monitoring right from the elk? Right now I have alarm relay and i get disconnects a few times a week but I know it is not my fios connection and I have a vpn from home to work that stays up for months at a time.