HawthorneVillager.com

Our alarm went off about half an hour ago. We can't fighre out for the life of us what set it off as we didn't arm the motion sensors. More concerning for us is the fact that the alarm company didn't call us. Are they supposed to respond since we pay them a monthly fee??

You should be able to get the source of the alarm trigger by viewing the last error on your system, check your manual for that function.

If they did not call you, that may be because your system did not call them... you are actually supposed to do a monthly test of the communication. From you to them not the other way around. Why not give them a call?

When ours triggered off once, turned out we did not shut the garage door and the wind blew it.

Do you have Cogeco Home Phone? If you do, i'm in the same boat. Alarm went off, i called the alarm company and they said its Cogeco. Once the alarm is set and it stops detecting a dial tone it sets the alarm off.

This is the 2nd time its happened in about a month. Not happy about it at all. I'm most likely going to cancel my Cogeco Home Phone this week.

Yep we are with Cogeco...that explains it and while I'm relieved I'm also angry because Cogecos lines go down too much for my liking.

P&A

Did the Cogeco technician(s) test the system when they installed your phone line?

After installing my Cogeco line, I accidentally triggered the alarm system and was surprised that no one called us from the Alarm company. When I called them they informed me that they never received the signal.

I called Cogeco back and they fixed the issue.

Awww...that explains what happened last night. We forgot to set our alarm before going to bed, but were awakened by it beeping at about the same time and the "trouble" light was on. We are with Cogeco too.

We had that happen years ago that our alarm went off in the middle of the night for no apparent reason and again over the years once or twice at two other brand new homes. The alarm company figured it was a loose window contact or wind the first time.

Personally I found it was more stressful arming the alarm at night and not sleeping well for fear the alarm would go off. We always had alarm systems in our new homes but since moving into this 1960's home we haven't bothered. It took me awhile to get over not having one but I actually prefer it. I'm a stay at home mom and as most break & enters are in the daytime I'm not concerned.

At night when I go to bed I bring up my car keys and if I heard anyone break in through the night I'd turn on the car alarm on the keys as that would probably scare off an intruder as my neighbours would all be looking out to see if it was their car triggered. lol Failing that my dh would be dispatched to go down and deal with the scum.

Most police will tell you that owning a dog is the best deterrent compared to alarm systems. Most criminals are not intimidated by alarms as they can disarm them easily and they know that police do not make responding to them a priority (too much other crime going on.)

I find it more prudent to follow good guidelines for making it less easy for someone to break in by having good locks, light sensors, etc. The reality is that alarm companies play on our fears more than being that practical IMHO. My dog alerts me to anyone approaching our premises plus it helps that two of my neighbours are police officers too and often home outside. lol

I used to assess people in the holding cells in Brampton when I was training as a counsellor in criminal justice and the majority of break & enters were definitely committed by teens or those in their 20's looking for cash or items easy to fence to feed their drug habits. Day time was their fave time when most people are working. Unfortunately the reality is that if someone wants to break into your home badly enough nothing will keep them out.

Some key things for you to know.

Last night, Cogeco was updating the systems at 1AM (I was online and lost connection, called in and they told me so) Hence your alarm.

With VOIP - you should NOT have the "if the phone line drops, sound the alarm" turned on. It just happens too often with VOIP (most times we dont even realize it since it's only for a minute or so)

If you have VOIP - You NEED the alarm system to be wired a little differently. Alarm sytems "take over" the phone line if/when they are triggered. If you went to a Bell house and tripped the alarm, you would notice that if you picked up the phone, it would be dead. This is because the alarm system in the basement has taken over the line, disallowing phone calls from the phone. This is to stop intruders from simply picking up the phone and hitting numbers to stop the alarm from dialing the correct phone number.

If you have VOIP - the phones SHOULD be wired so that the connection goes THROUGH the alarm first, so that it could take over the phone line, if it needed to.

One of the only companies out there that supports VOIP technology on their alarm systems is Voxcom (now Reliance). The installer at my house really knew what he was doing and I learned alot from him.

Yeah, figures it would happen to me when my husband was working a night shift!

My eight year old was scared to death, never seen her run so fast in my life

We had this problem a few years ago and found that the alarm system we had has a back up battery (in case you lose wired power) that was expiring ...maybe something to check as well.

Dale