Security System Installed – Initial thoughts.
By john on Jun 15, 2008 in Home Automation, Home Security, featured
Friday was a big day for me: my new home security system from FrontPoint Security Solutions arrived. All of the equipment came pre-configured, so all I had to do was take it out of the box and mount it in the areas I wanted coverage. They claimed that most installs took 20-30 minutes for the average user and I was anxious to put that number to the test.
I was quite happy to note that, about 20 minutes later when I finished installing the hardware, they were correct – it really is that easy and fast. Think about that for a minute: It took me 25 MINUTES to install my own home security system.
After I had all of the hardware installed I called them to activate the system. After providing a little info to let them find my account they were able to connect in to the panel and see that all of my hardware was, in fact, installed correctly and talking like it should. The (very friendly) service rep then walked me through the features of the panel – how to arm the system, how to disarm the system, and all of the additional features like how to silence the chime noises it makes, etc. He was very knowledgeable and the whole process took only a few minutes – I was very happy with the whole process. In under an hour I had a fully working – monitored – security system set up.
Once I had the system activated I received an email with my initial login credentials for the web portal. I was happy to note that these are temporary credentials – you can change them to something more suitable to you after your first login ( in fact, that’s part of the initial login/ setup process).
I was able to log in, customize my system with things like changing the names the panels would speak when referencing certain sensors, set up alerts on specific events to go to my email (and txt messaging), set up reminders to remind me to arm the system if it hasn’t been armed by a certain time (for instance, if I’ve not armed it by the time I’m usually at work in the morning the system will notify me and remind me to arm it.).
The web interface also let me add a system code for Ann (my girlfriend, for those who don’t already know) to be able to disarm the system, and set up alerts for her as well. Other functions include: History of past events, check the status of the system / sensors, and arm/disarm the system remotely.
Though I am really quite pleased with the system, it’s not entirely without it’s problems. Though in my case, it was a single problem and a call to FrontPoint support had it resolved in under 10 minutes. Specifically, on the morning after I installed the system it was reporting that the glassbreak sensor was malfunctioning. The support rep suggested that the sensor was not learned into the system properly and so we tried to re-add it. That involved deleting the sensor from the system then re-adding it via the system panel. It took a few minutes to perform the steps, but once done the sensor was working fine and the panel immediately reported an end to the malfunction state. I’m fairly forgiving of such things – small things like this happen sometimes. The important thing for me was that FrontPoint was able to quickly walk me through resolving the issue, and I’ve not had a repeat since.
Now – I must admit – I’ve not REALLY had the time to put the system through it’s paces. I’ve been using it for a couple of days now, but to really know a systems value and worth requires more than a few days of use. I really don’t expect to have any problems with the system, and in fact am really quite pleased with it.
My parents have ADT in their Florida house. They’re paying the same amount of money for ADT as I am paying, but are getting much less with it. I’m quite pleased with that. 
I’ll post another followup in a few weeks, once I’ve had the system running for a while and can give a “few weeks in” update.
So far, though, it’s been great.
Also – for those wondering – the web portal is actually using the services and functionality provided by Alarm.com – this isn’t always obvious looking at the website, as it’s definitely branded as FrontPoint – but representatives from both Alarm.com AND FrontPoint have assured me that it is, in fact, utilizing Alarm.com services to provide the web portal. Very cool tech – for a demo of it head over to www.alarm.com
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