My friend bought a house with a alarm already in it. He wants to have it monitored. i told him that it was useless because its too easy to cut the line and by the time the cops come all your stuff is gone.

I have personal experience.

My wife went to my moms house. She go in and punches the wrong # for the code. So the alarm company calls and my wife does'nt know the code word. I show up a few minutes later  and she tell me what happened. So I said lets wait for the cops in case they come.. we wait for 45 minutes and nobody shows up so we thought everthings good. The next day mom calls me and she asks me about the alarm ticket she got. It seems they came 2 hours later.

So should my friend get monitoring?

What's an alarm ticket?

Its when the cops show up and see nothing wrong. They give you a ticket/fine very common in the this area.

I have a pre-existing alarm on my house. I would like to use it without the company.
I'd like a monitor in my bedroom and a bell or something for when I'm not home.
Gimmie a link to how to do it.

you can call them up and  cancel the monitoring. They may or may not come and get the alarm. If they don't it should work as it did but no monitoring. If they take it away just buy one from here homesecuritystore.com/ and instell it your self. The hard part arethe sensor which should work iwhtthe new system

Quoted: My friend bought a house with a alarm already in it. He wants to have it monitored. i told him that it was useless because its too easy to cut the line and by the time the cops come all your stuff is gone. I have personal experience. My wife went to my moms house. She go in and punches the wrong # for the code. So the alarm company calls and my wife does'nt know the code word. I show up a few minutes later  and she tell me what happened. So I said lets wait for the cops in case they come.. we wait for 45 minutes and nobody shows up so we thought everthings good. The next day mom calls me and she asks me about the alarm ticket she got. It seems they came 2 hours later. So should my friend get monitoring?

I have a wireless ADT system that hasn't failed me yet. NO false alarms after one year. As far as the lines being cut, that would be your fault for not moving them INSIDE.  My local LEO gives you two false alarms per year, then it's $100 per.

Some counties, cities or what ever issues fines for having too many false alarms or any nuisense repone to an alarm. If you worry about your phone lines being cut you can have your audio part of the alarm sound if your phone lines are tampered with. Just ask the phone co when they worked on my phone lines and set the alarm off. My external horn is monitor too if you happen to find it and cut the wires. You can get a cell phone package too. I have my beeper goes off with alarm codes sent to me. A true professional thief can defeat any alarm system but it will help you against the dumber types which make up 95% of them. You can add a cam to your computer to snap shot your house and view it on the internet.If you make your phone lines more secure it will slow them down and that is what you want them to do and they prefer to hit and run.

Quoted: My friend bought a house with a alarm already in it. He wants to have it monitored. i told him that it was useless because its too easy to cut the line and by the time the cops come all your stuff is gone.

In that case neither does having you stuff in the house. Why not keep the big screen on the front lawn on a trailer so the thiefs don't mess up the carpeting running around in the house.

Most thieves like the easy score.

No dog
No alarm
Unlocked doors
Open windows
Obstructed views of the house

etc. etc. all make a target more tempting.

Quoted: you can call them up and  cancel the monitoring. They may or may not come and get the alarm. If they don't it should work as it did but no monitoring. If they take it away just buy one from here homesecuritystore.com/ and instell it your self. The hard part arethe sensor which should work iwhtthe new system

Thanks for the link.  I think I found a monitoring company for my do-it-yourself system I installed.

I have one and pay for the monitoring.  Don't feel like so much of a chump since my house was broken into and everything worked exactly as it should have.  Cops showed up shortly after and the "kids" were long gone.  Didn't take anything.  I'm a pro-monitoring guy.

Get it monitored. If your so concerned about getting the line cut, ask the alarm company about cellular or radio back-up. bad guy cuts the line, alarm signal goes to the monitoring center by way of a cell unit located inside your house..

My wife and I are having a house built.  We decided to get a home security system for a couple reasons.  Most of all, we have two dogs and we like the benefit of having a fire alarm system when we are both at work.  Not to mention the added security and the fact that I believe your average thieves will avoid them whenever possible

I just put in a system from www.alarm.com.  Totally wireless, you don't even need to have a phone line for it to work.  Plus you can monitor and control it from the net.  Check it out.

Quoted: Get it monitored. If your so concerned about getting the line cut, ask the alarm company about cellular or radio back-up. bad guy cuts the line, alarm signal goes to the monitoring center by way of a cell unit located inside your house..

+1

I used to manage an alarm monitoring central station.

Cellular or radio backup is great and when I did it there was also a system that monitored the phoneline itself.  If the phone line got cut that in itself generated an alarm.

Audible alarm on site=loud noise that shoudl have burglars leaving straight away.

A fire alarm is good.  In cold areas so is a temperature alarm (avoid those frozen and broken pipes), also water level alarms if you have a sump pump in the basement.

One of the most important things to consider is EXACTLY how you want your alarm conditions handled.  The alarm company will be following your instructions (within reason and policy ie a fire alarm will almost always require them to call the FD first and the FD does not cancel a response call, they will show up even after you've given the monitoring center an all clear).  You'll need to decide how you want your alarm conditions treated and create a notification list that is reliable.  

It's very frustrating to receive and start calling on a low temperature alarm only to not be able to get in touch with anyone on the call list and then a while later receive the alarm that the place is flooding now (clearly because of a broken pipe from the low temp)

I have ADT and it's monitored. Fire and carbon monoxide alarms included.

As for cutting wires, a properly set up alarm system should have motion detectors inside.

Alarms are burglar deterrants.  get window/ door stickers and a lawn sign.  When an alarm goes off, they know the police are coming.  It may be a few hours, which is exceptionally long, if something like a robbery or shooting happens right before your alarm, but it may be only a few minutes.

Burglars that hear an alarm activated quickly grab stuff they see and run.  Usually they go for a DVD or VCR.  They don't have time to look around and take the irreplaceable heirlooms or screw around trying to open the gun safe.

You should consider a motion detector.  That will get the rare criminal that breaks glass out of a window.  Window alarms usually go off when the window is opened, although there is a "glass brek option."

The best deterrent seems to be a big, barking dog.  With one of those and an alarm, few will be tempted by your house.

Quoted: As far as the lines being cut, that would be your fault for not moving them INSIDE.

Not sure how you'd move several dozen miles of phone wire inside your house...

Basically, it's impossible to protect the phone line after it leaves your premises. In many subdivisions, the phone line for every house is accessible (and can be cut) at every phone junction box.

Personally, I like having an autodialer that calls you and several nearby neighbors/friends instead. Chances are good that at least one of you would be over to check things out before a monitoring service even makes the call, let alone before the police show up.

Monitoring isn't particularly cheap, either. 20 bucks a month is 240 bucks a year - Over a 10-year period, you could buy a lot of other protection (burglar bars, stronger doors, better locks, more outside lights, etc.) for the same money.