M1 with HAI C3 cellular communicator

[Gringo Muerto]

I use Ooma for my home phone service (Internet based) and my understanding from my research is that the M1 will not work with Ooma. I have read that some are using the HAI C3 (or similar) cellular communicator to dial out as necessary. Can anyone confirm the M1 will not work with Ooma and/or let me know if there are lessons learned from using a cellular communicator such as the HAI C3 with the M1?

Thanks in advance.

 

[tmbrown97]

You're correct - it's most unlikely that the M1 will work over Ooma. You can use a broadband ABN, use TCP/IP with a supporting monitoring company, or use a cellular device.

The cellular devices come in two flavors - they either pretend to be a landline, let the M1 dial out and think it's talking to a central station (it fakes it) then after the M1 is done, it then sends the alarm info over the internet to your alarm company. As I understand it's possible that the secondary communication never gets to the CO, but the M1 doesn't know that so it can't take an alternate path (like cellular) This is what the HAI C3 does - it fakes the dial tone). The other option is a cellular communicator that hooks directly to the M1 via an XSP and has better integration (Uplink Anywhere).

Recently updates to the M1 have enabled direct IP connectivity with supporting CO's... I forget which one I talked to - I think it was AlarmRelay which had the best option... For like $20/month you'd get IP connectivity using the M1's XEP with a cellular backup using an uplink anywhere (they handle the config and service plan - you don't have to worry about a cellular plan). That's the seemingly best way in today's anti-POTS world. The rest of the options all involve tricking your M1 which defeats it's built-in ability escalate through different reporting options if there's a problem.

 

[Gringo Muerto]

Thanks Cocoonut. Much appreciated.

 

[apostolakisl]

I have been told by monitoring companies that voip does not work, so ooma will probably not work. Or maybe it would seem to work, but be flaky. Either way, not what you want.

I have an hai c3 unit connected to watchlight monitoring. It works flawlessly. I have a prepaid att card in it that costs $100/year. Probably you will run out of time before you run out of minutes. Total cost between the watchlihgt and att card, is about $200/year.

I have seen where other people have used other monitoring co's and had troubles with the hai.

The hai is brainless to hook up. Plug it into power, plug in the antenna, stick in the gsm card, plug the Elk's phone line into it. It also has a battery so power outage isn't a problem.

In my opinion it is easily the most fool-proof method to monitor your alarm. It is virtually impossible to compromise the communication. I suppose a highly skilled crook who knew you were on cellular could use some sort of jamming equipment. I suspect a crook with such skills won't be messing with my house.

I think using direct IP monitoring is not worth the headache and is likely to be flaky unless you have a very reliable connection, modem, router, and monitoring co. Plus all that equipment needs to be on power backup. Also, you are open to the less skilled crook who just cuts your service lines.

 

[tmbrown97]

I think using direct IP monitoring is not worth the headache and is likely to be flaky unless you have a very reliable connection, modem, router, and monitoring co. Plus all that equipment needs to be on power backup. Also, you are open to the less skilled crook who just cuts your service lines.

I agree that I wouldn't use IP only - especially since it's fairly new for Elk to support it... but IP combined with the Cellular for a whopping $20/month (including the cellular service) seemed like a hell of a deal to me... and it gives you two options... normal everyday communication will be IP, but when the crook cuts your line, the cellular will still cover you.

My only concern is one I've mentioned here before... I've noticed that when my town has a power outage, AT&T becomes absolutely unusable - like you can't get calls through; you can't browse the internet at all... it seems when people lose power, they all jump on their phones to bitch on facebook about how they're stuck in the stone ages - and kill all usable bandwidth. That does concern me if anyone were to put it together and loot during a power outage.

 

[apostolakisl]

I agree that I wouldn't use IP only - especially since it's fairly new for Elk to support it... but IP combined with the Cellular for a whopping $20/month (including the cellular service) seemed like a hell of a deal to me... and it gives you two options... normal everyday communication will be IP, but when the crook cuts your line, the cellular will still cover you.

My only concern is one I've mentioned here before... I've noticed that when my town has a power outage, AT&T becomes absolutely unusable - like you can't get calls through; you can't browse the internet at all... it seems when people lose power, they all jump on their phones to bitch on facebook about how they're stuck in the stone ages - and kill all usable bandwidth. That does concern me if anyone were to put it together and loot during a power outage.

At $20/mo that is a good price. Although it is still a little less to just go dedicated hai c3/att prepaid with watchlight (which is the same co as alarm relay??? I forget). My per mos would be about $15 or so if you break out the annual purchase of the watchlight monitoring and Att card. I did have to buy the c3 unit for about $200. Not sure what the hardware costs are for doing it your way.

I haven't had the experience of ATT getting overrun during power failures in my area. As is always the case, cell phone service is very location dependent. You can also use t-mobile for about the same price.

 

[tmbrown97]

I haven't had the experience of ATT getting overrun during power failures in my area. As is always the case, cell phone service is very location dependent. You can also use t-mobile for about the same price.

T-Mobile is basically non-existent here; luckily soon we should start seeing some of these new 4G/LTE devices start showing up - then we'll have choices with AT&T, Verizon, or others.

I don't recall the uplink hardware cost - but I'd imagine it was in the $200 range. This just shows, as always, there are multiple ways to skin a cat and get basically the same result... it's all about personal preference.