Notifications
A text or email when the alarm trips, and also for quieter events: a door opening while you are at work, the system being disarmed at 3:40 in the afternoon when the kids get home, a sensor battery running low.
Interactive monitoring
An alarm that talks to you, not just the neighbors
A traditional alarm made a noise and, if you paid for it, called a monitoring center over the phone line. An interactive system does that and also reports to your phone, lets you arm and disarm from anywhere, and keeps working when the line is cut.
How the signal gets out
Every monitored system has one job that matters more than any other: getting an alarm signal to a monitoring center. Older systems used the home's landline, which a burglar could cut at the box outside. Most interactive systems now use a built-in cellular radio as the main path, with broadband as a backup or not at all.
Ask how your system communicates and what happens if that path fails. A cellular panel with a battery backup will keep reporting through a power cut and a dead router. If the answer involves your home internet alone, find out what happens during an outage, and whether the monitoring center is told when the connection drops.
You do not need a separate cellular plan for this. The radio in the panel is covered by the monitoring fee, which is one reason a monitored system carries a monthly charge at all. How that fee is structured is covered in the contract guide.
What interactive adds
Beyond the siren
Remote control
Forgot to arm on the way out? Do it from the car. Contractor at the door? Disarm for them and re-arm when they leave. Many panels also control smart locks, covered under automation.
Two-way voice
Some panels include a speaker and microphone so the monitoring center can talk to whoever is in the house after an alarm. Useful for a medical emergency, and a quick way to cancel a false alarm.
When the panel is attacked
Protection if the keypad is smashed
Every system gives you an entry delay, usually 30 seconds or so, to get to the keypad and disarm. A burglar who knows this can follow the beeping, find the panel and destroy it before the delay runs out, hoping the alarm never gets sent.
Better systems close that gap. The panel reports the entry the moment the door opens, before any countdown ends. If no disarm follows within a few minutes, the monitoring center treats it as an alarm whether or not the panel is still in one piece. Vendors give this different names; ask any installer whether their monitoring handles a destroyed panel, and how.
A typical sequence
- Door opens and the entry delay starts
- Panel sends an entry message straight away
- Intruder finds and smashes the keypad
- No disarm arrives within the window
- Monitoring center raises the alarm anyway
Questions
Monitoring questions
Do I still need a landline?
Usually not. Most current panels communicate over cellular. Check that the system you are offered does, and that it has a battery backup.
Can I add smoke and carbon monoxide detection?
In most systems, yes, and it is worth doing. Ask whether monitoring life-safety sensors costs extra; some providers include it and some do not. More on this in choosing a system.
What about false alarms?
They are mostly caused by user error and badly placed sensors. Pet-tolerant motion detectors, a proper walkthrough on install day and practice with the keypad cut them sharply. See the safety tips for what to do after one.
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