ELK, NextAlarm and no landline

[MrSoul]

I would love to get rid of my expensive land line for my Elk monitoring via NextAlarm.

I've searched extensively, and I'm confused as to whether the M1XEP can communicate directly to NextAlarm, or if it's required to purchase and install the ABN adapter from them. Any clarification is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[apostolakisl]

This doesn't directly answer your question, however, I have used an HAI C3 unit and an additional cell phone line with my Elk and it works perfectly. It is a lot cheaper than a landline and, unlike land lines and IP connections, is tamperproof from outside the house. The c3 is like $250 and the additional cell phone line is $10/mo and I am monitored by watchlight. It only uses a couple minutes per month of shared minutes.

 

[Del91574]

You need to talk to Nextalarm, but I would not use an ABN on an alarm panel. Many different cellular options available depending on who they support, what you want to do and economics involved.

 

[Sandpiper]

With NextAlarm, and ABN is definitely required. However, there is a recent thread in Cocoontech about Alarm Relay supporting direct IP monitoring from the M1XEP. Do a search for Alarm Relay.

 

[Del91574]

The ABN provides a handshake and kissoff to the panel, irregardless of if a connection is present or successful to Nextalarm, so it's a huge leap of faith. The panel and you would never know if there were communication issues or even a failure, so it's just like asking a neighbor to look after your house, might work, might not.

 

[drvnbysound]

This doesn't directly answer your question, however, I have used an HAI C3 unit and an additional cell phone line with my Elk and it works perfectly. It is a lot cheaper than a landline and, unlike land lines and IP connections, is tamperproof from outside the house. The c3 is like $250 and the additional cell phone line is $10/mo and I am monitored by watchlight. It only uses a couple minutes per month of shared minutes.

I saw the HAI unit on their site a while back. I thought it was a great idea, but it's not very pragmatic for those on non-GSM carriers. I'm not going to switch carriers because the coverage in my area, and I'm not going to setup a separate GSM carrier account just for this. :unsure:

 

[drvnbysound]

I would love to get rid of my expensive land line for my Elk monitoring via NextAlarm.

I've searched extensively, and I'm confused as to whether the M1XEP can communicate directly to NextAlarm, or if it's required to purchase and install the ABN adapter from them. Any clarification is appreciated. Thanks.

I still haven't come to a conclusion for myself on the HAI vs. Elk part (hopefully I get some clarity at ISC West in a couple of weeks), but I don't have a land-line, and as mentioned above I am on a CDMA carrier so something like the C3 is not an option for me. I do plan to use NextAlarm, so I would love to know the solution you end up with.

 

[tmbrown97]

If you're going to ISC, I think Spanky eluded to the fact that Elk might have some surprising new showings as well... I've been anxiously waiting to hear what comes out of that.

Any reason not to consider the IP communications direct from the M1 to AlarmRelay? As for current cellular backup technology - it's all about to become obsolete over the next year with everything moving to 4G - a lot of the carriers are making significant changes to their towers. Of course existing stuff will be supported for years, but you should start seeing new devices coming out that support LTE pretty soon - and when that happens, and there's coverage in your area, you should be able to choose between Verizon or AT&T - they'll both have SIM based options. The tower configurations are changing; their networks are changing; coverage areas and details will change rapidly... so if you haven't even chosen a platform yet maybe you can focus on what works for IP and in a few months look at cellular again.

 

[drvnbysound]

If you're going to ISC, I think Spanky eluded to the fact that Elk might have some surprising new showings as well... I've been anxiously waiting to hear what comes out of that.

Any reason not to consider the IP communications direct from the M1 to AlarmRelay? As for current cellular backup technology - it's all about to become obsolete over the next year with everything moving to 4G - a lot of the carriers are making significant changes to their towers. Of course existing stuff will be supported for years, but you should start seeing new devices coming out that support LTE pretty soon - and when that happens, and there's coverage in your area, you should be able to choose between Verizon or AT&T - they'll both have SIM based options. The tower configurations are changing; their networks are changing; coverage areas and details will change rapidly... so if you haven't even chosen a platform yet maybe you can focus on what works for IP and in a few months look at cellular again.

Honestly, I haven't looked at this at all really. I just know that I don't have a land-line and wanted to see what guidance was given or selected to get connectivity between the M1 and NextAlarm.

As far as cellular... very true. However, until further developments, it's just a matter of having to deal with, or figure out an alternative for a back-up connection method, in the unlikely event that my ISP flakes out at the same time someone tried to break in.

ISC will be a work trip for me, but that will not discourage me from stopping into all of the HA booths to check out new toys

 

[Del91574]

If you're going to ISC, I think Spanky eluded to the fact that Elk might have some surprising new showings as well... I've been anxiously waiting to hear what comes out of that.

Any reason not to consider the IP communications direct from the M1 to AlarmRelay? As for current cellular backup technology - it's all about to become obsolete over the next year with everything moving to 4G -

IP is viable IF there is appropriate safeguards and policies attached to the account. The problem with IP in most situations is the end-user does not typically have enterprise grade service or hardware installed, which makes a difference for reliability. The IP DACT's need to have a heartbeat supervision and there needs to be an appropriate response on loss of supervision. The cellular issue is not a major sticking point because most manufacturers don't rush to market with a product like that due to UL and other standards that must be met, same reason why a lot of equipment takes time to be updated/upgraded in the alarm world, not because they're being archaic, but because the equipment must work reliably all the time, they can't go with a flavor of the week technology.

 

[electron]

Could one use a GSM based prepaid phone' SIM, since it doesn't seem to use many minutes?

 

[apostolakisl]

Could one use a GSM based prepaid phone' SIM, since it doesn't seem to use many minutes?

Yes. Most likely you will need to reload the account because of minute expiration, not use.

I see that t-mobile sells 30 minutes for $10.00 I don't know how long the minutes go until expiring, but it has to be at least a month. So, at most it is $10/mo (if you have more than 30 minutes of false alarms a month you need some help!)

 

[electron]

Tracfone sells 60 minutes, good for 3 months, for $19.99. I have one at home, will have to check if it's GSM based, but that would be about $6/month. That said, doesn't the system check in on a regular basis with the monitoring center? Wouldn't that use minutes?

 

[WayneW]

I've searched extensively, and I'm confused as to whether the M1XEP can communicate directly to NextAlarm, or if it's required to purchase and install the ABN adapter from them. Any clarification is appreciated. Thanks.

No, NextAlarm does NOT support monitoring the XEP directly via IP using Osbourne-Hoffman. NextAlarm has claimed that they will support the XEP via Surgard "in the very near future" (but they said that about OH years ago also).

With NextAlarm, and ABN is definitely required. However, there is a recent thread in Cocoontech about Alarm Relay supporting direct IP monitoring from the M1XEP. Do a search for Alarm Relay.

No, it is not "required" from a technical perspective. Lots of people use Vonage or other VOIPs without issue, although there are some with issues, so YMMV depending upon VOIP provider and local infrastructure. NextAlarm policy is that everyone with VIOP should be using their ABN instead of standard VOIP (but they do not enforce this).

The ABN provides a handshake and kissoff to the panel, irregardless of if a connection is present or successful to Nextalarm, so it's a huge leap of faith. The panel and you would never know if there were communication issues or even a failure, so it's just like asking a neighbor to look after your house, might work, might not.

I have heard multiple similar comments from multiple people, but cannot find anything to support the claim that the ABN simply captures and then forwards. From everything I have read, the NextAlarm ABN is simply a tweaked/locked router/VOIP box configured to communicate directly with their monitoring center (possibly an Asterisk server) via IP. Has anybody on CT with an ABN tested what happens when the ABN is disconnected from the internet and the Elk tries to report? Any capture and forward device (ABN or whatever) would make me nervous since it gives a false sense of security. This brings up one of my favorite requests: that the Elk M1 should log when it has to resort to your backup (i.e. cellular) communication method so that you are aware of communications failures. Otherwise you could be virtually relying on your "backup" method as your sole means of reporting and would never be aware.
https://nextalarm.com/abn.jsp

 

[Ira]

AT&T has a "true" pay-as-you-go plan, i.e., you are charged a flat $0.10/minute, regardless of how many minutes you use. This particular plan does not require pre-paid minutes, so if you only use ten minutes in a month, it only costs you $1.00 (plus taxes, fees, etc.). I was looking at this plan a while back because I'm a Verizon customer but wanted to use the HAI C3 as a backup for my POTS line. I never got any further than looking at AT&T's website to see what they offered. This particular plan is still offered, but I would suggest stopping by an AT&T store (or calling) to find out what the actual charges can be.