Having a Home Security System

When my job transferred me to the area around Houston, Texas, my husband and I were very excited to get out of the cold weather in Michigan. The house that we moved into was in one of the nicest subdivisions in the Houston metropolitan area. We chose this particular subdivision because it was handy for me to get to work.

Everything about our new home in Texas seemed great at first. After two months of living in our quiet neighborhood, my husband and I went back to Michigan to visit some family and friends for a few days. We thought that our home was relatively safe. With it being a newly built home, that the locks on all the windows and doors would deter any form of break-in. We couldn't have been more wrong in our thinking.

When we returned home to our house in Houston, we noticed that the glass on the basement door had been broken and the door was left wide open. My husband quickly called the police and informed them that we had had a break-in. The police then showed up and confirmed that we had been robbed. I was devastated and did not feel safe in my own home anymore. The police officer suggested that we look into having a home security system installed. The officer also informed us that many thieves look for homes that do not have an alarm system installed.

Without hesitation my husband called Safeguard, a Houston Home Security company. The company representative was extremely helpful and walked us through a step-by-step guide on what type of alarm system that would best fit our needs. There was no debate that we needed an alarm installed that week. They informed us that the alarm could be installed in as little as three days and could even save us money on our homeowner’s insurance. This made me feel right about our choice for choosing this security company.

The alarm was installed the next day. The woman that installed our Honeywell security system showed my husband and I on how to work the keypad. We were amazed at all the great features that this alarm came with. We did not even have to worry about our cat setting off the alarm when we were not home. This was one feature we had to have with the alarm system monitoring our home at all times.

Thanks to the great quality service of this company, my family and I feel safe again.

4 Home Security Products to Combine with Alarm System Monitoring

Alarm system monitoring really is the gold standard when it comes to home security. However, the stress of a break-in, and the possibility of still having to claim on insurance after a window is broken, or even just a few things are stolen, should obviously be avoided! If you already have an alarm system monitoring contract and want to know what else you can do, read on for the top four new combination home security products.

1. Video door phones

The hi-tech version of the peephole, only much more reliable and detailed, a video door phone lets you see who is at your door before you open it. A popular choice is to install these somewhere away from the front door in the house. Occasionally the psychological pressure of having someone standing only a couple of feet away from you (despite being on the other side of a thick bit of wood!) can mean people open the door against their better judgement.

2. Night vision cameras

Thieves will find ways around sensor lighting for night times, either discovering an alternate route that doesn’t trip the light, or simply waiting until it has turned itself off. Night vision cameras are an excellent alternative. If your alarm system monitoring company responds to a call but the intruder has gone by the time they get there, the night vision camera will provide a clear picture of the suspect for police to seek.

3. Biometric locks

Lock picking is a common way for thieves to gain entry into houses with little noise or disturbance. Also, if you are concerned about how secure a key actually is (they can quite easily be lost, copied, or simply lost track of), consider a biometric lock. Biometric locks are one of the most reliable home security products to help ensure safety. Make sure that only your residents' fingerprints are entered into the lock database, and they certainly won’t be picked!

4. Window films

These not only help prevent the contents of your home being seen from the street, they also make it much more difficult for burglars to smash a window to gain entry. Your alarm system monitoring firm will have plenty of time to arrive if a thief has to pick his way through a strong adhesive film containing shards of glass to get entry into the house.

Choosing a Strong Home Security Pin Code

If you've just had a monitored alarm installed, one of the last things the technician would have given you before he left was the default pin code, and instructions for changing it. We all have our own little tricks to try and remember the passwords that we need to remember. Where we can, we'll re-use passwords as often as possible. Where there are odd requirements, like having a combination of letters and numbers, having some capital letters, or having a non alphanumeric character, we often use things that are strangely predictable … without even realizing it! The pinpads provided by alarm monitoring services reduce the possibilities only to numbers, though, making security much harder to ensure. Here we look at how to choose a strong pin code for your alarm monitoring service.

1. No birthdays!

Tempting as it is to use yours, your spouse's, or your kid's birthday when you need a numeric-only password, this is a very bad idea for home security. This information is actually very often in the public domain. The other thing to consider is that (sad as it might be) a large percentage of burglaries are committed by people known to the victims.

2. No other personal numbers

Using your anniversary is discoverable by someone determined, and your phone number is inordinately easy. It is definitely not in the interests of your home security to use either of these numbers. Nothing with a personal connection to you is ideal, including the numbers on your licence plate (which may be visible from the alarm system keypad, even), your employee number, and even your name spelled out using the numbers that would be on a mobile phone numberpad.

3. No repetitive or patterned numbers

111111 is pretty easy to guess -- so is 999999, and 123456, 987654 and others are not far off. Simple patterns are guessable, and if somebody is watching you enter your code on a keypad, the action of your fingers when typing in a pattern of numbers will be easy to distinguish.

4. Randomness is a top priority

Make sure there is absolutely no reason that you choose the number you do. Have each member of the household pick one of the numbers, and put them in age order. There are lots and lots of combinations of numbers for keypads … if you have a six digit code, there are a million of them. It is easy to pick something random, and while it may be harder to remember for a couple of days, the repetition will soon take care of that. Don’t sabotage your alarm monitoring service with a crackable code!