Get a dog.

Steel casing around a solid core door, and a dead bolt. In front of the windows, plant thorny bushes. Eliminate "dead spots" where someone can hide without being seen from the neighbors or the road.

Like AR_Rifle said, get a dog. The best home security system is two German Shepherds and a 12 ga.

www.x10.com (yes those x10 cam ads you hate!) but look at their IR trip beams. they can be set to turn on lights. get a X10 starter kit Activehome or IBM homedirector, both have software you can use to configure automatic events. IE lights turning on and off at whatever time you want. each day can be configured seperate.its all loaded into a wall module which sends signals over your current home electrical wiring to the attached X10 reciving units. very cool get more and you can set rooms to the same code. hit the on switch for that room. and the whole room lights up. plus with these packages comes a remote / transiver pair. the remote is RF so you can carry it with you and turn on lights in a suspected room and not even be in it. IF baddie is logic will dictate for him to look INSIDE the room for you, your down the hall in the dark, with mostly unaffected vision. hes in a room that suddenly when from full dark to full light, hes now blinded. guess who has the advantage now? you can see him because his area is lit up. but he cant see you because his is lit and yours isnt. just remain somewhat secluded form vision. IR trip beams, Lamp Modules and a Remote/transiver pair. (the starter kits come with a 2 lamps and the remote/trans pair)

Get two Bull Mastiffs at about 160+lbs each no one will want to go near your house. They are good with kids they don't like anyone that there not introduced to.

I agree with Nova5.

I use the X-10 stuff throughout my house. Lights are wired to a remote that is kept in our master bedroom. I can turn on most lights in the house.

Plus a big ol' Akita keeps out the riff-raf.

Av.

For best results, obstacles are employed in depth and existing obstacles are reinforced to increase their effectiveness. The homeowner constructs protective obstacles to defeat the enemy's final assault. A certain type of obstacles are oriented against the most severe close combat threat--antipersonnel obstacles against dismounted infantry and antitank obstacles against an armored force. As with tactical obstacles, protective obstacles are sited according to the terrain and covered by fires. During limited visibility, family members are repositioned to ensure obstacles are still covered by fire, and are not covertly breached.

Translation: "Get a dog"

you can do so much more with x10 than just light control, but as you look you will see that. also checkout smarthome.com and get their magazine. some really nice items in it. anyhow as to what i was really gonna say.. there are 2 versions of most x10 outlet hardware either Plugin where you then plug the lamp. ect into the module or a installed outlet version (this is cleaner looking but if you move you need ot change them again) if you dont care i would suggest the plugin versions. x10 module usuall have A-O(house) letter settings and 0-9(unit) number codes they do not have to be unique. setings 3 lamps to A1 and 2 to A2, now hit the A1 on switch only A1's 3 lights will turn on. A2 will remain off.. however if you hit ALL LIGHTS ON, A1 and A2 will turn on. you can run such a nice little security system with X10.. but it should not be your only one. as x10 requires ac power for its operation. baddie cuts power, no more security or lights... get the NFA and sever....... err never mind ;)