Issues with NextAlarm.com not responding to alarm
- Thread starter CORT
- Start date
Next Alarm has been great for me for the past couple of years. I have had a couple of false alarms, but they called immediately.
A funny story about a false alarm - I received a call from Next Alarm telling me that the front door on my house was triggered. I told them I was an hour away, so they called my neighbor (who is listed on my account as a backup) and they met the sheriff at the house minutes later. I received a call from the neighbor telling me that the sheriff was searching the house because they believed that vandals had entered the house. I asked them what happened. She said "they ran through the house and turned on all of the lights and the fans in the bathrooms". I immediately started to laugh and told her that I didn't think that was the problem. I had just installed zwave switches throughout the house and had programmed an "all on" when an alarm was triggered. I forgot that this would also turn on the fans since they were on a z wave switch. I put zwave switches on the fans so I could turn them on at certain humidity levels. It was a very windy day and the door wasn't latched tight when my kids left and the door had blown open. Luckily the sheriff has a sense of humor and laughed it off. He was convinced that some kids had broken in and were playing a prank on us.
He spoke with me on the phone briefly afterwards and was interested in finding out how I got all of the lights to turn on and thought it was an excellent idea to have the lights turn on when a fire or burglar alarm went off when it was dark out.
A funny story about a false alarm - I received a call from Next Alarm telling me that the front door on my house was triggered. I told them I was an hour away, so they called my neighbor (who is listed on my account as a backup) and they met the sheriff at the house minutes later. I received a call from the neighbor telling me that the sheriff was searching the house because they believed that vandals had entered the house. I asked them what happened. She said "they ran through the house and turned on all of the lights and the fans in the bathrooms". I immediately started to laugh and told her that I didn't think that was the problem. I had just installed zwave switches throughout the house and had programmed an "all on" when an alarm was triggered. I forgot that this would also turn on the fans since they were on a z wave switch. I put zwave switches on the fans so I could turn them on at certain humidity levels. It was a very windy day and the door wasn't latched tight when my kids left and the door had blown open. Luckily the sheriff has a sense of humor and laughed it off. He was convinced that some kids had broken in and were playing a prank on us.
He spoke with me on the phone briefly afterwards and was interested in finding out how I got all of the lights to turn on and thought it was an excellent idea to have the lights turn on when a fire or burglar alarm went off when it was dark out.
GraysonPeddie
Active Member
When I get Elk M1 Gold, I didn't go into CT and ask for help on what security system to choose. I just knew that CT is a big supporter of Elk M1 Gold!
LOL! Make sure your door is sealed tight!
I just have to add to this, I can't believe what I just did. I was trying to see how the panic buttons on my Ekey work. So I logged into my Nextalarm account and placed the account on test for 60 min., I tested my iPhone and watched the alarms come in on my computer via Nextalarm, fine. I was trying to figure out if the alarm was triggered when I pressed the button on the phone to activate the blue light above it or when I pressed it again to turn off the light. Well to make a long story short, I guess alarms go out on both. I saw the alarm come in at Nextalarm for the first press, waited to see the second press, did not see it quick enough and took my account out of test mode. I then proceeded to walk to the garage and do a small project, after about 2 min. of working.....Guess What......Police behind me. When I explained what had happened and that is was my mistake, the officer got a good laugh. When I showed him live video of his patrol car on my iPhone he was impressed. Bottom line Nextalarm did not miss a thing.
Mike
Mike
GraysonPeddie
Active Member
Great information about the use of panic button even if your account is in test mode. It's as if the panic button is not part of the test when you're testing your system.
Steve
Senior Member
WayneW
Senior Member
Grayson, are you sure about your statement? It sounded to me like Mike admitted he took NA out of test mode before the second signal got there. I have never seen any warning that panic buttons are still active in NA test mode.
GraysonPeddie
Active Member
I'm not sure if I'm reading it clearly (I thought I did), but let me see if I can break this down:
Or could it be that the police hears the siren not far from his house?
- He put the account in test mode for 60 minutes.
- While within the timeframe:
- He presses the panic button in his iPhone to light up.
- He presses it again to turn it off.
- He went into NextAlarm to see his first press of the panic button, but did not see the second press.
- This could be due to that his account is out of test mode.
- The police arrived.
Or could it be that the police hears the siren not far from his house?
Grayson, Wayne is correct. I messed up. I took my account out of test mode as the second signal was going through. I use dial up for my connection and I quess my mouse click went through much faster than the alarm signal. My point was, a fast response by Nextalarm and the local police(No fine). Nextalarm even went so far as to call later to make sure all was ok.
Mike
Mike
GraysonPeddie
Active Member
Ah, never mind then. That's cool! 
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