Home Security Blog

Thanksgiving is right around the corner!

As I think toward the holidays, memories of Turkeys, green bean casserole (hot dish as they call it in my home state of Minnesota), cranberry sauce, and those delicious sweet potatoes sitting underneath a bed of oven-baked marshmallows make my mouth water. It's my favorite holiday, and the accompanying discussion of things we are thankful for make the holiday as sweet as any holiday that ever was.

But let us consider for a second the famous story penned by one of America's most prolific writers, Dr. Seuss: The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.

When all of the Whos were fast asleep, the Grinch into each of their homes slowly creeped. And he took all their gifts and their Christmas trees too. But we at Alarm Grid don't want this to happen to you.

Most Americans begin buying their gifts on that fateful day after Thanksgiving known as Black Friday. And as homes fill with presents, this joyous season has become a bit of a hot time for burglars. And just like the Grinch who stole Christmas, thieves have cast a pall over the holidays for many families who spent time and money to make the holidays a special time for their families.

Much of this can be prevented. So as you get ready to celebrate Thanksgiving, and then charge to the local outlet mall where you will fill your bags full of new computers and tvs or clothes, think about signing up for a service that will protect your home. The mere presence of a security system is a huge deterrent for thieves. And getting it monitored is likely to save Christmas for thousands of families in the coming month.

If you're a homeowner trying to make up your mind about whether to get a monitored home security system or not, it's worth picking up the phone and calling your homeowners insurance provider.

If you didn't know it already, most insurers provide a significant homeowners insurance discount to those who have a home security system. While the discount can range in value, some homeowners receive $5 off their insurance each month, while others have the full cost of their monitored system covered (about $20 per month). If you are on the fence about a system, giving your insurer a call is a great way to understand the subsidy you can get if you get one.

The evidence regarding home security systems and their effectiveness as deterrents against thieves is unquestionable. In a study done in the UK recently, more 100 former burglars were interviewed. These "professional" burglars, the research showed, felt that they were entitled to taking valuables from poorly protected homes. In only 5 minutes, burglars say they can cover an entire property. Old looking alarms, some of the thieves said, were simple to disable. But anything that looks new and is known to have the advanced protection logic features of top-of-the-line products like Honeywell's LynxTouch 5100, were much more likely to deter would-be crooks.

That said, it's pretty clear why insurance providers are so willing to offer a discount to homeowners who install a monitored system in their house. It makes the home that much less likely to be burgled which saves them an incredible amount of money in claims caused by robberies.

So if you're on the fence about getting a system, don't think too long on it. The emotional toll of a break-in can be altogether avoided by making sure the break-in doesn't happen in the first place. And if your insurer wants to pay for the monitoring, then that should make the deal even sweeter. If you're already monitored by Alarm Grid, and you're interested in getting your insurance discount, it's very simple to do. Simply send us the email or fax number of your insurance provider, and we'll send them a certificate of alarm. If you are not yet monitored, and want to know what's involved, give us a call at 888-818-7728. We will get you up and running within 24 hours, and will send your certificate of alarm to your insurance provider ASAP so that you can participate in the incredible savings they provide.

At the very least, at least consider purchasing one of our security yard signs or some security window stickers so that even if you don't have a monitored system, you can get some of the advantages that simply making it look like your home is monitored will bring.

We're proud to announce the first of many Alarm Grid new features coming in the next fews months: you can now update your credit card used for your monthly monitoring directly on your account page.

After logging in, simply click on "My Account" in the top right corner. Under monitoring locations, you should see an "Update Card" button next to each of the locations.

Once you click "Update Card," you will be taken to a page that will allow you to update your card directly with our merchant processor, Stripe.

Now, the next time we try to bill you, your new card will be used. If you previously had a card that failed, we'll try and bill you in the next few days using this new card. No need to call our technicians anymore!

And for the tech savvy amongst you, the coolest part of this new feature? The security! Your credit card will get transmitted securely to Stripe and never even get submitted to our server thanks to that little pop-up.

Alarm Grid never stores your credit cards in our database and we'll always do our best to protect you, both online and offline.

If you have any problems with this new feature, please let us know. We have lots of exciting things coming!

This might be our favorite holiday around the Alarm Grid office since we all have an insatiable sweet tooth. Tonight all the lives of the Alarm Grid team members will be  be filled with candy. But in spite of our sugar induced hang overs, in the morning our office will be open and we will be ready to help with any of your alarm monitoring needs.

We just wanted to take this opportunity to wish you all a spooky halloween!

Be safe. And remember to set your security system if you're leaving the house.

Oh, and don't smash other people's pumpkins. It's just mean. They worked really hard on them. But we do highly recommend that you consider smashing your own when the night is through.

And one last thing. When your night is all done, you're ready to go to bed, and you've eaten all the candy you can possibly eat, consider packing up the remaining sweet sundries into a big box, and sending them down the the Alarm Grid headquarters. We're always happy to get random packages full of candy! ;)

For the last year, we have had to field questions about why we aren't a part of the Better Business Bureau. Well, those questions are now a part of Alarm Grid's ever-lengthening history; with our 1-year anniversary behind us, we have finally been given a rating and a page on the BBB!

An A- rating has been issued as a result of our short time in business, and we are excited to make sure that we not only keep that rating, but we continue to make it better by serving you the best that we can.

We're pretty sure that Alarm Grid has the happiest customers, and I think a quick perusal of our reviews will confirm that. And when you're done there, saunter on over to our customer testimonials. All of these have been written by real customers who have taken the time to submit their opinions of Alarm Grid to other websites and to us. Our commitment to you will always be the same.

So for everyone who was willing to get on board before we had the Better Business Bureau rating, we want to thank you for making our first year in business a wonderful one. And we're hoping that the year ahead, now that we are a part of the nation's most trusted business network, even more of you will want to join the Alarm Grid family.

The decisions we make as a company will always be toward ensuring that your experiences with us are jaw-droppingly wonderful. If that's been the case, we'd love for you to tell the world. And if it's not, let us know what we can do to improve your Alarm Grid experience.

Last year, on August 16, 2012, at 10:08 PM, Alarm Grid's first order came through. It was a small order for a bunch of contacts - 5 944T-WH, but it was our very first. Now a year later, we've serviced countless systems, and have enjoyed doing business with all of the many customers who have purchased from Alarm Grid.

Our wonderful customers have given us an incredible amount of praise, and have shown us that there is a great need for the service we're providing. No-contract alarm systems with reliable, affordable monitoring is our bread and butter, and we aren't planning on changing much as we go forward.

The coming year is hopefully going to be as exciting as the one we just completed. We're not exactly sure what it will bring, but we hope to forge new partnerships, add new products, and improve our service by hiring wonderful professionals who are as dedicated to giving you the fast and free service you've become accustomed to.

Thank you so much for making Alarm Grid a success, and we hope to have another wonderful year of working with all of you.

From time to time, we like to express our gratitude to all of our customers and would-be customers for the incredible amount of support they have given us. So, we're excited today to say thank you to everyone for watching the Alarm Grid YouTube channel. Since we started it way back in September of last year, our videos have been seen more than 50,000 times and well over 100,000 minutes (more than 70 full days) have been spent watching Sterling do installs or teaching you to program an L5100 panel.

We're going to add more videos as we go, and the channel will really become the focal point of our company's customer-centric strategy, so stay tuned. But in the meantime, we just wanted to say thanks for watching the videos. We're glad that they have helped so many people, and we are excited to continue making helpful content that will make your do-it-yourself installation go smoother than you could have ever imagined.

Below are the Top 10 most viewed videos of July (from most viewed to least viewed):

AlarmNet's family of 4G cellular alarm communicators is finally complete! First we got the GSMVLP5-4G cellular communicator for the L5100 LYNX Touch wireless security system. Then the GSMX4G and GSMV4G cellular communicators that work with the VISTA Series alarm control panels came next. After a bit of delay, the iGSMV4G was released and brought the first communicator that used internet communications and 4G cellular communicators all in one device. Now, with the eagerly awaited release of the iGSMHS4G dual path communicator, there is a 4G cellular communicator that meets UL's strict line security requirements. The iGSMHS4G is the last 4G cellular communicator to be released but like the old saying, last is not least with this device!

Boasting the most secure alarm communications available today, the iGSMHS4G makes use of two communication paths and is supervised by AlarmNet servers every 200 seconds. If a signal is not received after 200 seconds go by, the AlarmNet servers will send out a ping to the iGSMHS4G. If that ping is not received back successfully, a communication failure signal is generated so that your central station can let you know there is something wrong with your security system.

Banks, jewelery stores and government facilities typically require an alarm communicator that meets the high security communication designation. While waiting for the iGSMHS4G, these facilities have had to live with using the older iGSMHS to meet the high security requirements. Unfortunately, as the 2G cellular network is nearing retirement, the people at these facilities that require the most secure alarm communications have been left wondering which day their iGSMHS would stop working. Now, with the iGSMHS4G, those people no longer have to worry. They can confidently upgrade to the iGSMHS4G knowing their Honeywell security system will be connected to police response when needed!

We have just launched an incredible system that you probably haven't found yet, but we're excited to tell you about it!

Testimonials!

"The experience that I have had working with Alarm Grid has been absolutely fantastic... the kind of customer service that you can't get anywhere else!"
Tyler C. from Albuquerque, NM

If you're on the fence about whether to sign up with Alarm Grid, check out our new customer testimonials section. Full disclosure, we have given anyone who gave us a testimonial a free month of monitoring. But we're pretty sure that didn't influence their perspective in any way. That said, we're not discriminatory. If you love us as much as they say they do, let us know you want to write a testimonial. We will send you out a list of questions and you can send us back a bunch of answers and a picture of your home. You, too, can get a free month of monitoring if you give us a testimonial.

I know it's a bit off-topic, but there are a lot of ways you can get a free month of monitoring with Alarm Grid: 1) tell a friend, get them to sign up, 2) give us a testimonial, 3) tell another friend. Ok, so there are just two ways to get free months. But I think that's pretty awesome.

Installer Directory!

To date, our focus has been on DIY installers. We love our DIYers, but there are a lot of different people in the world, many who do not have any desire to install their own system. If you fall into that category (which is most people), and you want to buy an alarm system for your home, either check out our brand spankin' new, still very sparse, alarm installer directory, or give us a call and let us know where you would like for us to find an installer. While we will actively be adding installers to our database, we are happy to add them based on need as well. If you're an installer and you want to be included in the directory, call us and let us know. We have some questions, will want some references, and we will happily add you.

These installers don't work for us, they aren't related to us, but they are recommended to us as good, honest people. If your experience is different, please let us know. We are going to depend on user feedback as we grow to maintain the directory.

Places Pages!

We are building monitoring pages for each individual city in the United States on Alarm Grid. We are trying to personalize your experience when you come to the site so that you feel like we are part of your community. After all, you're trusting us to secure your home, the least we could do is learn a few facts about your big or small town. Check out a few of the cities below:

• Alarm Monitoring in Jacksonville
• Alarm Monitoring in Albuquerque
• Alarm Monitoring in Miami
• Alarm Monitoring in Tampa

Now that Honeywell has finally made Total Connect home automation control available for Tuxedo Touch keypads, people with existing VISTA Series alarm systems can finally take full advantage of all of the great features Total Connect has to offer. In the past, only the LYNX Touch wireless security system supported remote home automation control through Total Connect. If you had a VISTA system, you could add a Tuxedo Touch or Tuxedo Touch WIFI if you wanted to use Z-Wave home automation devices in your home, but if you wanted to remotely control those devices, you had to setup complicated port forwarding. Unless you were knowledgeable about networks and router setup, you were left controlling your home's Z-Wave lights, Z-Wave locks and Z-Wave thermostats just from your Tuxedo screens.

Thankfully, Honeywell has finally released the long-awaited software update for all existing Tuxedo Touch WIFI units. If you go to the Tuxedo Touch Toolkit website, you will find the software update and steps on how to run the update for your Tuxedo Touch WIFI controller. With the new software downloaded and installed on your Tuxedo Touch WIFI, your Tuxedo Touch WIFI will work better locally even if you don't choose to sign up for the Remote Home Automation monitoring service.

You can now have Z-Wave scenes activated by a security system alarm, a security system event or even a specific zone status change. You can also setup Z-Wave lights to activate and then run for a programmed length of time. You can even program your lights to turn on at sunset and off at sunrise.

Of course, the real advantage of the new software update is the ability to control your Tuxedo Touch WIFI using your Total Connect interactive account. Once you setup your remote home automation control on your Total Connect account, you will have full access to your smart home for remote system control and notifications.

Unfortunately, as non-WIFI Tuxedo Touch keypads use a different operating system and circuit board, the software update will not work on those devices. If you have one of the non-WIFI Tuxedos and you want to get Total Connect home automation control, you will need to purchase a new Tuxedo Touch or Tuxedo Touch WIFI.

Please call us if you are interested in adding the remote home automation feature to your Alarm Grid monitoring service.