Joshua Unseth Posts

Hey everyone! Today is "Black Friday," and we have some great deals for you! We have a smattering of stuff we're putting on sale from today until Monday. And below is the list! Don't miss these deals, because they go away as soon as Monday is in the books.

Every order over $50 is getting 5% off!!!!!

All you have to do is fill your cart up, and the discount should be applied.

Garage Door Z-Wave Controllers are $32 off right now (44% off)

Ok, 44% might seem like an arbitrary number to mark something down. But it's not. It's basically as cheap as we're able to put these garage door sensors before we make absolutely nothing on them. We have lots of them, and we want to get rid of them. If you have a LYNXTouch, and you want to add garage door control to your alarm system, there has never been a better time than now!

Buy the 5877GDPK today!

All ProSiX Heat & Smokes are Marked Down $5

Truth, we should have offered you smokes and heats before you cooked that turkey yesterday. That is one of the highest fire-risk days of the year. But you're going to cook a turkey next year too. And not just that, but what about the rest of the days of the year. Protect everything that's precious to you with Alarm Grid's fire safety devices. We just really want all our customers to add smokes and heats to their systems. It costs nothing extra to add them, and if something happens, you'll be happy you did.

Get Pro-SiX Heat Detectors

Get Pro-SiX Smoke Detectors

$50 off Our Most Popular Security System Kit!

Our price on this kit is unbelievable! The ProA7 is our premier security system. It is the best that Resideo has to offer, and the most popular alarm system that we sell. We are selling our base level kit for $50 less than we normally sell it. If you're planning to upgrade an old system or get a new system, there has never been a better deal than this. $382.99 is for this weekend only. We hope that any of you that are thinking of buying a system in the near future take advantage of this deal before it goes away on Monday!

Buy Your 3 Sensor, 1 Motion Kit Today!

3 Months of Free Alarm Monitoring

This offer is for new customers only. We think you'll love our service. We want you to try it for 3 months free. Alarm Grid's service is unlike any other in the industry. For one, you can leave any time you want because we have no contracts. But if you couple that truth with the fact that we have the best service in the industry, you'll hopefully find that leaving isn't really something you ever intend to do. If you're feeling skeptical, that's ok, take 3 months free, try the service, and test our tech team relentlessly while you're with us.

We can't wait to have you on board. Sign up for monitoring today!

Corporate surveillance is on the rise. Including in the home security industry. Whereas the industry used to be dominated by local ma' and pa' shops who couldn't care less about what you're doing and why, the introduction of megacorps into the industry have changed the landscape entirely. We know that Google and Amazon in particular, but many others as well, are deeply interested in everything you do. They want as much of your social graph as possible so that they can feed you relevant ads or sell your data to brokers who can monetize it in other ways. In fact, most of the companies we interact with on a daily basis are not particularly good at keeping your information out of the hands of people who want to buy it. It makes sense when you realize that sharing your data is essentially a consequence free (to the sellers), cash-making enterprise. But for you, the consequences can be incredibly invasive, frustrating, and even a bit scary.

Enter the rise of OPSEC. OPSEC is shorthand for Operational Security. For the OPSEC-curious, you'll know that the field is deep and wide, and, for the most part, it adds large inconveniences to the lives of those who practice it. For the uninitiated, let me define it. OPSEC is, more or less, the practice of being as private as possible. The goal of OPSEC is to be less leaky data-wise. This can encompass a whole set of complicated digital practices from installing privacy operating systems on your phones to using browsers you've never heard of, to configuring your computer's display settings, to literally running your own search engine. And, depending on the depth of your practice, it can leak into the real world. It is absurdly complicated to live a normal life that looks off-the-grid to corporations but on-the-grid to your friends.

As a Bitcoin enthusiast myself, I have taken a strong interest in OPSEC. And the inspiration for this article is a combination of things. Timing-wise, I'm writing it now, because I came across an article on page 9 of the 1st edition of "Unredacted" Magazine entitled, "I Installed Your Alarm System."

The article is a scary diary entry of a rogue installer that logs into an account and watches his customers video cameras. He obliquely explains how he does it. The reality is, traditional monitoring is rife with security problems, which can be a problem if you don't trust your company. Even if you trust them, the information leak is considerable. So I thought, I might write a guide that will allow you to leak as little data as possible.

1) Sign Up for Alarm Grid monitoring Using SimpleLogin

This service allows you to maintain some privacy with regard to your email. It disambiguates your email from your person, allowing you to pick a single email address for each service you sign up for. Or, you can use it in any other way you'd like. I, personally, use it so that no one can create a personal profile of me based on my email address. I recommend you sign up with Alarm Grid because, well, this is Alarm Grid. I also know the practices of my company. We have no interest in monetizing your data. How can you know that to be true? You can't. But take the hint here. I'm telling you how to buy an account anonymously. Trust me on this. We don't care about your data.

2) Pay for the monitoring service using Privacy.com

Privacy.com is a wonderful service that will disambiguate your identity from the card you use. You can pick any name, address, zip code, expiration date, etc, and sign up for monitoring. If you're in Alaska, but you want to tell us you're in Oklahoma, Privacy.com prevents us from finding out.

3) Sign up for any of our accounts

If you follow these practices, you can actually sign up for monitoring of any type and be anonymous. Yes, this includes, monitored accounts. When you are working with us to set up the central station, you can decide how you want each zone to behave. If you want us to call a guard service, or a police station, or no one at all, that is an option. The guard service is a particularly interesting piece of the puzzle. They are not police, and they will not publish the incident in the local newspaper. Rather, if you can find one in your location, they are a service that can receive alarm calls and will send someone out to an address to verify if a break-in is happening. If it is happening, then, and only then, would they initiate a call to the police (unless you ask them not to).

That said, the self-monitoring option puts everything in your hands. You will have an app on your phone that receives messages, text, and/or email alerts telling you what your system is doing. Again, in this app, you can give simplelogin.io emails, you can use a Jabber number if you so choose, or you can use a proton mail account if you'd like. The options are endless, and you can use the service without leaking any data.

4) Don't use cameras with an online service component

I'm not saying that no one should use cameras. Rather, if you're security-minded, and OPSEC is your priority, cameras that shoot out over the internet aren't for you. You'll want a local server, if you want cameras at all, to host your files. You can tunnel into your server from outside if you need to. This is a very typical setup.

Using these methods, you can properly obfuscate nearly everything about yourself. With Alarm Grid, no one has to come to your home. In fact, if you need security products, you could use some kind of freight forwarder to ship the items to yourself. This with privacy.com would allow you to not leak your actual address.

This is the perfect service for the security minded, celebrities, Bitcoin whales, or anyone else who simply doesn't want anything about them known to even the company monitoring their alarm. The Unredacted article paints a bleak picture about something that is completely avoidable. If you don't want your data leaked, you don't have to leak it. Following these practices, you don't even need to trust your security company, so long as they actually attach the system to the interactive service (Alarm.com or Total Connect). It just takes a bit of planning, work, and the right company.

This post is late. It should have been written a week and a half ago.

A week and a half ago, on a Saturday afternoon, Alarm Grid lost one of its youngest, most vibrant employees. For many years Michael Goris has been Alarm Grid's prolific content writer. He is responsible for thousands and thousands of articles, words, FAQs, and more. Sadly, on August 07, 2021, Michael passed away at the age of 28.

I have been thinking for the last week what there is to say about Michael. This blog has thousands of visitors each month. And this site has hundreds of thousands. Michael's writings will never be found bound in a book. He'll never get around to that novel he told me he wanted to write. But here on this site, thousands of words were spilled.

Michael started working at Alarm Grid on August 23, 2017. Since that date, the blog alone has been read by 515,000 unique readers. The FAQs have been accessed by more than 4.5 million unique readers. The products have been accessed by more than 2.7 million unique readers. During his time here:

• Michael wrote 2096 FAQs; 1,050,000 words at least.
  
• Michael wrote 880 blog posts; 440,000 words at least.
• Michael wrote nearly 700 descriptions for products; 374,500 words at least.
• Michael wrote descriptions for 80 videos; 40,500 words at least.

There may be, literally, no person on earth who wrote more content about alarm equipment. To give you an idea, Tolstoy's War and Peace contains 587,287 words. Michael wrote more than 3 times that amount about home security equipment.

The industry has lots to thank him for. While many of the people that come to this site are homeowners working to save money on their alarm system, we know that many of you are installers. If you are one of the many installers that have been benefited by any of Michael's writings today or in the future, he has touched your life in a small way. If you are a homeowner, it is our team along with Michael's writings that have kept you and your family's security system in working order.

We will greatly miss Michael as a business. But more than that, Michael was an affable, happy 28 year old whom many of us considered a personal friend. Michael was a quirky man who surprised us at every turn. He loved Pokemon, and would battle opponents online at his desk. He would regularly give me updates on his world rankings as a player. Apparently he was very good. He loved esoteric music that I've never heard, and am not even sure I can describe. I think he liked anime generally, but never really talked about it. He loved his family. Whenever he would discuss things with us that were troubling him at work, he would come back the next day telling us he'd consulted with his mother or sister for counsel. He loved people. I remember in the interview I had with Michael, he said to me, "will I be able to make friends here?" He didn't want to work at a place where he disliked his coworkers or where they disliked him. He requested that his desk be in the support room and not in an office somewhere else.

One of my fondest memories of Michael, however, was one year at ISC West, the security industry's biggest conference. The team had had a late night. The next morning, Michael's roommate awoke. Michael wasn't in his bed. He was nowhere to be found. He reemerged around Breakfast time. Michael had run the ISC West 5k with almost no sleep or preparation. He placed 26 out of 417 runners posting a 21 minute and 59 second time. We were all in awe of the feat.

And so, I will admit, while my business will miss Michael, I will miss Michael as well. In fact, I have already been missing Michael.

For those of you who have been benefited by Michael's work, I encourage you to write his family a note in the official obituary. It would be nice for them to know that even though you didn't know it, your life intersected with his briefly, and to leave a small thank you. Feel free to comment below as well. Alarm Grid's staff is grieving as well and would appreciate any kind words you have for us.

So again, I apologize for the lateness of this post. But as you, perhaps, now understand, it is late because there was no one here to write it.

Update: The phones are working again.

Hey everyone! Our phone system appears to be down at this very second. If you call in, you'll get a "We are currently unable to connect this call" message. We are working with the company that administers our phones to get it back up, which we assume will happen shortly. In the meantime, we are staffing our chat app with more support members. Feel free to use that until we get the phone numbers back up and running.

Many of you have noticed that the last week our service has been a little bit lackluster. We apologize for this. More than half of our support team has been hit with COVID-19. The result is that our tickets are taking a bit longer to get to, and we are a bit slower to answer support calls. We appreciate the high level of support our customers have come to expect, and we will, hopefully, be back up and running at the same support level within the next week or two. In the meantime, we sincerely apologize to anyone who has experienced an interruption due to the current circumstances.

In the meantime, we ask for your patience, understanding, and good thoughts and prayers for those on our team who have fallen ill. Everyone here is expected to make a full recovery, which we are exceedingly grateful for.

As our team members get back, we will begin the process of catching up, and getting back to supporting customers at the same high level we are known for.

Thank you for your understanding.

9/11 is a day I will never forget. I was a younger man back then, but the images of the two towers smoldering and falling down are seared into my memory. "America is under attack." Those are the words that were uttered by the Principle of my small Catholic school in the great state of Minnesota during a hastily gathered together convocation. Minutes after the student body gathered the first tower toppled into a heap, and shortly thereafter, the second tower followed. America stopped. Our airline industry ground to a halt. For those not old enough to remember, envision a sky with no airplanes. Envision a country filled with people who's stomachs would turn when they would hear the very occasional military Jet scramble. America went silent after 9/11, and everything changed.

I remember the patriotism that engulfed America. Americans hung flags from their cars, put little flags on their lawns, and proudly united around all the things that make this country great. I remember the brave firemen and policemen that waded through the rubble searching for America's living and dead. Many of those first responders lost their lives from complications attributed to the soot and chemicals kicked up by the falling towers. Today, we honor those brave men and women.

In the ensuing years, our country has been stuck in the miry quagmire of wars all over the Middle East responding to those that perpetrated terror on us on that terrible day in the year 2001. Those men and women are heroes, and I am humbled by their commitment to serving the country.

Little did I know then that 20 years later, I would be leading a company that worked closely with the nation's first responders. Alarm Grid is a proud partner with those men and women. We are honored to make both the people we serve and those men and women who serve us more safe. We hope that we continue to do them proud as they serve our country day-to-day. We hope to work with them and you for many many years to come.

Bless you all, and bless America on this most sacrosanct day.

We are writing this post because in the last few days, a small minority of customers have called in frustrated by shipping times.

Our shipping team is working hard every day to get your product out to you quickly.

Unfortunately, once we pick, pack, and ship the products you ordered, we don't have any control about what happens to the product in the process of shipping. So far, we are noticing more packages arriving a day (sometimes 2 and rarely, but sometimes, 3 days) beyond our quoted timeframe. While our quoted timeframes are meant to be estimates, we understand that it can be frustrating to get a package after you expected it to be delivered.

At the moment, as the package carriers in the United States are being overwhelmed by people turning to online ordering. From what we can tell, a huge majority of products are being delivered just as they always have been. But a few more products than usual, for whatever reason, are showing up beyond what we would normally consider acceptable.

We ask for a little bit of patience. We are getting product out the door quickly - even as our warehouse is short-staffed. And UPS and USPS are getting your packages to you as fast as is humanly possible. Everyone is doing everything they can to get you the product and service you ordered as quickly as possible.

At this time, there are no refunds for late receipt of a shipment. When we ship the items, we are sending them in accordance with our shipping policy, as we normally do. Whether they arrive on time is not up to us. And our carriers have stopped refunding us for late arrival of product for the time being. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Alarm Grid isn't your traditional alarm company. We're a little bit different. We're a young company built in the modern age. We use the same old technology, but we use things like YouTube and online content to teach you how to use it. Most companies obscure how these systems work. They will hide codes from you. They'll have provisions in their contracts that let them take the system back when you leave them. At Alarm Grid, we believe you own your system; you own your codes. We give you the tools to take full control of the security you so desperately want for your family. Oh! I almost forgot. We don't have contracts.

We think that we just do things better here. We rely on high quality service. Our team is incredibly knowledgeable. They know these security systems in and out. But now, as everyone is sitting at home on their sofa's trying to figure out how to fill their time, there is even more reason to work with us.

There is no better time than now to secure your home and family.

Alarm Grid Doesn't Send Anyone to Your Home

When you get an alarm system, most people expect someone to show up to their home and put it on the wall. Not Alarm Grid! To date, Alarm Grid has been for the enterprising do-it-yourselfer. But in the age of coronavirus, we're really the best way for you to keep your quarantine, socially distance, and get the protection your family needs in a unpredictable world.

Our process is simple:

• If you have a security system, you can just sign up and give us all the system information we need. We can help you find that information if you need to. But we can monitor most systems.
• If you need a security system, you can find a whole bunch of different systems that you can install in your own home. Pick your system, and watch our installation video on that system. Once we ship you the system and it arrives, you'll be able to get it up in an hour or two. It's fun, easy, and perfectly safe. Program the sensors to it. Voilla, you have a brand new, professional security system installed by you.

Our Systems are the Same Systems ADT and Other Big Name Brands Install

Notice I said "professional security system" above. We don't sell janky or cheap systems. We sell top of the line security systems. Our systems are used in millions of restaurants, businesses, and homes all over America. That's right, millions of people have the systems we sell. They are the same systems that an installer would put in if you ordered from one of the big names in the industry. So you don't have to worry about the quality of these security systems. Your family will be as safe as ever.

While we have lots and lots of choices available, our two favorite systems are the Qolsys IQ Panel Plus and the Honeywell Lyric. Read about the differences, if you are trying to decide between these two incredible systems.

The biggest difference between these two systems is that the Honeywell Lyric is compatible with Apple's HomeKit. The Qolsys is not compatible with HomeKit. However, both work excellently as Z-Wave home automation controllers. Both systems can be controlled from a phone or computer. The Qolsys is compatible with Alarm.com's interactive services. Honeywell's Lyric is compatible with Total Connect. Both Alarm.com and Total Connect allow for remote management of your system. Finally, the Lyric's communicator is removable. The Qolsys's communicator is built in.

Old alarm systems used a phone line to send signals. This means that when someone broke into a home, the system would make a literal phone call, and deliver information to the central station. The central station would then call the police and give the dispatch information for checking on your property.

Phone lines are notoriously insecure. For the enterprising thief, in order to disable the alarm system, they would simply cut your home's telephone wire. But the bigger problem came as phone systems modernized. We moved from analog copper phone wires to digital phones and, many times, digital switching. This causes phone calls to be less clean and pure than they used to be. Signals from these devices can become problematic for central stations.

Modern security systems no longer send signals through the phone. Rather they use an IP connection and a cellular back up. IP suffers from some of the same security concerns as the old phone lines. Someone can cut an IP system's line. But, when coupled with the cell signal, modern security systems are both cheaper and more secure than the old analog systems. Oh, and they're far less complicated as well. As computers have advanced, they have progressed from old wired systems with wonky keypads to new beautiful systems with excellent user interfaces. And that's where we come in. We help you learn how to select, buy, and install your system.

If that sounds appealing to you, call us today!

855-945-1433

If you're still intimidated though, perhaps it will help you to know that you can...

See Everything You Need to Do for a DIY Installation by Watching a Step-by-Step Video

Don't get too intimidated. The secret of the alarm industry is that installing these devices is really easy. We have videos of everything, including installation.

If you dislike video, we have lots of written FAQs. And if you dislike those, you can call us. We can teach you to install the system, learn sensors into the system, and we can give you an overview of how the system works all over the phone.

Whatever the case, if you're at home, trying to figure out what you're going to do for the next few months, consider checking "Get a Security System" off of your bucket list. And do it all without breaking your quarantine or social distancing rules.

We Have No Contracts

Alarm Grid is a month to month service. You can cancel any time. We basically invented the concept of no contract alarm monitoring. Traditional companies usually require that you sign a 3 year deal. You'll pay a lot more than we charge. And the service they give you will cost more every time they do what's called, "roll a truck." That's industry speak for "sending someone to your house to fix a small problem." And the problem with that is, you don't know the repairman from Adam. You never know who you're going to get... if you know what I mean...

The truth is, we've rarely had to roll a truck. Our goals is to not send someone out ever. This Coronavirus thing doesn't changed anything for us. We have been doing this for years. Most fixes to your security system take mere minutes. And almost never are any of the fixes a system needs so difficult that you won't be able to do it on your own. If you don't believe it, check out our reviews.

These reviews are real. We don't hide them, we don't suppress them. They are all verifiable, real customers of Alarm Grid's. But remember, behind the no contracts, and no strings attached thing is an implicit promise we have to our customers. If you hate us, you can leave us. Because we aren't making proprietary systems, because we're helping you install professional systems, because we want you to be our customer for a long time, we have to be great to you. We have to help you from beginning to end. We have to work you through problems you encounter in the installation. If we don't, you can leave the very next month. We promise you!

Your experience is all we care about. So while you're sitting at home, bored off your fanny, give us a call. Let us help you get a brand new security system or take over your existing one. You won't regret it. In fact, you'll probably love it. And if you have kids, it's so easy, you can probably just make them do it. Maybe they'll learn something. We'll call it homeschooling... in the subject of "computer science" or something. Whatever the case, we'll work with you.

Call us today, and see how different we are.

855-945-1433

Today, as a result of the Coronavirus's spread, we have made the decision to close our Florida office. Our goal is to do this process without causing a huge disruption. That said, we will be a bit short-staffed for a few hours this morning. While the office staff is taking their workstations home and getting set up, our staff in Kentucky and Connecticut will be picking up the slack.

Much of this will be happening this morning. We are hoping that everyone will be up and running, fully staffed by 11am EST.

Because of this transition, however, please be courteous when you call. Understand that we are not at 100% early this morning. If you get the option to leave a message, rest assured, we will get to your call. We are attempting to do our part to make sure that we as a nation can "flatten the curve," as well as working to ensure that we are able to continually provide service to all of you throughout this crisis.

Be safe!