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Or, you know, just cut the landline to the house. Phone lines go down often enough that security monitoring centers cannot respond to every incident. If your sy

Or, you know, just cut the landline to the house. Phone lines go down often enough that security monitoring centers cannot respond to every incident. If your system stops sending the keep-alive, they assume it's just that the line's been cut. There are of course cell based backups now, but those can be blocked with a pretty standard cellphone jammer too. Or, just run in and smash the panel. If you do it quickly enough, it won't send the signal. Or, get a ladder. Most systems do nothing to protect the upstairs of a two story house. Residential security systems are for show and to get discounts on homeowner's insurance. I'm pretty sure the sign up front deters more people than the actual system.

hga 12y ago
Almost none of these are true for where I currently live, the only thing lacking, which it pretty much has to given the reality of invoking the police on wild goose chases, is action beyond the building when the phone line goes down. But in that case the local alarm most certainly goes off ... but not very often at all! AT&T at least here is near rock solid. Do you think insurance companies would give discounts unless the benefits were per their actuaries real? I'm sure the sign does a lot of good, but it's just part of a system of defense in depth which starts there (or perhaps not living in a bad neighborhood).
- IgorPartola 12y ago
  My theory is that the discount is precisely because of the sign. I am convinced that that part does 99% of the work at actually deterring crime. The local alarm won't do anything once you are in the building: just go and turn it off. In fact, get a shirt with the ADT logo, then go rob a house. Nobody will question it.
blueskin_ 12y ago
The first can be countered with a system that uses mobile as a primary or backup. Some systems, e.g. alarm.com ones send a signal to the monitoring centre when an entry door is opened, then if no disarm signal is sent (e.g. the control panel was destroyed), they treat that as an alarm and dispatch police. It's also possible and done by some companies to hide the main control panel somewhere unobtrusive (and mute its speakers) and just place a remote panel by entry points as well as a remote speaker. As for upstairs, that's people being foolish. Myself, I would never accept one that didn't protect upstairs entry points just to save a little bit of money. As they say, a fool and his money^H^H^H^H^Hsecurity are soon parted.

hga 12y ago

Almost none of these are true for where I currently live, the only thing lacking, which it pretty much has to given the reality of invoking the police on wild goose chases, is action beyond the building when the phone line goes down. But in that case the local alarm most certainly goes off ... but not very often at all! AT&T at least here is near rock solid. Do you think insurance companies would give discounts unless the benefits were per their actuaries real? I'm sure the sign does a lot of good, but it's just part of a system of defense in depth which starts there (or perhaps not living in a bad neighborhood).

IgorPartola 12y ago
My theory is that the discount is precisely because of the sign. I am convinced that that part does 99% of the work at actually deterring crime. The local alarm won't do anything once you are in the building: just go and turn it off. In fact, get a shirt with the ADT logo, then go rob a house. Nobody will question it.

blueskin_ 12y ago

The first can be countered with a system that uses mobile as a primary or backup. Some systems, e.g. alarm.com ones send a signal to the monitoring centre when an entry door is opened, then if no disarm signal is sent (e.g. the control panel was destroyed), they treat that as an alarm and dispatch police. It's also possible and done by some companies to hide the main control panel somewhere unobtrusive (and mute its speakers) and just place a remote panel by entry points as well as a remote speaker. As for upstairs, that's people being foolish. Myself, I would never accept one that didn't protect upstairs entry points just to save a little bit of money. As they say, a fool and his money^H^H^H^H^Hsecurity are soon parted.