Home Security Blog

Last week, Yahoo made a change to their DMARC policy. DMARC stands for Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance. It is an email authentication method meant to curb spoofing of email addresses and other abuses. On the surface, this change seems like it might be a positive one. After all, who among us does not hate email abuse? But in practice, the change had a lot of unintended consequences.

The change that Yahoo made no longer allows their emails to be sent from outside of their system. What that means in practice is that if you send an email from a yahoo address to an email address whose provider checks against DMARC (which is most reputable email providers), the email will not get through.

You may never be affected by the DMARC change, then again, you may have already been affected and not even known about it. If you sent an email from a yahoo email address in the last week to Alarm Grid, for example, we didn't get it. The reason is that when you send an email to support@alarmgrid.com, the way it works is that it goes from your email to a ticketing system, that ticketing system then forwards your email to our techs who use Gmail. Gmail sees that your email was sent from a Yahoo address, but that it was forwarded from our ticketing system, checks the DMARC policy, then rejects your email because it wasn't sent directly from the Yahoo address.

As you can imagine, this has been a major headache for us being that we are absolutely 100% about customer service, and this change has caused us to miss a massive numbers of questions and requests from our customers. So we wanted to apologize to anyone who sent us an email in the last week from a Yahoo address. We were not trying to ignore you, we simply did not see your email. If you are one of Alarm Grid's customers that this affected, you should be receiving a response to your message promptly as they are sitting in our ticketing system and we are auditing missed messages as we speak.

That said, since Yahoo seems to be uncommitted to resolving the havoc-wreaking issue caused by their change, even lauding this adjustment as a pioneering change that the rest of the industry is sure to follow, we recommend that you strongly consider changing your email from Yahoo to a provider that, as of yet, has not made unilateral decisions that break the way most people use the internet. Internally at Alarm Grid, we use Gmail. It is free, its storage capacity is incredibly large, and it's functionality is better than any paid service we have yet seen. Even so, there are plenty of other services out there that are both free and very functional. Going forward, while we will do our best to make sure that all emails are answered, it is our belief that your life will be made much easier if you begin the search for a new email provider.

As you know, we take security very seriously at Alarm Grid. Both home and internet security. So we wanted to speak on the Heartbleed vulnerability the Internet has been buzzing about since yesterday.

For those of you that are unaware, Heartbleed is the codename of a serious bug that was exposed in OpenSSL, a popular implementation of the SSL protocol. SSL is the security protocol that secure sites, like e-commerce stores, use to make sure your information is encrypted as you go to make purchased and give sensitive information.

Like most of the Internet, Alarm Grid's servers do use OpenSSL and thus we were susceptible to this bug. We have already fixed the issue in less than 24 hours of notice by patching our servers and replacing our SSL certificates.

Though, there is a hypothetical chance that your password on Alarm Grid could have been compromised. There is zero evidence that it has been, but as a precautionary method we recommend you change your password on Alarm Grid and any site you have used in the last two years. Yes, that's how long this bug has been present, even though it was just discovered yesterday.

It's important to note that we are fully PCI-compliant and do NOT store your credit card information, so there is no chance that your credit card information could have been compromised from our site. We also do not store any passwords or codes from your home security system. So luckily, there is very little risk to you as an Alarm Grid customer.

Please, make sure you change your password everywhere on the Internet and hope the sites you frequent are as crazy about security as we are!

As Honeywell gets ready to release their newest security system, there has been very little released regarding its functionality. Fortunately, ahead of schedule, we have received one of their beta version of the L5200, which we are excited about testing at the Alarm Grid lab.

Since we have yet to test it out, we have very little data about it, so far. What we know is pretty rudimentary, though we will report more as we get a chance to test the unit out.

But as you can see by the picture at the bottom of this post, the L5200's hard buttons have been reduced from four to two: the home and the panic buttons are the only press-able buttons on the unit. It came with the same power supply as the L5100, and battery as well.

According to the spec sheet we were given, the 4.5 inch Graphic touch display screen supports Alarmnet's IP video cameras, the L5100-WIFI and a GSMVLP5-4G will work with the new units as well as the L5100-ZWAVE module. The spec sheet indicates, however, that in order for the WIFI module to work in the L5200, it must be revision 4.97 or higher.

The L7000 has some significantly different specs, though we will report on that as soon as we receive our beta unit.

Our headquarters is in Lighthouse Point, FL, not so far from the quaint little city of Boca Raton. Alarm Grid has clients all throughout Florida, and in much of the United States. We are proud of how we treat our clients, and do whatever we can to serve them well.

Part of serving you is making sure that our municipal registrations are up to date, a daunting task, as you can imagine considering there are around 9,000 municipalities in the United States.

But that, combined with our state of the art equipment, like the Honeywell L5100, our reliable alarm monitoring service, are what ensure that you get an expeditious response from Boca's friendly police force if your property is being compromised.

Alarm Grid has received its permit to provide alarm monitoring services in Boca Raton under account #581.

If you are a resident of Boca Raton, you are responsible for knowing your city's ordinances and regulations. While we are permitted to monitor your system, you are responsible for paying any municipal fees that are owed to the city of Boca Raton or filling in any required registration forms.

We're proud to announce a brand new alarm monitoring checkout here at Alarm Grid. Before we go into the details of our fancy new system, let's go over a quick little history of the old checkout.

We love our e-commerce software, Spree - perhaps more than people should love any software. It let us launch and grow incredibly quickly, all while be very flexible. Maybe a little too flexible to the point of letting us building build original monitoring checkout in it.

Spree was designed for purchasing and shipping physical products. It's amazing for people looking to buy security systems from us. It's helped us tackle complex e-commerce problems like taxation zones, fulfillment, shipping, handling of RMAs and many other things that don't apply to a service like monitoring.

But for our users looking to sign up for alarm monitoring? It was a little silly to have them adding a "Monitoring Plus" product to their shopping cart and going through a whole multi-step checkout process.

Plus it meant you had to pay for your first month of monitoring before we even had you activated. That always bothered us and was one of the primary driving factors behind the new system.

Now? We're proud to announce a single-page checkout for Alarm Monitoring. But beyond that, it has plenty of tricks and features up its sleeve!

For instance, now if you have an account with us and previously purchased equipment we'll automatically fill in your address for you.

And if you're a security enthusiast like us? We're porud to announce our credit card system is powered by Stripe.js. That means your credit card information never even gets sent to us or stored by us.

Perhaps the biggest change? Our new activation setup page. After you complete your checkout you'll be taken to an activation page you can always return until activation under "My Account."

This amazing page is loaded with information for you and let's you send information to your alarm technician before your activation, saving both of us a ton of time.

So please, direct any and all comments and suggestions about the new monitoring checkout in the comments below. We'd love to hear your thoughts.

Ever worked for a startup? Want to?

While Alarm Grid is a new alarm company, this is not a traditional alarm tech job for the traditional alarm technician. We are looking for someone who is interested in building a career and who strongly believes in Alarm Grid's Do-It-Yourself business model.

While a traditional alarm tech job requires hours of intensive labor, Alarm Grid's techs work from the comfort of an office. Our goal is to build the most customer-centric company that has ever existed in the home security space, and we want someone who desires to be a part of that.

If you think that you would be a great fit for Alarm Grid, please send us your resume. We are giving preference to applicants from Florida. We are also looking for individuals with a good amount of experience in the industry. Knowledge of Compass software, AlarmNet Direct website and Honeywell wired and wireless security system programming is strongly desired.

Duties and Responsibilities:

As a Remote Alarm Technician, you would:

Answer calls and emails from customers who have questions about their current system. Help customers install and service their equipment and activate monitoring accounts over the phone and through email support. Provide advice to customers who are thinking of purchasing a system.

Education and Experience

Skills

Compensation will be commensurate with experience.

We're proud to say that as of today, we are making available the 10-sensor kit. It will come, complete with everything that is in the L5100PK, but it will include 7 additional wireless door/window sensors, and all of the sensors will be 5811s instead of 5816s. These kits are being release din four different configurations to ensure that they meet your needs.

Honeywell LYNXZ-KT57 base kit

This is a standard kit without a communicator. If you already have a communicator, want to use the old-school phone line you still have installed in your home, or if you just want to use your system as a local alarm with no central station backup, this kit is perfect for you!

Honeywell LYNXZ-KT57-WIFI

For homes with reliable WIFI/IP, this kit is amazing. While WIFI isn't as secure as cellular communication, for most alarm system users, the security it provides is completely adequate. And with our 24 hour supervision, we will know whether your WIFI is down for significant periods of time. This is the perfect kit for those looking to get affordable alarm monitoring in a big home.

Honeywell LYNXZ-KT57-4G

The 4G communication pathway is often regarded as the most secure pathway available. This kit provides its owners with the ability to take advantage of AT&T's amazingly reliable cellular network. These networks are difficult to disrupt, and will ensure that even the most cunning James Bond-like criminals will be kept at bay.

Honeywell LYNXZ-KT57-WIFI-4G

For Fort Knox level security, this kit ensures that your home is a fortress of safety. The dual path communication makes this a wireless security system that is virtually impossible to take down. In situations where cell networks are flooded (very rare events like Hurricanes), the system will automatically fail over to the WIFI connection. In situations where your WIFI is down, it will fail over to the cellular network. Relying on the redundant communication should give an user piece of mind that their system will be communicating 99.9% of the time.

Alarm Grid has begun selling the Honeywell 5800C2W, a new wired system to wireless system conversion kit. “This marks a real sea change in the alarm industry,” said Joshua Unseth, spokesperson for the company, “it shows a shift in focus from the old wired panels to an industry dominated by wireless technologies.” Years ago, the industry was reticent to accept new RF wireless sensors, since they were regarded as notoriously unreliable. Nowadays, however, wireless installations dominate the market. “It is hard to convince hardwired installers that the new wireless systems are just as good,” Unseth said. “The technology was as of yet unproven just 5 or 10 years ago. But now, these systems have now shown that they can do just as good a job at protecting the lives and the property of everyone who installs them in their home. Anyone who isn't convinced yet is going to be left in the dust by these emerging technologies.”

Honeywell's most popular security system is the LYNX 5100, a touchscreen system that is capable of home automation and home security. While marked down at an affordable price, compared with what a security system used to cost, perhaps the biggest story when it comes to the Honeywell LYNX is the ease of installation. While customers have traditionally relied on professional, licensed installers to put wire panels into a home, these new systems allow access to state-of-the-art home security equipment that runs using simple A/C power, which means that individual homeowners can install a unit on their own, without the help of a professional. That said, until the introduction of the 5800C2W, customers have not had a reliable way to use their already installed wired contacts, which would prompt users who would have been good candidates for a wireless security system to purchase and install one of the wired systems since changing out sensors can be extremely expensive.

“We want to make sure that wireless security is available to anyone that wants it.” Unseth believes very strongly in the implications of wireless technologies to Alarm Grid's future. “Wireless systems are cheaper, at least as reliable, and much more simple to install and use than any wired system on the market.” If that is in fact the case, then there is little doubt that Alarm Grid's future looks very bright.

If you have a home that was pre-wired, you want to use those wires, but you love the features of the Honeywell Lynx, you are in luck!

As of yesterday morning, Honeywell has released its newest product, the 5800C2W. This beautiful, green circuit board is an incredible piece of equipment that should get anyone getting ready to put in a home security system incredibly excited. This 9-zone unit will allow the user to take advantage of all the wired sensors in their home, and convert them into a wireless zone.

Previous to this device, users could accomplish a similar result using the RE208, but since that product was not made by Honeywell, most users simply opted to do an installation of a wired panel, such as the Honeywell VISTA 20P, and install a wireless receiver either at the panel or get one of Honeywell's RF keypads (6162RF, 6152RF) which have the receiver installed internally and do not need to be put onto the panel.

If you've ever done it, a full panel swap-out is a crazy experience, especially if it's your first time trying one. You can do it without too much trouble, but the time involved in the conversion can be a significant investment. With this product, instead of a full system swap-out, all you'll need to do is install a Lynxtouch L5100, then at the old panel, take out each wire, zone by zone, pair it to the zones on this panel, and then use the one-button configuration to have the unit found by the L5100.

If you have more than 9 zones, that's no problem either. Honeywell confirmed with us that you can run more than one of these units at a time. So, if you have around 18 zones on your old Brinks or ADT system and you want to use this item, all you will need to do is buy 2. For those around 27 zones, 3 5800C2Ws will suffice.

In all, this is a huge development for Honeywell, and we're excited to be selling the product. It further emphasizes their commitment to moving in the direction of wireless security technology. And for all you DIYers out there, that should sound like music to your ears!

Keep moving. Nothing much to see here... except a lower price Honeywell's super popular GSM communicators. These Honeywell cellular communicators are used on a majority of Honeywell's wired security systems, including the 10P, the 15P, the 20P and more.

We are lowering the price from $229.99 on the GSMV4G to $213.99 (-7.4%), and the GSMX4G from $224.99 to $200.99 (-11.9%). The GSMX4G-TC2 was $237.99 and will now be $213.99 (-11.1%), and the GSMV4G-TC2 will now be priced at $226.99, down from $252.99 (-11.4%).

Ultimately, these are small changes. But we want to make sure that we are giving you the best deal that we can possibly offer on all of our products. A home security system is a wonderful luxury that gives all of its owners the peace of mind that can only come from knowing that your property and family are safe and secure. The cellular pathway is the most secure available in consumer grade security systems. So we're glad to be able to offer these communicators at such a great price.

If you're in the market for a home security system and all of this is just a little bit over your head, just pick up the phone and give us a call. We will gladly explain the difference between a GSMV4G and an iGSMV4G or any of the other communicators you're interested in learning about.