I posted about it here awhile back, that I'd finally decided to give my alarm company the boot and switch to a Ring system. I got a good deal on the alarm kit (2nd generation, I went for the 10-piece kit plus a few extra contact sensors), and have finally just gotten around to installing it.

Installation was really a breeze ... gotta give props to Ring on this one, most everything is plug and play and I can see they put a lot of thought into the user-friendliness aspect of it. I also notice that they spent some time on the aesthetics too... everything has that streamlined white Mac "feel" to it, including the base station with its colorful LED. (In comparison, I'm also struck by the crappiness of my existing sensors ... most of them look stupid, clunky, and old compared to the Ring ones.)

For the price, I'd say quite a deal.

The only thing I haven't gotten around to yet-- replacing my glass break sensors. My idea was to take the existing sensors and replace the internal switch with the contacts in the Ring contact sensors. I haven't gotten around yet to taking down my existing glass break sensors but will likely do over the weekend.

Also, my old system has an LCD panel which appears to be hardwired into an electrical outlet by passing a wire inside the wall to a wall wart adapter plugged into a nearby outlet. I'm wondering if I should try to remove it, or just leave it there... the panel is obviously worthless without activation, and the panel keeps sending stupid messages that it can't reach the sensors (which are now all gone except for the glass break ones).

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Freya says, 'Hello from NOLA, baby!' (Laissez bon temps rouler!)

Ive always been perplexed by glass break sensors -- figure as soon as someone breaks in -- either by opening the in window/door glass they just broke, either the contact or motion sensor will just nab them.

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Edited 999 time(s). Last edit at 12:08PM by jdc.

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jdc
Ive always been perplexed by glass break sensors -- figure as soon as someone breaks in -- either by opening the in window/door glass they just broke, either the contact or motion sensor will just nab them.

Well in my case I would not want a motion sensor in those particular areas, as I'm frequently moving around in them, and therefore likely to trigger the motion sensors; and the contact sensors won't help because they only signal if the contact is lost, not if the glass is shattered. (I put the contact sensors around the door frames, not on the glass itself... these are sliding glass doors I'm talking about.)

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Freya says, 'Hello from NOLA, baby!' (Laissez bon temps rouler!)

You’re not concerned about the security issues that have occurred with these systems, and the privacy issues?

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My life goes smoothly and in regular intervals

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ka jowct
You’re not concerned about the security issues that have occurred with these systems, and the privacy issues?

Exactly why I haven’t gotten a Ring system.

We have an alarm system with glass break sensors in the house. There have been times when other sounds cause it to go off. We set the alarm every night, and in the morning sometimes we don't turn off the alarm until later in the morning. A slamming door, or dropping silverware on the kitchen floor have set it off. Thankfully, that happens only once every year or so.

The worst is the motion sensors. We've had numerous false alarms. Our cats are supposedly too small to set it off, but they have. We finally had the two motion sensors turned off. Someone would basically have to break in to set them off anyway, so I thought they were pointless.

We have an older wired system that I haven't activated. As best I can tell it makes more sense to get a new wireless system.

I like the ring hardware, I just wish other aspects of their system weren't so problematic.

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macphanatic

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ka jowct
You’re not concerned about the security issues that have occurred with these systems, and the privacy issues?

Exactly why I haven’t gotten a Ring system.

Ive thought the same, but you dont have to use the service -- so no access.

Just having an alarm that goes beep beep is likely more than enough to keep many away?

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Edited 999 time(s). Last edit at 12:08PM by jdc.

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macphanatic

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ka jowct
You’re not concerned about the security issues that have occurred with these systems, and the privacy issues?

Exactly why I haven’t gotten a Ring system.

Honestly, I don't know why this would be an issue in my case. I don't have any Ring cameras that face inside my home -- therefore no "uninvited guests". Their alarm system consists of: a base station, a keypad, a motion detector, and a bunch of contact sensors. That's more or less the same as the system in my house it's replacing. So really it just boils down to whether I'm OK with having Ring/Amazon (now that Amazon has bought out Ring) know when I'm home or away -- as opposed to the home security system I had in place previously. In other words, in my case, it was essentially just a swapout of one alarm system for another.

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Freya says, 'Hello from NOLA, baby!' (Laissez bon temps rouler!)

Peter, I have four cameras surrounding my house but no "Ring alarm system". They just work independently. Sometimes it's annoying such as when the lawn people come and trip all four cameras repeatedly. Would this "alarm system" help me in some way?

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davemchine
Peter, I have four cameras surrounding my house but no "Ring alarm system". They just work independently. Sometimes it's annoying such as when the lawn people come and trip all four cameras repeatedly. Would this "alarm system" help me in some way?

Doubtful, since the alarm system is intended to secure a home. If you're getting undesired tripping of your cameras, you could probably just adjust the sensitivity settings for those cameras.

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Freya says, 'Hello from NOLA, baby!' (Laissez bon temps rouler!)

We have homeowners insurance instead of an alarm system. Works well.

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Saint Cloud, Minnesota, where the weather is wonderful even when it isn't.

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Speedy
We have homeowners insurance instead of an alarm system. Works well.

insurance doesn’t help you much if you have an intruder while you’re sleeping. a heads up is the primary reason i maintain an alarm system. secondary reason is thieves prefer an unalarmed house and perhaps will go seek one instead of entering mine.

plus, i get a discount on my homeowners insurance because i have a monitored system so the insurance companies must think alarms are helpful.

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"Success isn't about how much money you make. It is about the difference you make in people's lives."--Michelle Obama



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/09/2020 12:27AM by graylocks.

Just having an alarm that goes beep beep is likely more than enough to keep many away?


That's just adorable.

In my experience, an audible alarm merely tells a burglar to hurry up.

Whether or not a service benefits a subscriber has it's variables.

Depending on an alarm to 'keep many away' is almost no plan at all.

But better than nothing, to be sure.

I am a fan of motion-activated flood lights.

Having a camera for outdoor viewing is a good thing, too.

---

When a good man is hurt,
all who would be called good
must suffer with him.

Everybody matters or nobody matters.

You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.

There is no safety for honest men except
by believing all possible evil of evil men.

We don’t do focus groups. They just ensure that you don’t offend anyone, and produce bland inoffensive products. —Sir Jonathan Ive

-An armed society is a polite society.
And hope is a lousy defense.

You make me pull, I'll put you down.

Mister, that's a ten-gallon hat on a twenty-gallon head.

I *love* SIGs. It's Glocks I hate.

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graylocks

Quote
Speedy
We have homeowners insurance instead of an alarm system. Works well.

insurance doesn’t help you much if you have an intruder while you’re sleeping. a heads up is the primary reason i maintain an alarm system. secondary reason is thieves prefer an unalarmed house and perhaps will go seek one instead of entering mine.

plus, i get a discount on my homeowners insurance because i have a monitored system so the insurance companies must think alarms are helpful.

That is true for me as well, plus I might have forgotten to mention that my area/block in NOLA is having a bit of an issue. For the last several years, we've had many shootings, mostly drug- and gang-related, which have resulted in fatalities, plus a number of armed robberies and burglaries. So I would say that having a monitored alarm system is a must, particularly to protect the premises when I'm not home. Under current circumstances with me being effectively home all the time, it's also just a peace-of-mind measure to have it armed while I'm home.

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Freya says, 'Hello from NOLA, baby!' (Laissez bon temps rouler!)

Hi everyone,

Don't fool yourselves into thinking homeowner's insurance will do much good in the event of a robbery. It won't serve as a deterrent to thieves, it won't stop a thief from breaking into your home and may not be helpful in the event of a loss. That's the job of properly configured burglar alarm system.

I have a Ring alarm system. It's great. Easy to install. Very low-cost central station monitoring. Includes video storage for my Ring doorbell. Definitely wouldn't hesitate to recommend one to someone. I'm not worried about security and privacy issues.

The system is properly configured with a strong password. Someone would have to go through multiple levels of security to break into it. Strong WIFI password. Strong security system password. Even then, I don't have indoor cams affiliated with it.

Robert

Are the concerns raised about Ring from the news stories of almost a year ago on unauthorized camera access? Seems like those were resolved with strong passwords and 2FA. Anything newer than that?

Lots of non-burglar benefits to a basic monitored alarm system as well. Alerts on smoke/fire and flood/freeze alarms when you're not home. A call for help in the middle of the night when a CO alarm sounds might be a lifesaver.

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John B.
Are the concerns raised about Ring from the news stories of almost a year ago on unauthorized camera access? Seems like those were resolved with strong passwords and 2FA. Anything newer than that?

That got a lot of attention but is no longer the main concern -
[www.nytimes.com]

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Matt,

A non-issue. Just turn off Neighbors and ignore it. John is correct about the other benefits. We use leak detectors affiliated with our Ring system. They alerted us when there was a leak into one of our bathrooms. I knew the exact time when the leak occurred, which was useful in tracking down the source of the leak.

Robert

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Robert M
A non-issue.

Depends upon how much your trust Ring/Amazon.

OK, I just skimmed over that NYT article, and I gotta say ... none of that really bothers me very much. Since all of my cameras face outside, and they're all visible either from the street or the porch, anyone could see what the cameras are capable of seeing. If my local law enforcement wanted the videos, I'd therefore have no problem with that. They have in fact already contacted me a couple of times to check and see if I had any useful footage of the area after a crime has occurred, but unfortunately the placement of my cameras is such that it'd be highly unlikely I'd have anything useful for them.

And as for the Neighbors part of the Ring app, I have actually found that incredibly useful -- particularly because it gives some real-time alerting of things happening in the neighborhood that we might all want to know about... the most common thing here being either "was that gunshots or fireworks?" and "another porch pirate has struck".

As for Ring/Amazon, again, they can see what is publicly visible anyway. Regarding the alarm system, that'd just give them info about my comings and goings, which frankly again I feel is not particularly useful or interesting information, especially with us all now being under corona conditions ... where people are likely to be home a lot anyway.

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Freya says, 'Hello from NOLA, baby!' (Laissez bon temps rouler!)

Matt,

You have to give your trust to someone if you choose to have an alarm system with central station monitoring. All the more so if you want app and cloud based services with the alarm system. If you don't like Ring (and Amazon), choose a different provider. However, that provider is likely working with other companies to provide some of its services.

Case in point. At my office, the system is configured properly and as secure as reasonably possible. Our alarm system and central station monitoring provider uses alarm.com for some of its services. Alarm.com is a 3rd party that provides services for a slew of alarm companies, not just mine.

Do I trust Alarm.com? No. If I want app and cloud services with my office's alarm system, then I don't have an alternative. Our provider works with Alarm.com and if I want the services, I have to go with it. Just like with Ring (and Amazon), the benefits of the services _way_ outweigh any concerns I have with the company.

Robert

Its a tradeoff. Some people might be surprised that the footage from their security cameras might be used without their knowledge. A clear alternative is having a system that records locally. Different people will navigate this differently.

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RAMd®d
Just having an alarm that goes beep beep is likely more than enough to keep many away?

That's just adorable.
In my experience, an audible alarm merely tells a burglar to hurry up.
Whether or not a service benefits a subscriber has it's variables.
Depending on an alarm to 'keep many away' is almost no plan at all.
But better than nothing, to be sure.
I am a fan of motion-activated flood lights.
Having a camera for outdoor viewing is a good thing, too.

As opposed to having an alarm that goes beep beep and then calls the cops, or whatever service u have to come and investigate.

Agree 100% that an alarm should not be an end all be all.

Its like the club on your steering wheel. Ive seen dozens of videos where they can be removed in less than a minute. But its the extra minute some a hole needs to take that makes them skip your car and move onto the next. Provided you dont own a honda civic or a full size pickup =)

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Edited 999 time(s). Last edit at 12:08PM by jdc.

Its like the club on your steering wheel.


Well, no it's not, not really.

People put Protected byADT and similar stickers on their windows or signs on their lawn.

It's impossible to know how many burglaries or home invasions they've prevented.

Unless there's some form of perimeter security, all most all alarms don't sound until intrusion, be it opening a door, window, or breaking glass.

Very often, by that point a thief is committed. Some run, but a lot don't.

I don't discount the value of an audible alarm, but I don't overestimate it either.

The same with police response, or worse, that of private security.

Both can be very good in limited areas, but a 'ringer' seldom gets priority over just about anything else, especially if a location has had any previous false alarms.

The ability to know and say 'there's someone in the house' changes everything.

Whether or not somebody chooses to have interior video coverage is a personal choice, along with any given solution to do so.

Some people still don't lock their doors and have never had a problem.

People go with what's comfortable for them, and if it works, all's well.

My point is most people put undo faith an an audible alarm and the response it's supposed to trigger.

---

When a good man is hurt,
all who would be called good
must suffer with him.

Everybody matters or nobody matters.

You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.

There is no safety for honest men except
by believing all possible evil of evil men.

We don’t do focus groups. They just ensure that you don’t offend anyone, and produce bland inoffensive products. —Sir Jonathan Ive

-An armed society is a polite society.
And hope is a lousy defense.

You make me pull, I'll put you down.

Mister, that's a ten-gallon hat on a twenty-gallon head.

I *love* SIGs. It's Glocks I hate.

Protecting property and lives is done in layers. Fencing where needed, motion sensing lights, proper installation of doors, locks, windows.

Fencing and lights are first layer. Makes it hard for them to hide. Criminals don't like to be seen.

Reinforce doors. Pull the screws out of your door hinges and strike plates. They're probably 3/4 to 1 inch long. Doesn't take much to make those fail. I replaced at least 2 screws per hinge and both on strike plates with 2-1/2 to 3 inch steel screws (don't use pretty brass ones). Pre drill first. Cheap and easy security upgrade.

On doors with glass, use double dead bolts and take the key out (hang nearby in case of emergency). Not per code, but a huge safety increase. A friend installed the L shaped flip bars that hotels are using. Installed about halfway from the lock to the floor. This significantly improves battering resistance. You'll hear them banging before the alarm goes off.

People are using the same L shaped flip bars for safe rooms, whether its for security or for weather events.

We have a Ring doorbell and a Ring security system. I added a smart lock to the front door that integrates with the Ring system. We sold the motion detector that came with the Ring security system and I bought more sensors for the accessible windows. One reason I chose the Ring was that I was already paying $30 (???) a year for the Ring doorbell and adding the Ring security made the whole thing $100 a year. We use Wyze cams aimed outward at the 4 corners of the house just to see what's going on. I don't have any of the Ring cameras because they're way too expensive for me.

Quite frankly, I think the thing we do that makes it least likely that we'll be robbed is having lights on timers that go on/off at various times. Most people around here just turn off the lights and go away whether it's for the evening or 2 weeks. We also live a mile in on a road that deadends a half mile past us. The one time we saw somebody stealing lumber from a house under construction down the road, I called the owner's dad who lived down the hill from us. He put his truck and a neighbor's truck across the road from ditch to ditch and called the cops. The thieves couldn't get out and were caught by the cops. I'm sort of surprised they didn't try to ram through the trucks across the road!

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RAMd®d
I am a fan of motion-activated flood lights.

They don't help much in the middle of the day. Around here, most break-ins occur during the middle of the day, when people aren't home. A block away, two different houses were broken in during the day. The house directly across the street was attempted to be broken into at least twice during the day. One time, a guy was trying to kick in the front door when a neighbor walked over to investigate. Another time, I was home sick and saw a car pull up. The passenger got out while the driver stayed in the car with it running. I walked out my front door with my iPhone's camera rolling. As soon as I walked out, the driver shouted to his passenger, and he jumped back in and they took off.

They don't help much in the middle of the day.


No s, S.

---

When a good man is hurt,
all who would be called good
must suffer with him.

Everybody matters or nobody matters.

You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.

There is no safety for honest men except
by believing all possible evil of evil men.

We don’t do focus groups. They just ensure that you don’t offend anyone, and produce bland inoffensive products. —Sir Jonathan Ive

-An armed society is a polite society.
And hope is a lousy defense.

You make me pull, I'll put you down.

Mister, that's a ten-gallon hat on a twenty-gallon head.

I *love* SIGs. It's Glocks I hate.

Quote
mattkime
Its a tradeoff. Some people might be surprised that the footage from their security cameras might be used without their knowledge. A clear alternative is having a system that records locally. Different people will navigate this differently.

I thought about having something that records locally, in fact I had that for awhile in my old apartment. There's no question that cloud storage is better though -- both because you get more capacity and also less likely to lose footage.

As for footage from security cameras being used without my knowledge, I think it extremely unlikely. From the NYT article you linked: "No one at Ring, nor any police department, is allowed to access Ring videos or personal information unless device owners choose to share them via Neighbors." ... and again, at least in my case, if somehow they were to get the footage without my knowledge... it's not anything they couldn't have observed if they were there in person.

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Freya says, 'Hello from NOLA, baby!' (Laissez bon temps rouler!)