Re: [ViaTalk] Does it work with an ADT home alarm? in ViaTalk http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r17164531 en Sat, 28 Nov 2009 20:49:00 EDT Sat, 28 Nov 2009 20:49:00 EDT Re: [ViaTalk] Does it work with an ADT home alarm? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17178123 ChrisFix :
said by MichiganTelephone :

Here's one way to think about it: Suppose you installed a brand new phone jack, ran a pair of wires from it to the RJ31X jack that your alarm is connected to, disconnected the pair that was formerly connected to the phone company's incoming line, and in its place connected the new line from your new jack. Everything would work as before, except your VoIP adapter would be taking the place of the telephone company Central Office.

Well, in most homes you can achieve exactly the same effect without running any new cable or adding any new jacks (unless you want to). All you have to do is rewire an existing jack to use a formerly unused pair as line 1, then out at the network interface device, connect that same pair to the wires going to your alarm system (disconnecting the line from the phone company in the process if you haven't done so already).
I've done exactly that and now use NextAlarm (with their separate PAP2 adapter) as my monitoring service for the past year. Very inexpensive with nice features. Have not had any reliability issues - and receive SMS or Email alerts for all alarm actions (daily test, arm, disarm, zone fault, zone alarm, etc.). No wiring modifications are required to the alarm panel.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17178123 Sun, 29 Oct 2006 11:04:45 EDT Re: [ViaTalk] Does it work with an ADT home alarm? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17177546 SteveLV702 : cjoseph82 if your having cellguard installed then there really is no point in connecting it to viatalk adaptor.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17177546 Sun, 29 Oct 2006 09:04:15 EDT Re: [ViaTalk] Does it work with an ADT home alarm? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17175830 v35_pilot :
said by cjoseph82 See Profile :

v35pilot, let me ask you a question if I could, did you just have to unplug the line from Verizon outside and just plug in the VoIP device into any wall jack?
I see you received several answers, but for the record, in my case I have not plugged my ViaTalk adapter into my home's telephone wiring. That wiring, which the ADT system is using, is still connected to a dialtone-only service provided by Verizon.

The ViaTalk adapter is plugged into a Uniden wireless base that has three wireless extensions throughout the house.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17175830 Sat, 28 Oct 2006 22:23:34 EDT Re: [ViaTalk] Does it work with an ADT home alarm? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17174548 anon : Here's one way to think about it: Suppose you installed a brand new phone jack, ran a pair of wires from it to the RJ31X jack that your alarm is connected to, disconnected the pair that was formerly connected to the phone company's incoming line, and in its place connected the new line from your new jack. Everything would work as before, except your VoIP adapter would be taking the place of the telephone company Central Office.

Well, in most homes you can achieve exactly the same effect without running any new cable or adding any new jacks (unless you want to). All you have to do is rewire an existing jack to use a formerly unused pair as line 1, then out at the network interface device, connect that same pair to the wires going to your alarm system (disconnecting the line from the phone company in the process if you haven't done so already).

Let's say that the brown pair (solid brown wire plus white wire with brown stripe) is unused in your home (as it probably would be if you've never had four incoming phone lines in your home). You would connect the brown pair to the line one position at the jack you want to plug your adapter into (probably where the blue pair is connected now). Then out at the network interface, you would connect the brown pair to the line going to your alarm. As long as the brown pair connection isn't broken anywhere along the path from the jack to the network interface, this should work.

Your alarm system installer should be able to figure all this out, but the point you want to make to him is that your VoIP adapter now takes the place of the incoming PSTN line. Hopefully he'll have seen this situation before and will know what to do.

Some homes may have a central connection point that's not at the network interface device, so you may have to adapt the principle explained here accordingly. But the idea is that your telephone service flows in this direction:

VoIP adapter (takes place of incoming phone line) ---> Alarm (RJ31X jack) ---> Rest of jacks in your home.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17174548 Sat, 28 Oct 2006 17:57:20 EDT Re: [ViaTalk] Does it work with an ADT home alarm? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17174287 cjoseph82 : AH! I get it now. Thanks. Perhaps I can have them do this when they come to install CellGuard.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17174287 Sat, 28 Oct 2006 17:09:04 EDT Re: [ViaTalk] Does it work with an ADT home alarm? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17174162 poolek : The adaptor will distrubute dial tone to all jacks in the house regardless of whether the alarm control panel is wired correctly or not. The alarm just won't be able to dial out if it's been installed correctly, since when the control panel cuts off the internal jacks to make the call, it will be cutting off the jack the adaptor is on as well.

You can fix this by swapping the 'incoming' vs 'outgoing' wires in the control panel.

If the alarm was installed incorrecly, the alarm should be able to call out. Whether the data transmission over the line will actually work will still need to be tested, but at least it'll be able to get dial tone.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17174162 Sat, 28 Oct 2006 16:40:56 EDT Re: [ViaTalk] Does it work with an ADT home alarm? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17174080 cjoseph82 : poolek, thanks for your reply. Just want to clarify one point you made. You said if the alarm wasn't setup properly, plugging the ViaTalk adapter into one jack will not distribute the signal to other phone jacks in the house? That would make the service unusable. This is bad...

What my parents are most probably going to do is purchase the CellGuard option in the event it won't work with ViaTalk. I believe the only case in which it wouldn't work is if the phone is off the hook, since the ViaTalk adapter won't be wired to seize the phone line.

Am I on the right track in my thinking here?]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17174080 Sat, 28 Oct 2006 16:23:51 EDT Re: [ViaTalk] Does it work with an ADT home alarm? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17174046 poolek : The ADT device shouldn't be sending any voltage down the line, so I don't think there are any concerns that it would mess up the Viatalk adaptor.

However, depending on how the alarm was installed, enabling voip service over your existing internal phone wiring may not work. The alarm installer -should- have run the phone line from the Newtwork Interface box outside directly to the alarm control panel, then from the control panel out to the internal jacks. The reasoning for this is so that the alarm control panel can shut off all extensions when dialing - so that if an extension is off hook, the call will still go through.

A -lot- of installers don't take the time to do this properly, especially if it's not a new construction. If the alarm is installed properly, the plugging the adaptor into an internal jack won't work without doing some wiring adjustments at the control panel.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17174046 Sat, 28 Oct 2006 16:13:55 EDT Re: [ViaTalk] Does it work with an ADT home alarm? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17173986 cjoseph82 : v35pilot, let me ask you a question if I could, did you just have to unplug the line from Verizon outside and just plug in the VoIP device into any wall jack?

I was reading this article online, and it stated that even if you unplug outside, the ADT alarm panel could somehow generate a voltage that would fry the ViaTalk adapter.

Is this true? Does anyone know?]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17173986 Sat, 28 Oct 2006 16:00:59 EDT Re: [ViaTalk] Does it work with an ADT home alarm? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17166519 voiplover : v35_pilot, you can get »alarmpath.com
Basically you pay for the radio and service for 2 years and it comes out to about $5/month and you own the radio. You program it over their website to call whoever is monitoring your alarm system plus you can have it page you also.

Note: I don't see the prices on their website anymore?]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17166519 Fri, 27 Oct 2006 12:12:24 EDT Re: [ViaTalk] Does it work with an ADT home alarm? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17166335 SteveLV702 : But see I was purchasing a New System and not adding on to an existing system... ]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17166335 Fri, 27 Oct 2006 11:35:56 EDT Re: [ViaTalk] Does it work with an ADT home alarm? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17166318 v35_pilot :
said by SteveLV702 See Profile :

voiplover read my post again I never said it was free of monthly charges I just said the equipement was free with my existing system... As when I placed the order for the system I told them I didnt have a landline and would need cellguard and they through it in for free..
You got a great deal. When I called ADT again today to ask what they charged to add Cell Guard to an existing customer's package, the rather uninterested sounding rep told me $260 for the equipment/installation AND an additional $12/month on top of the monitoring fee! Sheet.

Considering that I am paying about $16/month to Verizon for the dial-tone only line exclusively for the ADT system, there is practically no break-even by choosing the ADT solution.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17166318 Fri, 27 Oct 2006 11:33:56 EDT Re: [ViaTalk] Does it work with an ADT home alarm? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17166193 voiplover : XeSolutions, You are right, and I agree.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17166193 Fri, 27 Oct 2006 11:12:59 EDT Re: [ViaTalk] Does it work with an ADT home alarm? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17166159 SteveLV702 : voiplover read my post again I never said it was free of monthly charges I just said the equipement was free with my existing system... As when I placed the order for the system I told them I didnt have a landline and would need cellguard and they through it in for free.. I have cellguard and fire alarm and still paying $39.99 which is the same amount I paid at my old house when I didnt have cellguard or fire alarm.. So ya there maybe a $5/month extra charge but for some odd reason they are not charging me it.. Second would you rather pay $5 for the cell guard or pay $15-$50/mo for a Landline Phone that you dont even need you only have it for your Alarm System.. I would choose the $5 CellGuard cause hey it even works when a landline would be out because of a storm.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17166159 Fri, 27 Oct 2006 11:06:20 EDT Re: [ViaTalk] Does it work with an ADT home alarm? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17166100 voiplover : "Safewatch® CellGuard® Backup

Give your home an extra layer of protection by getting your alarm system connected via a cellular network - just in case your regular telephone service is interrupted by a thunderstorm or other natural disaster. This feature requires an additional monthly charge. "

Nothing from ADT is FREE! :o

About ~$100.00+ extra per year. $500/yr for monitoring. :huh:
Edit: $480/yr]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17166100 Fri, 27 Oct 2006 10:56:10 EDT Re: [ViaTalk] Does it work with an ADT home alarm? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17166095 SteveLV702 : ya but if your in say like my area you are getting

DSL = 3Mbps Down / 768Kbps Up

as if you have cable you get 5 times that you get

Cable = 15Mbps Down / 2Mbps Up

So I would never leave my Cable for DSL....]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17166095 Fri, 27 Oct 2006 10:55:44 EDT Re: [ViaTalk] Does it work with an ADT home alarm? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17166065 KLH : Just an option for those of you who want/need a pots line. In my area, getting a basic pots + internet is cheaper (taxes/fees included) then it is with getting internet through cable.
So if you're thinking about getting a pots line anway for your alarm, you might as well see what it would cost to get DSL also, and see how much that bill together would be vs your cable internet bill. It may be a couple dollars more, but you are also getting your security system working.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17166065 Fri, 27 Oct 2006 10:50:20 EDT Re: [ViaTalk] Does it work with an ADT home alarm? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17165970 SteveLV702 : I use the ADT Cellguard it came FREE with my Alarm System.]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17165970 Fri, 27 Oct 2006 10:35:58 EDT Re: [ViaTalk] Does it work with an ADT home alarm? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17165778 voiplover : Comcast spent millions making their digital phone alarm friendly and should work well.
Other options:
Alarmpath
AES
Nextalarm
Alarmlink
CRN]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17165778 Fri, 27 Oct 2006 10:00:11 EDT Re: [ViaTalk] Does it work with an ADT home alarm? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17165722 ptrowski :
said by montano See Profile :

A nice steak would keep Sam busy while I 'barrowed' your household goods :D
I actually had a friend test that theory before...Was a no go. Maybe he is not as dumb as I thought he was...
--
"A religious war is like children fighting over who has the strongest imaginary friend."

Have you been touched by his noodly appendage? »www.venganza.org/index.htm]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17165722 Fri, 27 Oct 2006 09:49:15 EDT Re: [ViaTalk] Does it work with an ADT home alarm? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17165634 montano : A nice steak would keep Sam busy while I 'barrowed' your household goods :D]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17165634 Fri, 27 Oct 2006 09:29:15 EDT Re: [ViaTalk] Does it work with an ADT home alarm? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17165371 ptrowski : Hey now, don't knock the FSM until you've tried it. ;)

Just an opinion, and I uderstand why others would want it to work. I don't have a POTS line in my house, and the wife and I are considering an alarm that also has the fire monitor etc. For that reason I would prefer to have a POTS line hooked up to the house. I just think it is one less "weaker" chain in the link to have to worry about.

I have an 85 lb burlger alarm right now...His name is Sam the Dalmation.
--
Have you been touched by his noodly appendage? »www.venganza.org/index.htm]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17165371 Fri, 27 Oct 2006 08:22:38 EDT Re: [ViaTalk] Does it work with an ADT home alarm? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17164531 buckeyered : most bad guys know to cut the phone lines going into the house before they break in, it's a easy thing to do as most phone lines enter the house within easy reach, they can cut mine all they want since it's not used with nextalarm.
--
'I would rather have a German division in front of me than a French division behind me.' - General George Patton]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17164531 Fri, 27 Oct 2006 01:03:30 EDT Re: [ViaTalk] Does it work with an ADT home alarm? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17164255 anon : ptrowski wrote, "VOIP is fun and all, and we save money there. But when you deal with your personal security, fire monitoring, etc splurge and make sure there are no issues. Keep the POTS line." Well, that's one opinion, and for some people it may be a perfectly valid one. However....

Usually when people consider VoIP, it's because they don't have millions of dollars in the bank (if they did, they wouldn't be worrying about saving a few bucks a month on residential phone service). The vast majority of us don't have unlimited funds. Some of us don't have alarm systems at all.

My theory is that absolutely NOTHING is going to make you or your family 100% safe. Even your gold plated alarm system with dedicated PSTN line is not going to help you in the event of asteroid strike, tidal wave, category 5 hurricane, strong tornado, magnitude 9.5 earthquake, etc. etc. We all decide on degrees of acceptable risk. Maybe we don't buy the most crash-resistant automobile because we really can't justify spending the extra $50,000 (or just don't have that much to spend).

So my question is, how often does your broadband go down (that includes outages caused by power outages, etc.) and what are the chances that such an outage will happen at the exact time that someone tries to break in, or a fire occurs?

And then balance that against the reliability of the PSTN line - yes, it may stay up during a power outage, but will it survive a strong windstorm? Will it be the one cable that a burglar (or someone intent on harming your family in a different manner) will cut, thinking that cuts you off from all communications?

And also consider whether there's usually a working cell phone available whenever someone is home.

For some people, the small amount of extra reliability gained by having a PSTN line isn't worth it. That's particularly true if the PSTN line is prone to outages. And remember, you may not notice every single PSTN outage (if it happens while you're not trying to use the phone, you may never know it happened) the way you would a broadband outage or a cable outage (people really tend to notice when the cable goes out for half an hour, particularly if it happens during prime time).

For other people, who perhaps have more disposable income and think that if they spend enough money they can buy perfect security, their choice may be to retain a PSTN line.

I just don't think some folks ought to be too preachy, especially people whose deity is a flying spaghetti monster. :) :) :)]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17164255 Fri, 27 Oct 2006 00:00:19 EDT Re: [ViaTalk] Does it work with an ADT home alarm? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17163610 NY Tel : Some of the adapters do not recognize dial pulses (rotary dialers) and a lot of the alarm communicators still use rotary dial pulsing.
Simply incompatible....]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17163610 Thu, 26 Oct 2006 22:10:34 EDT Re: [ViaTalk] Does it work with an ADT home alarm? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17163590 buckeyered : I should have added that nextalrm does not use a phone line (unless you want to go that route you can) but uses your internet connection (adapter plugs into your router)
--
'I would rather have a German division in front of me than a French division behind me.' - General George Patton]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17163590 Thu, 26 Oct 2006 22:08:29 EDT Re: [ViaTalk] Does it work with an ADT home alarm? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17163541 ptrowski : Personally, and this is just my opinion.

VOIP is fun and all, and we save money there. But when you deal with your personal security, fire monitoring, etc splurge and make sure there are no issues. Keep the POTS line.
--
Have you been touched by his noodly appendage? »www.venganza.org/index.htm]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17163541 Thu, 26 Oct 2006 22:00:39 EDT Re: [ViaTalk] Does it work with an ADT home alarm? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17163298 buckeyered : It might work it might not, in may work one day and not the next. This is not with VT but any voip, I wouldn't chance it nor would I want to worry about whether or not it's going to work when I need it. Either keep the landline or dump ADT and go with next alarm.com and have a lot more features for under nine bucks a month. I changed my parents over to nextalarm and they are very happy with them (they tend to accidentally set off the alarm a lot next alarm was very nice to them)
--
'I would rather have a German division in front of me than a French division behind me.' - General George Patton]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17163298 Thu, 26 Oct 2006 21:24:44 EDT Re: [ViaTalk] Does it work with an ADT home alarm? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17163131 v35_pilot : I am a ten year customer of ADT and just recently became a ViaTalk customer. I called ADT before making the jump and was told by them that the only two options I had (besides dumping ADT) were to a) keep a dial-tone only line coming in the house, or b) buy some cellular adapter sold by ADT and then pay an additional $5/month monitoring fee to ADT.

Currently, I chose option (a) and kept a Verizon POTS line to the house with dial-tone only service (at about $15/month) for the alarm system because ADT National quoted the cellular device at about $250!! :o

I may call my local ADT sales office, though, to see if I can work out a deal for the device in return for another year commitment. ]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17163131 Thu, 26 Oct 2006 21:04:13 EDT [ViaTalk] Does it work with an ADT home alarm? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17162932 cjoseph82 : I've been trying for the longest time to get my parents onto VoIP. At first, my mother was hung up on the phones not working if the cable went out. I didn't see the big deal, as everyone in their house has a cell phone. I was telling her about ViaTalk's 199/2 deal the other day, and she seemed shocked and said she wanted to jump on. She called ADT to ask if the alarm would work with VoIP, and get this, they told her it would only work with a "Comcast phone." Can anyone with ViaTalk and ADT comment?]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17162932 Thu, 26 Oct 2006 20:40:38 EDT