Review: X10 Protector Plus
ta300z
sensors and to figure out to work it. Okay okay okay an hour was
going down to the store to get more batteries. The package that
includes 4 door sensors and 2 motion sensors does not ship with
enough batteries.
I'm not looking to prevent a professional burglar of getting in my
house. They'll get through any alarm system. I live in a half
decent middle class neighborhood. But we do experience some problems
with Bee-N-Ees. Fortunately my neighbor works at the police station.
My neighbors' stories have give me a good indication of what type of
alarm system to get and whom I want to protect myself against. Most
of the break-ins in my neighborhood occur between 10am-3pm when
everyone is at work. Typically a high school kid skips class and
breaks into a house. Sometimes he takes the goods to the pawn
shop--but not always. That is how things work in my area of the
world. I'm just trying to prevent this 14 year old punk from breaking
into my home, causing $1000 of damage and stealing $200 worth of CDs.
I chose the X10 Protector Plus security system. It came with 4 door
sensors and 2 motion sensors. It also comes with light modules and
remotes in addition to the base unit. I also ordered a 105db siren.
I found the siren out of the console unit is not loud enough. You
can't even hear it outside. But the 105db siren can be heard outside.
If I was ordering again, I'd get the 110db siren.
What if they find the base unit or the siren and unplug them? Well if
they make it that far, then they really are willing to take the risk
and I'll have to deal with the lose of them getting in the house. In
order to get that far, they probably did extensive damage to a door or
window (assuming you locked them). My guess is that that will never
happen.
Overal rating: 8/10 for the type of security system I was expecting.
If you live in a really bad neighborhood -or- want to protect your
home at all costs, I'd go with the professionally monitored system.
For me I just want to protect my home when I am at work.
Brian W. Antoine
>Overal rating: 8/10 for the type of security system I was expecting.
>If you live in a really bad neighborhood -or- want to protect your
>home at all costs, I'd go with the professionally monitored system.
>For me I just want to protect my home when I am at work.
I assume you placed the console in some hidden location and programmed
it to call your work number? Hopefully that high school kid doesn't know
enough to take the nearest phone off the hook once he gets into the house.
--
(UniKyrn on IM, ICQ#27068798)
Brian W. Antoine http://www.nas-kan.org/
Dave Houston
>On Wed, 29 May 2002 23:36:38 -0400, ta300z <ta3...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>Overal rating: 8/10 for the type of security system I was expecting.
>>If you live in a really bad neighborhood -or- want to protect your
>>home at all costs, I'd go with the professionally monitored system.
>>For me I just want to protect my home when I am at work.
>
> I assume you placed the console in some hidden location and programmed
>it to call your work number? Hopefully that high school kid doesn't know
>enough to take the nearest phone off the hook once he gets into the house.
Or before he enters. ;)
---
http://www.laser.com/dhouston/
ra300z
<bri...@nas-kan.org> wrote:
>On Wed, 29 May 2002 23:36:38 -0400, ta300z <ta3...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>Overal rating: 8/10 for the type of security system I was expecting.
>>If you live in a really bad neighborhood -or- want to protect your
>>home at all costs, I'd go with the professionally monitored system.
>>For me I just want to protect my home when I am at work.
>
> I assume you placed the console in some hidden location and programmed
>it to call your work number? Hopefully that high school kid doesn't know
>enough to take the nearest phone off the hook once he gets into the house.
If you have tone dialing, it won't affect the phone. At least not in
my area. I tried it before I looked into the system.
And I'll take my chances regardless :)
Brian W. Antoine
It will certainly effect anything that looks for a dialtone before
it tries dialing, I don't recall whether the P-Plus looks. Thinking
from the burglars point of view, I wouldn't just take the phone off
the hook, I'd push at least one button so that anything that did try
to dial wouldn't dial a valid number.
This kind of scenario is why the real alarm systems disconnect all
the phones in the house when they trip.
ra300z
<bri...@nas-kan.org> wrote:
>On Thu, 30 May 2002 23:13:57 -0400, ra300z <ra3...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>>On Thu, 30 May 2002 12:49:32 -0700, Brian W. Antoine
>><bri...@nas-kan.org> wrote:
>>
>>>On Wed, 29 May 2002 23:36:38 -0400, ta300z <ta3...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>>>Overal rating: 8/10 for the type of security system I was expecting.
>>>>If you live in a really bad neighborhood -or- want to protect your
>>>>home at all costs, I'd go with the professionally monitored system.
>>>>For me I just want to protect my home when I am at work.
>>>
>>> I assume you placed the console in some hidden location and programmed
>>>it to call your work number? Hopefully that high school kid doesn't know
>>>enough to take the nearest phone off the hook once he gets into the house.
>>
>>If you have tone dialing, it won't affect the phone. At least not in
>>my area. I tried it before I looked into the system.
>
> It will certainly effect anything that looks for a dialtone before
>it tries dialing, I don't recall whether the P-Plus looks. Thinking
>from the burglars point of view, I wouldn't just take the phone off
>the hook, I'd push at least one button so that anything that did try
>to dial wouldn't dial a valid number.
The P-Plus is pretty quick on the draw. I highly doubt that a burglar
could get to a phone by the time it is finished dialing. Especially
with sirens in the vicinity of where I anticipate them to break in
(basement window)
Brian W. Antoine
>The P-Plus is pretty quick on the draw. I highly doubt that a burglar
>could get to a phone by the time it is finished dialing. Especially
>with sirens in the vicinity of where I anticipate them to break in
>(basement window)
I just tried it as an experiment. I rigged up my old P-Plus with
one sensor and programmed it to dial a phone number. When I tripped
it and immediatly disarmed the system, by the time I could pick the
phone up it had already dialed the number.
You're right, it dials fairly quickly, so defeating it would
probably require killing the phone line before tripping the system.
2354346542462
<bri...@nas-kan.org> wrote:
>On Fri, 31 May 2002 23:54:02 -0400, ra300z <ra3...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>The P-Plus is pretty quick on the draw. I highly doubt that a burglar
>>could get to a phone by the time it is finished dialing. Especially
>>with sirens in the vicinity of where I anticipate them to break in
>>(basement window)
>
> I just tried it as an experiment. I rigged up my old P-Plus with
>one sensor and programmed it to dial a phone number. When I tripped
>it and immediatly disarmed the system, by the time I could pick the
>phone up it had already dialed the number.
>
> You're right, it dials fairly quickly, so defeating it would
>probably require killing the phone line before tripping the system.
I will tell you this... IF they can get to a phone before it finishes
dialling the first number, all they would have to do is to leave it
off the hook. The sirens would mess up the dialling from that point
on.
This is why the first two numbers it dials is my work phone number.
Therefore I will get notified if someones attempts to enter the house.