Anyone use uControl.com alarm monitoring?

[technerd]

Hello all, I'm a newbie on this site.

My traditional alarm provider (Monitronics) charges a lot of money and doesn't provide a lot of value.

I've been looking at uControl.com because they offer 3 redundant paths of communication - telephone, broadband, and cellular.

I ordered the kit a few days ago and it's due to arrive shortly.

Has anyone else had experience with this provider?

 

[CollinR]

No experience with uControl but you are doing the right thing.

I have seen more crappy monitronics installs in my area then any other provider.

Did they give use a GE Simon wireless alarm? I like GE stuff but geez that thing is a POS.

 

[technerd]

Hi, thankfully I have an Ademco Vista 20P which is pretty good. I'm paying over $30 just for telephone monitoring which is why I ordered the uControl kit because it offers so much more for the same money. I'll post my experience on here after I get the install done.

 

[CollinR]

Yeah something happened there for you to get a V20p. :huh:

Do you have multiple areas? I am surprised they went from GE simons straight to V20p, I would think they OEMed some V10se or the like for people on the ball enough to say woah at their mostly wireless designs.

 

[technerd]

Yes, I think I got pretty lucky with the upgraded system. I actually got a local company that does installs and servicing who actually did a great job. The company's president was a long time alarm installer, and probably had a lot of pride on the systems his company installed.

I had no idea which systems were good or bad, but I insisted on an alarm with many zones as my house is fairly large, and they had to go with the 20P plus a zone expander to handle all the sensors.

Thanks for the insight on the alarm systems and monitronics.

 

[SammyGCB]

Please let me know how you like the new monitoring company.

 

[rfdesq]

For $40 a month, a three year commitment, and a $125 equipment fee, does the service include armed guard response? If it doesn't you might want to look at www.nextalarm.com before committing to a three year contract. I don't make any money from Nextalarm I just use them along with several customer I have set up with them.

 

[CollinR]

WOW!

I didn't actually go to ucontrol... That does seem pretty excessive and I sell nice stuff.

I would say for regular monthly tested residential burgarly you should be spending around $20/mo if you won the alarm you should have little to no equipment fee.


VOIP is not for alarms, no matter what their site says... VOIP is for voice, you can have ethernet monitoring but that should be straight TCP/IP packets and should be tested much more often then monthly if not continously. For $40 I would think encrypted and continously.

PS I recently had to go 14 days with no power, POTS worked the ENTIRE time. No cable for almost 20 days.


Those guys have pretty much got to be clowns.

 

[technerd]

For $40 a month, a three year commitment, and a $125 equipment fee, does the service include armed guard response? If it doesn't you might want to look at www.nextalarm.com before committing to a three year contract. I don't make any money from Nextalarm I just use them along with several customer I have set up with them.

You're right NextAlarm seems to be the value leader.

However, I was reading in the Vonage Forums that some people seemed to have a lot of problems with getting NextAlarm to work properly.

Also, from what I understand, NextAlarm is only via broadband / internet. That's fine for most people.

But I have loved ones, little kids, to watch over, and I have several smoke detectors that are part of the system. I'd rather spend some more money to have redundant paths of communication than save a few bucks a month.

This is why Monitronics is a waste for me - only POTS monitoring for $32 per month. With uControl I get cellular, telephone (POTS or VOIP) and broadband concurrently monitored for $39.

According the tech sales person I talked to, each line of communication is surveyed several times per minute, so that if any line of communication is cut off, I am alerted instantly.

Also, according to the information I have, I have continuous reporting via broadband - so if there are any alarm activity, or internal zone changes, it's reported real time on the uControl website to me.

So yes I know it's a lot more pricey than NextAlarm or DollarAlarm or the other derivatives, but for redundant paths of communication and constant communication, I think that the extra money would be money well spent.

 

[technerd]

Please let me know how you like the new monitoring company.

I'll definitely post my experience on here once I get set up.

So far I have to say I'm VERY impressed with the communication from the sales and tech people. I'm quite inquisitive about my alarm system and they've never failed to return an email or a call within an hour.

Collin - you seem fairly knowledgeable about alarms systems - I was inquiring about cellular back up from Monitronics, and they quoted a few hundred dollars for the cellular pacakge, and an additional $9 per month for cellular package, costing me more than uControl and with far less features. Based upon a few alarm companies I called, that seemed to be par for the price. What other companies beside NextAlarm provide good value and reliability for alarm systems?

Reliability and ability to have real time monitoring remotely via my browser was one of the key reasons I chose uControl. I haven't seen any other providers like it. I knew of NextAlarm and researched their website prior to going with uControl, but even to a tech nerd like me NextAlarm's web page is too full of extraneous stuff for me to really understand their value proposition, other than low cost. uControl had demos of their web page access, graphics of the communication, and videos of the self-install kit which seemed really simple. uControl just seemed to be the better choice by far, because to me the extra reliability and usability is worth the few extra dollars relative to the extra margin of safety and features I receive.

Anyway sorry for the long verbose reply, I'm hoping my own thoughts will reveal why I went with uControl instead of a lower cost solution.

If there are other service providers like uControl I'd like to hear it. So far I have yet to find a comparable alternative.

And I will post photos of the self-install once I receive the kit and give my review of the install and service, for those who are interested.

 

[CollinR]

I don't do alarm systems anymore, the only provider I personally recomend is Advance Alarms in Tulsa, OK. The owner was the past president of the Oklahoma burglar and fire alarm assoc (OKBFAA) and a retired Tulsa police officer. Of the MANY installs I have seen, never once did I find a fault/concern. They also do most of the banks and credit unions in Tulsa. They are not a low cost provider however they are cost competitive. I kinda doubt they would take remote business though. :lol:

They do not advertise ethernet monitoring however they monitor banks so they can do it.

The salesman at uControl BSed you, if you want constant monitoring over POTS you MUST have a phone line dedicated to the alarm. End of story... Maybe he told you that, I dunno. Cellular doesn't have the bandwidth for all the users to do it either, it's possible I just doubt it's factual. Ethernet it's no big deal and IMO should be a standard thing. He probably should have told you 1 method is tested constantly. Also since I have programmed a few V20s I don't think you can specify a timer test interval per reporting method. They can instigate a test whenever they like over POTS. Cellular has until recently been a 1 way communications so they probably can't request anything of the alarm over it. They can however check to see if radio's serial number is currently connected to a recieving antenna. So if you program it for a timer test monthly in the config it will report it's status monthly unless they download it.

I wish I had asked more questions when registering Ademco radios as I always had to do monthly test, I am 90% positive they asked "daily or monthly" supervision.

I have no clue how they are doing their ethernet monitoring with a V20p I have never actually installed an ethernet monitored system. How are they dealing with DHCP (or lack thereof) and network stabilty and security? Do they provide UPS for your routers and switches? Do they dispatch if the ethernet is lost?

For pretty dang good all you need is POTS and cellular, if those are both compromised ethernet was toast before it. Cellular is better then a VOIP
(Vonage forums are probably all VOIP users!!! FORGET VOIP!!!)
however nothing close to POTS reliablity (is changing) it is though very hard to compromise without previous knowledge of the radio's location or complex sniffing.

The see your front door open on a remote website is cool factor at best, nothing more. If it allows you to remotely disarm the control then it's actually worse then no web services at all. I doubt this is something you will in reality use very often.

 

[technerd]

Collin - thanks for the info. Actually I don't think uControl BSed me. They did tell me that they use Skytel for cellular, and they will soon be switching to GPRS which will be even better bandwidth for communication. They also did say that the telephone is not used for constant communication (ie sending data packets via POTS) but rather that the telephone connection is monitored and if it is severed then I am alerted. With Monitronics if I lost telephone service I rarely ever found out, it seems they test the connection once per day or something - not a confidence builder.

Can you explain why remote arming / dis-arming is worse than no web services at all?

I worry about POTS because even to a non telephone install person like myself I can see from the outside of my house where the telephone box is and where the phone cable lines are. With a pair of strong shears I could cut that cable and POTS would be useless.

This is why to me cellular and broadband is nice to have in addition to POTS because it's so easy to trace the phone box and cut the line.

I don't know if they dispatc if ethernet is lost. I would think that they would call me or notify me via email / SMS, and I could decide to dispatch or not.

Anyway my fedex tracking shows the box is almost here so I'll post more later when I get the kit and install.

 

[Steve]

Also, from what I understand, NextAlarm is only via broadband / internet. That's fine for most people.

uControl does look unique considering its special hardware. I have only had NextAlarm for a few weeks so I'm not going to try to defend it or anything, but they do offer POTS, Cellular (with ABN I believe) and soon broadband. You are right, it is easy for a thief to cut your phone or cable which will take out your POTS or Broadband. Cellular is the only one that will most likely work for a determined and smart thief (assuming you have the cellular component well hidden or secured inside).

I am not going to make a feature by feature comparison, but I would guess NextAlarm even with Cell monitoring, etc and a decent match to the features will still be less expensive. But you need to do what your heart tells you, so if you have a good warm feeling about uControl then you need to explore that.

 

[CollinR]

Collin - thanks for the info. Actually I don't think uControl BSed me. They did tell me that they use Skytel for cellular, and they will soon be switching to GPRS which will be even better bandwidth for communication. They also did say that the telephone is not used for constant communication (ie sending data packets via POTS) but rather that the telephone connection is monitored and if it is severed then I am alerted. With Monitronics if I lost telephone service I rarely ever found out, it seems they test the connection once per day or something - not a confidence builder.

Can you explain why remote arming / dis-arming is worse than no web services at all?

I worry about POTS because even to a non telephone install person like myself I can see from the outside of my house where the telephone box is and where the phone cable lines are. With a pair of strong shears I could cut that cable and POTS would be useless.

This is why to me cellular and broadband is nice to have in addition to POTS because it's so easy to trace the phone box and cut the line.

I don't know if they dispatc if ethernet is lost. I would think that they would call me or notify me via email / SMS, and I could decide to dispatch or not.

Anyway my fedex tracking shows the box is almost here so I'll post more later when I get the kit and install.

Okay thats cool if they explained it in more depth, I wouldn't want to type out everything they said either.


Monitronics sucks, it's been established. If they wanted to supervise the phone they could have. They just chose not to. :lol:


If you can disarm the control via the internet then possibly so can others. The data bus for Ademcos I am sure has been broken however I have searched and searched and never could find it. What you have basically done is make your local network and internet connection a weak link for not much reason. Arming is no big deal, no threat would arm the system unless their goal is to annoy.

This is a simple problem with POTS...

Ask if you can have the Demark relocated, in Tulsa I can have new construction done this way almost every time.

If you can't do that just add another demark with 24 hour no trouble zones inside both sides of the cable. You can also do both! You can backfeed the bogus demarks so even test equipment can't tell the correct one without disconnecting it. It's less then $100 one time per box.

You can do the same thing for CATV/cable internet.

This will work well no matter who monitors it and leave the few smart enough to try messing with the POTs stuff a little confused.


I would be interested to see whats in the box, so keep us up to date.

 

[technerd]

Also, from what I understand, NextAlarm is only via broadband / internet. That's fine for most people.

uControl does look unique considering its special hardware. I have only had NextAlarm for a few weeks so I'm not going to try to defend it or anything, but they do offer POTS, Cellular (with ABN I believe) and soon broadband. You are right, it is easy for a thief to cut your phone or cable which will take out your POTS or Broadband. Cellular is the only one that will most likely work for a determined and smart thief (assuming you have the cellular component well hidden or secured inside).

I am not going to make a feature by feature comparison, but I would guess NextAlarm even with Cell monitoring, etc and a decent match to the features will still be less expensive. But you need to do what your heart tells you, so if you have a good warm feeling about uControl then you need to explore that.

Thanks for the info.

This is what frustrates me about NextAlarm. I visited their website last year about the same time as Alarm.com and DollarAlarm, etc...

Their website is so archaic that it was hard for me to tell exactly what NextAlarm offered in the way of monitoring other than broadband.

uControl may do a much better job of marketing / communication, but it was obvious from the very first visit that uControl was:
1) a plug & play add-on module
2) uses POTS or VOIP
3) uses Broadband
3) uses Cellular

The visual demos showed exactly what the end result would look like.

With NextAlarm after reading tens of web pages I'm still scratching my head as to what they offer, how they offer it, and how it will look and feel like as an end result.

I'm glad after all my research to finally find out from you that NextAlarm does offer POTS and cellular... Can you describe your install - how it went, what was required, etc?