Best DIY Alarm?

[conny]

Moving out to the country at the end of the month into rented 4 bed cottage. Beside the people in the house next door, (its a semi detached), the nearest neighbour is about 1 mile away down a winding road.

What would be the best DIY alarm to buy and fit myself? I want one that will alert us if anyone tries to get in during the night, (and the neighbours if we are out). Is there one that would alert the authorities automatically in case both houses are empty at the time? Other than the neighbour we are overlooked by fields on three sides.

Windows are uPVC with double locking system and front and rear doors are both 5 locking points multi lever type locks.

I am a maintenance engineer so am familiar with basic electrics

 

[secureiam]

You will see many diy people on here installing professional equipment, some do a great job, but a great alarm installed incorrectly is probably worse than a mediocre alarm installed properly.

You cant have a diy alarm that notifies the police, you can put pretty much any alarm to call you or your neighbours in the event of an alarm activation, depending on what alarm you get will depend on what options are available to you.

 

[sparkymarka]

You would need an nsi or ssaib company if you require a policed actioned system which won't be cheap, alternatively you could go for a system with text messaging or push notifications if you are thinking of installing the system yourself. Eg Texecom premier with gsm unit or comm gsm or Pyronix enforcer wireless gsm. Other systems available !

 

[conny]

Thanks for the info lads.
Looks like I may have to get in touch with a few companies if madam insists on the police contact.
If she's amenable to the text system I will certainly look into the ones suggested.

Once again, Thank you.

 

[JohnD]

it doesn't actually go straight to the police; it goes to a monitoring station who will pass it on to the police if conditions are met. The police will look in, if and when they have nothing better to do. They will stop coming if you have too many false alarms (might be two in a year, can't remember). If you are in a rural area there might only be 1 on duty per 100 square miles at night, or some such number.

For some reason the monitoring station does not charge me per alarm for my home, but the contract for my commercial premises does.

You could also pay a local security guard co to be one of your keyholders. I do, they make an annual charge plus charge their hourly rate for any callout (so they make a fortune from false alarms).

Try to get a mutual co-operation keyholding arrangement with one or two other locals. It needs to be someone who is willing to get out of bed in the middle of the night. They will be annoyed by false alarms and will then ignore it.

 

[racey1979]

I used to have a Miguard G5 alarm at my old house and to be honest it was a bit naff, Chinese build quality wasn't the best and the PIR brackets were woeful. When I moved house, I sold it as my new home had an old wired alarm so I decided to upgrade that instead. I went for an hybrid system as I wanted to add some wireless sensors to protect the shed, extension etc. I installed a Texecom Premier Elite 24 panel and added a Ricochet wireless expander. I then added a wireless Dual Tech PIR in my shed and some wireless door contacts. So far, apart from 1 wired zone, it has been faultless. Definitely look at the Texecom Ricochet gear, I'm not an alarm expert, I'm a mechanical engineer with basic electrical knowledge and found it easy to install and program. I had a quote from a local alarm company who wanted to install a totally wireless system (Risco Agility) and not utilise the fact that the house was already hard wired. They wanted a small fortune so I did it myself.

 

[Alf Alarms]

If you get a phone signal from any of the major networks in the property try using the electronics line Secuplace alarm and It will text or send you a push notification. I've heard they have cameras coming soon also so you can look in too

 

[GalaxyGuy]

Don't put cameras inside a domestic property where the system is connected to the net. Many of the systems lack the security to protect from external hackers. Fine for business premises, but never inside the home.

Get a Texecom or Honeywell Galaxy.

 

[bernardgreen]

Don't put cameras inside a domestic property where the system is connected to the net. Many of the systems lack the security to protect from external hackers. .

Most of the hacking was sucessful because the default passwords were not changed or were changed to weak passwords that the hackers could guess or calculate.

http://www.sileo.com/cyber-espionage-baby/

http://fox8.com/2014/11/20/russian-hackers-streaming-video-from-thousands-of-private-webcams/

were published in November 2014 when it was discovered that organised attacks had been carried out on domestic CCTV and security CCTV around the world. This publishing of the stolen images highlighted the fact that cameras could be hacked and viewed without the owner's knowledge.

There have been many cases of an idividual hacker who targetted just one or two cameras and kept the stolen images in their own private collection. There are almost certainly many other similar hackers who are yet to be discovered.

 

[SimonH2]

Most of the hacking was sucessful because the default passwords were not changed or were changed to weak passwords that the hackers could guess or calculate.

But apart from that, there have been studies which (in summary) have concluded that security on many systems is crap - as in "changing the password is barely worth the effort" crap.
One specific report found that a huge number of DVRs all used the same faulty firmware, with really basic errors allowing access without using a password at all.

More recently, various studies have found that "Internet of Things" devices also mostly have crap security.

Apart from the basic "crap software written by/for companies without the right priorities" security, there is also the tendency for so much of the "IoT" stuff to rely on "phoning home" as it relies (in part or whole) on the vendors services.
Apple is enforcing security with their home automation stuff (devices must use one of a small number of processors) and run specific code provided by Apple. But Apple of course are into the "use our ecosystem or nothing" game - and are one of several companies vying to be "the one" (and only one) system running the IoT. They certainly are not interested in open standards.