VOIP and Alarms...
Interesting things you learn at 3 in the morning.
So, I set off my alarm system in the house this morning. Scared the living shit out of me. After fumbling with the keypad, (and the alarm ringing seemingly forEVER), I finally got it turned off.
Now, my house alarm is monitored. I expected the call. You know.. "Ahem, Sir, have detected an alarm at your residence. The SWAT team and black gunship helos have been scrambled. The only way to stop us from taking your neighbors hostage is to give us the proper authentication sequences"
What did I get? Silence. Nothing.
No phone calls, no police, no courtesy call.
Nothing.
So, I called the alarm company, ready to unload and bitch them up one side and down the other. After threading through the voice menus (Press 1 for an actual emergency, Press 2 for a test, Press 3 for a customer rep, Press 4 because we really like ignoring you). I finally got a live person. He sounded like he was in the USA, but not too sure, and at 3am, didn't really care (in hindsight, it really would be easy to offshore burglar alarm monitoring services.. mental note for possible business opportunity). Any ways, the alarm company sez they have no record of an alarm. Huh? My ears are still ringing. So, we "test" the system. This entails me setting off the alarm again (remember, its about 3:30am by now). Sill no signal.
The tech on the phone starts asking questions about if I had any changes to my telephone system. Actually, I had. I dropped the phone company completely, and went with VOIP (hence the title of this entry!). "AAAhhhhhh.." says the alarm guy.
The offical word is that burglar alarms do not support VOIP. This is kinda true, but really just bullshit. After some research, and climbing up in my attic, I, Tobic, am here to bring you the truth.
Alarm systems dont care if you are VOIP. They will dial out just like a normal phone. The key is HOW the alarm system dials.
In a typical setup, the phone line comes from the phone company, into the dmarc (box on the side of the house) and then into the alarm system. The wire then comes out of the alarm system, and continues to all the extensions in your house. Essentially, there is a loop of wire behind the alarm panel that reaches all the phone jacks in the wall.
So, when an alarm is set off, the alarm panel attempts to get control the phone line. It does this be "cutting" the internal house loop and then dialing out on the wire connected directly to the dmarc. When the alarm panel does this, it gains total control over the phone line by cutting off all other extensions.
The reason that adding VOIP breaks this sequence, is that the voice gateway (ie VOIP box, ie new dmarc) is in the internal house loop that gets cut off in an alarm situation. So, essentially, the alarm panel is cutting off its only dial tone source.
Easy!
How to fix? Move the VOIP extension to the front side of the alarm panel. That way, when the alarm panel cuts off the internal house loop, the VOIP gateway remains connected and the alarm panel can still dial out.
Actually moving the wiring of the jack is not hard, but you have to understand how the phone system is wired, and where all the wires go. If you have a basic understanding of how a phone works (only two wires!), its all pretty elementary.
So, there is your interesting party fact.
Sometimes it is a bit more complicated than your posted solution. I'm glad yours worked. You might want to try several "tests" and possibly set your panel up to do a daily communications test with the central. http://www.vonage-forum.com/ftopic474-20.html
Rob,
Advantage Alarms, Inc.
Posted by Anonymous | Tuesday, May 03, 2005 7:36:41 AM