Home Security Blog

Apple will end support for the legacy Alarm.com Today widget in its iOS 18 update, coming in September. As a result, Alarm.com will be removing this widget in app update 5.6.0, due in October. But widget lovers take heart! Alarm.com has plans for new widgets that will be available soon!

The use of the Alarm.com Today widget required that a user be on iOS version 11.0+, and Alarm.com app 3.7+. Successful use also required that the user be logged into the Alarm.com app with "Seamless Login" enabled and the "Remember Me" option checked upon logging in.

Without these login features set, each time the user logged out, the "Today View" widget for Alarm.com would be cleared. Once the feature was configured, up to twelve different items could be configured and organized within the view. This allowed a user to quickly determine the status of various elements of the system, and control them.

System Control Widget

According to Alarm.com: "The System Control widget empowers iOS customers with quick-access, one-touch command of their smart security systems at their fingertips. Customers can create custom widgets and place them conveniently on their Home screen or Today View for effortless control of their lights, locks, garage doors, gates, and security panels from anywhere. Plus, they can activate Scenes for whole-home automation."

Saved Clips Widget

According to Alarm.com: "iOS customers can create widgets for video clips to effortlessly keep tabs on their properties and monitor important activity—without having to open the app. Right from the Home screen of their iPhone or iPad, they can choose from a variety of size options to see thumbnails of their most recently saved clips at a glance. Customers can also long-press the widget to change the view to include only clips from a single camera, a camera group, or all cameras on the account. Once set up, they can simply tap the thumbnail of interest to quickly take a closer look and watch the recorded footage."

Safety Button Widget

According to Alarm.com: "With the Safety Button widget, customers have the comfort of round-the-clock personal protection with professional response when help is needed most. With the press of a button on their phones’ Home screen, customers can swiftly and silently summon police, fire, or emergency medical assistance from wherever they are in the U.S., day or night. Once activated, they’ll be connected directly to a trained operator who will promptly dispatch responders to their precise location. This feature requires the In-App Safety Button service package add-on."

Alarm Grid is evaluating the In-App Safety Button feature. If we determine it's a good fit for our customers we'll make it available. Once Alarm.com introduces the new widget, our customers will be able to enable this feature. Stay tuned for more information on this potential new feature.

Resideo has identified an issue with some Total Connect 2.0 passwords. Apple iOS users on firmware version 17.6.1 may be unable to log into the Total Connect 2.0 app due to certain special characters. Passwords containing a plus sign (+) or exclamation point (!) will cause a login failure.

This issue can also affect account usernames. However, since we typically use the customer's email address as the username, it's rare for these special characters to be present. After we reported a customer who suddenly couldn't log into their account, Resideo informed us of this issue. Interestingly, we tested a login using an exclamation point (!) in the password on iOS version 17.6.1, and it worked for us, so the information remains somewhat unclear.

If your password worked before but no longer does after updating your iOS device, or if you're a new TC2 user on iOS and can't log in after creating an acceptable password, the only option is to change your password.

1. Go to the Total Connect 2.0 login page.
2. Accept Cookies if prompted. Until you do, you won't be able to successfully perform Step 3 and Step 4 below.
3. Click "Problems Signing In?"
4. Click on either "Forgot Username" or "Forgot Password".
5. Follow the prompts to reset either your username or your password. If you need to reset both, you'll have to first reset one, and then follow these same steps to reset the other credential.
6. Once you've created both a Username and a Password without a plus symbol (+) you should be able to log in.

As you can see from the password reset screen, both a plus symbol (+) and the exclamation point (!), which we have verified will work, should be acceptable special characters:

HTML browser logins are not affected, nor does the issue affect Android devices. This is strictly an issue with Apple iOS devices, and as far as we know, only with firmware version 17.6.1. An iOS user who does not want to change their username or password can elect to use a browser to access their Total Connect 2.0 account instead.

This issue will likely be resolved, but whether the fix will come from Resideo through a TC2 update or from Apple via an iOS update is uncertain. If we receive any updates, we'll post them at the top of this page, so stay tuned!

Update 08/30/24: Resideo posted its final update on this issue today. To summarize, they found an issue with the battery charging scheme in the doorbell's firmware. A firmware update is being applied to future stock and will automatically be rolled out to devices in the field. You can read the full notice here.

Update 08/13/24: Resideo posted an update today regarding this issue. According to the update:

"We have determined that, if the doorbell isn’t installed within 1 year of production, the embedded battery, which is responsible for powering the doorbell while the external chime is activated, will not support a smooth installation."

This is a particularly thorny issue given that the battery in the VX1 Video Doorbell is non-serviceable. After the three (3) to five (5) years of expected battery life, when the battery begins to fail, the entire VX1 must be replaced.

You can read the full updated notice here.

Original Post 08/08/24:Yesterday, Resideo released a Technical Notice about its First Alert VX1 HD Video Doorbell. A small number of units display a red LED for an extended time after installation. If you have a unit displaying this behavior, you can return it to where you purchased it or contact your alarm dealer.

First of all, if you have a First Alert VX1 HD installed and it is working as expected there is nothing you need to do. This issue has been reported in a small number of units and only very recently. If your VX1 HD was affected, you would know almost immediately after installation.

Next, it's important to clarify which LED we're talking about here. The VX1 HD has a Status LED which is located above the doorbell button and microphone. In addition to the Status LED, the doorbell button itself has an LED surrounding it. This notice refers to the small Status LED. According to the Installation Instructions, a solid red Status LED indicates that the battery is not charging.

It's not uncommon, after installation, for the Status LED to show either red or amber. An amber Status LED indicates that the battery is below the normal operating threshold but is charging. However, if, after 90 minutes of charging, the Status LED remains red, and assuming the input power and wiring are confirmed to be good, there is a problem.

Because of this issue, Resideo has chosen to put the First Alert VX1 HD on sales hold. This means that if you attempt to order a new unit from the distributor, it won't be available. Alarm dealers may have stock on their shelves that they can continue to sell, but they run the risk of encountering this issue.

Alarm Grid doesn't keep stock, ensuring that when you order from us, the product you get is the most recently manufactured version possible. Though distributors do keep stock, so there is always a chance that a seldom-ordered product may have been on their shelf for some time.

We will not discontinue the First Alert VX1 HD, as we assume this hold will be brief. You can still order the doorbell on our site. Currently, if you do you'll receive an email that the product is on backorder and that it will be shipped as soon as stock becomes available again.

That's all we know at this point. There is not enough information to determine if this is a problem with the battery, the charging circuit, or if this is just a status indication malfunction. It's unlikely that Resideo manufactures the battery. Is it an issue with the battery vendor? Is it something anomalous that occurred during manufacturing? That's why the product has been put on hold so they can perform testing and diagnostics.

In some cases, the manufacturer may need customers to send them problem units. It's difficult to confirm and fix an issue if you can't reproduce it. If that's the case here, it's possible Resideo may ask your alarm dealer to send returned VX1s directly to them for testing. As an end-user, this won't really affect you. It's just nice to know what goes on behind the scenes sometimes.

Depending on what they find, Resideo may require that any existing distributor stock be returned to manufacturing to be reworked or retrofitted. This is usually accompanied by some type of marking on the box, like a green dot. This will usually be located near the box date code. In this way, everyone will be able to tell that a newly purchased First Alert VX1 HD Video Doorbell does not suffer from this issue.

Alarm.com now offers a feature called Alarm Mode. When an alarm occurs on an Alarm.com system the user can access a special Alarm Mode card from the app dashboard. With all relevant alarm-related information grouped together, a user can quickly assess the situation and respond accordingly.

Alarm.com is very proactive in its efforts to innovate and diversify its product offerings. In addition to adding exciting new features that utilize existing hardware and software capabilities, Alarm.com constantly seeks ways to increase user engagement without raising the incidents of unwanted alarm dispatch.

Toward that end, they recently rolled out Alarm Mode. Beginning with version 5.4.1 of the Alarm.com customer app, nearly any system alarm occurring on an Alarm.com panel will trigger Alarm Mode. This feature is a segment or card located in the customer dashboard. When you log into the app and tap on Alarm Mode, you can view all activity related to the alarm.

This can include video clips, a link to live video, video doorbell camera information, and door lock status. What you see will depend on which hardware and features you have, and what's happening at, and just before, the time of the alarm. With all the relevant information in one easy to access location, you can make an informed assessment and either cancel the alarm, or verify that dispatch is necessary.

A full guide to using this feature is available here. There are exceptions to which alarms initiate Alarm Mode so be sure to check out the guide. If you happen to have the In-App Cancel/Verify feature enabled on your account, Alarm Mode makes that feature even easier to use. Once you open the Alarm Mode card within the customer app you'll see the buttons to Cancel or Verify the alarm. You still have two (2) minutes from the time the alarm is reported to choose either option.

When you tap Cancel (holding for three (3) seconds is not required), a disarm is sent to the system and an alarm cancel message is sent to the monitoring station. Because the time to process every alarm varies, it is still possible that you will receive a call from the monitoring station, so be ready to provide your verbal passcode to the operator.

When you tap Verify Alarm the system will continue to display and sound the alarm locally and the monitoring station will receive a signal letting them know that a dispatch is requested. They can then contact the authorities to dispatch and they will likely still call you to gather additional information to provide to the responding authorities.

If two (2) minutes pass and you don't choose either Cancel or Verify, the option will go away and will be replaced with a "Disarm to Clear" button. For users who don't have the In-App Cancel/Verify feature enabled, this button will show up immediately in Alarm Mode and will remain until the alarm is cleared. Tapping this button will send a disarm command to the system to silence the alarm. Once the alarm is cleared, the Alarm Mode card will disappear and the app will revert to the standard dashboard.

What do you think of Alarm Mode? Do you agree that Alarm.com works hard to add value to their product and service offerings? Leave a comment below to start a discussion! We'd love to hear your thoughts.

The cyber incident on Friday July 19, 2024 was caused by a code error in an update pushed to Windows machines by CrowdStrike. This was not a malicious attack. CrowdStrike Falcon, the specific product impacted, is a cloud-based product with a small local footprint, designed to detect breaches.

CrowdStrike Falcon is a cloud-based protection product. CrowdStrike describes the product this way: "Falcon is the CrowdStrike platform purpose-built to stop breaches via a unified set of cloud-delivered technologies that prevent all types of attacks — including malware and much more."

A small file, termed a sensor, is installed on the computer. This sensor monitors for viruses, malware, zero-day (emerging), and other types of threats. The sensor communicates with CrowdStrike through the cloud, and if a breach is detected, CrowdStrike can then respond. By keeping the bulk of the service in the cloud, the protected computer isn't bogged down with a resource-heavy software package. The sensor file is only about 5 MB.

CrowdStrike recommends that their Falcon customers use an N-2 update cadence, or at least N-1. This means the sensor file software runs either one update (N-1) or two updates (N-2) behind the current version. Ideally, this allows any issue with an update to be found and resolved before it ever reaches a client computer.

The update that caused the Windows Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) and boot-looping issue last Friday wasn't controlled by the N-1 or N-2 policy that is set up on most systems. The update was to the signature files, which help the Falcon Sensor determine what is a threat, and they need to be updated as quickly as possible. For this reason, they aren't covered by the usual update cadence.

The U.S., Canada, the UK, Europe, and Asia experienced disruptions to various services during the outage. While Mac and Linux computers remained unaffected, over 4,000 flights worldwide were canceled. The financial and healthcare sectors were severely impacted, with many elective medical procedures postponed. Numerous payment systems were also unavailable in the early hours of the incident.

There's much more information about this available online if you want to find it. CrowdStrike has been very transparent in dealing with this issue. But what we're discussing is why this issue manifested the communication troubles some of you saw last week. For that, we'll talk about how alarm communicators are supervised.

Generally speaking, when an alarm system has a signal to report, it does so using whatever channel or channels are available to it. This could be through a POTS phone line, a WIFI or Ethernet connection, an LTE or LTEM Cellular connection, or some combination of these paths. The important thing to know is that when an alarm panel sends a signal, it looks for an acknowledgment that the signal was received successfully. If it doesn't receive that acknowledgment, it will send the signal again (and again) until eventually it either reaches the destination, the retransmission limit, or the time limit, depending on the path used.

At the other end of this communication is the Alarm.com or AlarmNet server. This system receives those signals and processes them. This may include forwarding the information to a central station, to an online platform for logging and distribution to the end-user, or both.

Since the system may never have an alarm, there are measures in place to send periodic test messages from the alarm system communicator to the server. This ensures that all aspects of any communication pathways are open and working. This usually involves setting a communication test interval. For cellular communication in particular, it's desirable to minimize unnecessary signals, so this is customarily a "smart" test.

For example, you may set a system for a daily or 24-hour test. This is a setting at both the alarm panel and the signal processing server. That means every 24 hours, the system will send a test message to the server to verify communication. If no test message is received, the server generates a central station message that the system failed to properly test.

With a "smart" test, any signal sent by the system resets the test timer. So, the only time the server will receive an actual test message is if the system hasn't sent any other type of signal for 24 hours. In either case, based on this example, if the signal processing server goes 24 hours without receiving either a regular signal or a test signal, a trouble condition is generated.

From here, we can only assume that the signal processing server or servers were impacted by the CrowdStrike Falcon update. We can safely assume this because Verizon and AT&T LTE cellular communications were not affected by this issue. The way I see it, this incident was a blessing in disguise.

Though this probably seems like a catastrophic event, it's actually an opportunity. Because this was not a malicious attack, the least possible harm has come from it. Those with robust disaster recovery plans got a real-world chance to put them to use. Those without robust disaster recovery plans now know what's at stake and can plan accordingly. Catalysts for change and improvement are rarely painless, and this is no exception.

It was only supposed to be a simple software update! These words are I'm guessing, being echoed by the cybersecurity giant, CrowdStrike. Over night CrowdStrike pushed out a misconfigured/corrupted update to its customers. This has caused major issues to banks, airports, TV stations, health care organizations, hotels, and you guessed it, the alarm industry.

Early this morning, Alarm Grid became aware of multiple issues concerning alarm systems. Resideo reported issues July 19 at 3:57am EST. They reported All Pro Series and LTEM-P devices failing on all services. Also, TC2 Application notifications and event processing were delayed. They have reported that most systems are already back online.

Alarm.com reported issues July 19 at 1am EST. The reported issues were affecting access to the Partner Portal, Mobile Tech, the customer website, and the customer app, and may cause delayed execution of commands and signals sent to and from customer systems.

CrowdStrike has reported that the fix has been implemented, but that it could take time to get things back up and running. Both AlarmNet and Alarm.com services are reporting improvements.

Please continue to check back here for updates.

UPDATE: As of 10am EST, Alarm.com has reported that all of their services are fully restored.

UPDATE: 3:30p EST. Resideo has reported that most of the systems are back online. And that alarm delivery services are not impacted. Although we saw their service return much earlier than this update.

Thanks for your patience. If you continue to have issues with Alarm.com or Resideo's services, you can email us here.

Rogers has set a date of March 31, 2025 for its 2G/3G network sunset. If you are a Canadian customer with a Rogers 2G/3G communicator, your system will cease to communicate via cellular upon shutdown. At best, you will see a trouble condition. At worst, communication will be cease completely.

Rogers is a large cellular provider in Canada. When AT&T and Verizon announced their respective 2G/3G network sunsets a few years back, Rogers made the decision to keep the portion of their network that is used by alarm communicators active. In the intervening years, it has been working to beef up its infrastructure. The time has now come to sunset the remainder of the older network.

If you have an alarm system with a Rogers cellular communicator you should begin planning an upgrade. This may require that you upgrade your whole system, or just your cellular communicator. Whichever the case, now is the time to begin planning. If your system uses cellular as its only means of communication, and you have one of these Rogers 2G/3G communicators, your system will be left unable to communicate once the shutdown takes place. In addition, you will see a trouble condition displayed on your system that you will be unable to clear.

If you have a dual-path system with a Rogers 2G/3G cellular communicator, then your system will still be able to communicate after the shutdown, but you will have a trouble condition on the system that won't clear until you either disable cellular communication, or correct the problem. In this case, correcting the problem means replacing the cellular communicator. Depending on your alarm panel, this may or may not be possible without replacing the entire panel.

Alarm.com customers who are affected by this sunset will soon begin seeing prompts telling them to upgrade. Starting in October, Alarm.com customers who still have a 2G/3G Rogers cellular communicator will see a trouble message when they log into the customer app or website. The message will instruct them to upgrade their communicator soon in order to avoid a service interruption.

This news may seem dire, but don't worry, Alarm Grid is here to help you through the transition. In future posts, we'll be providing additional information, including special promotional pricing to help you upgrade in the least painful way possible. We'll also be here with plenty of information on how best to upgrade. In the meantime, if you have questions you can send us an email to support@alarmgrid.com.

This year with the holiday falling on Thursday, Alarm Grid will be closed on both Thursday July 4th and Friday July 5th. This break allows our team members to rest and spend time with their families. We'll be back refreshed on Monday, July 8th ready to help you protect your home or business!

For existing Alarm Grid customers, this means that technical support and account activation will be unavailable during the holiday. However, our central station partners are available around the clock to process any alarm signals. If you need to cancel an alarm or put your system on test, you will do those things as you normally would.

If you reside in the US and need to contact the central monitoring station to cancel an accidental alarm, verify a signal, or put your system on test you can contact Criticom Monitoring Services (CMS) by dialing (888) 818-7728 and choosing Option [9].

Canadian customers with the same central station needs can contact Rapid Response at (800) 932-3822. Remember, any time you call either monitoring station, you will be asked for your name, address, and your false alarm password. Providing incorrect information when asked will result in the dispatch of authorities.

If you need to make changes to your account or you have technical support questions monitoring station operators can't help you with those inquiries. Instead, email us at support@alarmgrid.com. Provide as many details as possible about the request or issue. Remember, if you're requesting account changes we'll need your false alarm password or the last four (4) digits of the credit card number we have on file for billing before we can make those changes. Providing this in your initial request will make the process go more quickly.

With hot, dry conditions in some areas, be cautious when using fireworks. Ensure you have proper extinguishing methods available in the event of a fire. Most large scale fireworks displays take place over a large body of water so that accidental fires are avoided.

Also remember that fireworks are likely to scare both pets and wild animals. Many young animals get separated from their mothers at this time of year. If you encounter a seemingly abandoned wild animal baby, contact your local wildlife rescue and follow their recommendations. The Humane Society has a listing of wildlife rehabbers by state.

We hope everyone enjoys a chance to relax this holiday weekend. However, we recognize many will be working. A big thank you to central station operators, wait staff, hospital staff, police, fire, EMS personnel, and anyone else working this holiday. We appreciate your dedication!

Alarm.com now offers a new burglary deterrence feature available from some of its cameras. Alarm Triggered Warning Sounds, once configured, will cause selected cameras to emit a siren when an alarm is triggered. This feature can be activated based on sensors, partitions, or the entire panel.

One crucial note about this feature is that it is only compatible with non-doorbell Alarm.com cameras that support the two-way audio feature. A full list of compatible cameras, with links, is available in our FAQ that walks you through setting up this new deterrence feature.

The requirements for this feature are fairly simple:

• A security service package with Panel/InApp panics enabled by your alarm dealer.
• A video service package with the Audio for Non-doorbell Cameras add-on enabled by your alarm dealer.
• At least one camera compatible with the MTWS feature.
• An IQ4 Panel (IQ Panel 4, IQ4 Hub, or IQ4 NS). You can't do this with a video-only account.

See? Easy peasy! If you have an Alarm.com camera that supports two-way audio, and it's not a doorbell camera, then it likely supports this feature. On general principle, be sure your camera is updated to the latest firmware. For most cameras, the minimum firmware to support this feature is Firmware Version 0.6.7.852+. The exception is the ADC-V515, which requires Firmware Version 0.0.5.476+.

This feature is easy to set up. Just use the Smart Rules Builder through either the customer website or the Alarm.com app available from Google or Apple. Once you log into your account it takes about two minutes to create the rule needed to utilize this feature.

The Alarm Triggered Warning Sounds (ATWS) feature works hand-in-hand with the Manually Triggered Warning Sounds (MTWS) feature. If you have any MTWS capable cameras, then you know you will be able to configure the ATWS feature and vice versa. Manually Triggered Warning Sounds are not automated. Instead, a user must manually trigger the sound while logged into either the app or the website. You can check out how to use MTWS here.

When you manually trigger a warning sound from one or more cameras, the sound duration is 30 seconds, unless you manually turn the warning sound off sooner. When the warning sound is alarm triggered, the duration is five (5) minutes, or until the alarm is canceled by a user disarming the system where the alarm occurred.

Scenario 1: Manual Trigger

You're away from your home or business. You receive an alert that motion has been detected by one of your cameras. You log into the app and, pulling up the live view for your camera see a person or animal in an area of your property where they don't belong. While you're viewing the live video, and assuming this is a compatible camera, you can choose to trigger a warning sound that will hopefully scare the person or animal away. In this scenario the Manually Triggered Warning Sound can be used to great effect.

Scenario 2: Alarm Trigger

You're at home, and your system is armed in the Home mode. While you're asleep an intruder attempts to enter your home by breaking a first floor window. They may have triggered an alert from one of your outdoor cameras, but you slept through it. The window they're attempting to enter through has a glass break detector associated with it and this detector is active when the system is armed in Home mode. The intruder breaks the window, but the alarm goes off. This causes not only the alarm panel, but also your outdoor cameras to begin sounding a siren. The would-be intruder hears the sirens and leaves, preventing an actual break in.

One limitation of all-in-one panels is that they aren't high-current siren friendly. That's not to say that you can't add one of these sirens, but it takes some work and it can get expensive. Not to mention, where do you put the equipment for it? By allowing the cameras that offer siren sounds to use those sirens in an alarm situation you're adding extra sirens to the system at no additional cost, assuming you planned to have compatible cameras anyway. In my opinion, this is a great new feature. It's also an example of how Alarm.com continues to add value to their products without requiring additional investment.

Recently, while writing content about the installation of various add-on modules for the PROA7PLUS, I discovered the "Shutdown system" option. Being familiar with Resideo's definition of "Shutdown" I sent an email to support to find out exactly what this button does. The answer surprised me.

I was looking for a better way of powering down the panel for the purpose of adding hardware. Having to disconnect the battery and possibly unplug the DC power adapter is inconvenient and unnecessarily difficult. I was hoping for a menu option that would allow me to power down without physically disconnecting anything.

When you enter the menu options of the PROA7PLUS, PROA7, PROA7PLUSC, or PROA7C you see an option for Tools. If you select Tools, you'll be prompted to enter a code. Once you enter a valid code, and this includes both the Installer Code and the Master Code (4112 and 1234 respectively, by default) you'll then see a list of additional options.

At the bottom of this list is "Shutdown system". I was hoping this was an option to power down the system. Just above it in the menu list is "Reboot System" but rebooting doesn't help when you're attempting to add or remove hardware. Again, knowing Resideo as I do, I was afraid to simply try out the shutdown option, so I sent an email to their technical support to inquire about what this menu option does. I found the answer a little disturbing.

According to support, when you perform a system shutdown the system cannot be armed. Only 24-Hour emergency zones can be activated, and those alarms are local only because the system's communicator is also shut down. The burglary portion of the system is useless in this state. Access to the "Tools" menu is also disabled.

You might wonder, as I did, if the communicator is shut down, and the "Tools" menu is disabled how the heck do you recover from this state? According to technical support, it is still possible to send a command to the system from AlarmNet360. This is called a "Resume System" command. This option can only be performed by your alarm dealer.

My takeaways from this are: If your system is not registered with an alarm dealer DO NOT SELECT SHUTDOWN SYSTEM from the "Tools" menu. Doing so will likely cause your system to be permanently inoperable. It's unclear if an alarm dealer could register a system after the shutdown command has been implemented, and then send the Resume System command. I wouldn't recommend testing it.

For anyone who may have accidentally hit this menu option and who does have a registered system, contact your alarm dealer immediately. Let them know what happened and that you need to initiate a "Resume System" command through AlarmNet360. They should be able to help you get your system back up and running.

If you're an Alarm Grid customer who finds yourself in this position you can email us at support@alarmgrid.com, or call 1-888-818-7728. Our support team is here Monday - Friday from 9:00 am - 8:00 pm, with the exception of holidays. We will hopefully be able to send the command to Resume System using AlarmNet360.