I have ADT installed in my house, simply because it was here when I moved in. Clark Howard (clarkhoward.com) has recommendations on his web site that you could check out.

I heard a police officer give a talk on security and he said the best you can get are motion lights and a dog that barks at noises. We had the motion lights and it stopped two attempts on our property. Our front motion lights had an alarm that sounded inside the home when it was activated. Other precautions he mention were solid wood or steel doors without windows, dead bolts with extra long screws and a bar on the inside of our door (garage)to the back yard.

Notice of our security system is posted over our door:

The .357 is loaded and the dog barks at noises.

Thanks kayjones and vala. ADT is certainly well-known, and I'll look at Clark Howard's site, too. Unfortunately, it's not possible for me to have a dog now, although I'd love one. Regarding motion lights, they'd be great at night (and I'm having one installed on the side of my house) but not in the daytime (while I'm at work). I don't really want an audible alarm; most people have come to just ignore those and consider them accidentally triggered by the owner; I want it to go to the police and have them catch the guy(s) in the act.

Lots of things to consider!

ADT is GREAT! Our installer was an ex-police officer so I felt even better about our choice. :)

Blessings,
Haley

Haha Wanda! Love it.

And hale bopp, thanks for "seconding" ATD. Good to know.

Are the monthly fees high? I suppose that's relative and subjective, and they probably depend upon levels, etc.

We've had Vector Security for 27 years.

There are many options to think about. First you want to make someone think twice about choosing your residence. So as mentioned - exterior lighting and exterior motion sensitive lights are important. We have 2 signs posted showing that we have a security system and decals on the windows on the first floor. Don't forget that shrubs should be kept well trimmed and low around the foundation of the house so as not to provide an easy hiding spot for a burglar.

Inside all of our doors and windows are alarmed. The new contacts are wireless so you don't have to have holes drilled through the door and window jams and then run to a central keypad. We also have glass break sensors, motion detectors, smoke detectors and heat detectors. If pets are inside you can easily turn off the motion sensors yet alarm the rest of the house. We also have a cold temperature sensor that will contact the central monitoring station if the temperature goes below 50 degrees. And we have a sensor in the basement that will alert us if there's too much water in the sump pump.

It's amazing what you can do. The new systems let you go online or use your smart phone to set the alarm or to turn it off. There are cameras that will both record a video and send it to your computer or smart phone through your broadband. You can have a remote installed in your driveway so that if a car or someone walks past it a beep will sound in the house. On our system we can select to have a little chime sound if someone opens a door or window even when the alarm is off. The fire alarm works whether the alarm is on or off as does the panic buttons.

I'm sure I've forgotten some of the capabilities. We just had one of our systems updated so I was reading the brochures and that's where I learned about some of the features. As my DH reminds me nothing will prevent a professional from breaking into your home - you just hope a professional decides that it's easier to break into some other house rather than yours.

I suggest you close your windows *NOW* or post a welcome sign on them.

just be careful of scams there are many of them in that industry. We had some come door to door in our area, we have a lot of older people in our subdivision, they were saying you had a one time offer to get their wireless system installed free you just had to pay a very minimum fee for the monitoring. They came to our house and the guy was very pushy, had pushed himself all the way into my dining room when I saw my husband and him standing there I went to see who it was. I asked to see the info and he did not want to show it to me, I said ok give me the names so I can go now and look it up online for any comments, no to that too. He started squirming and that was when I marched him out the door.

I did go online and research them, he had the name on his shirt, DUH, but kept saying they were part of GE. WEll there were pages and pages of bad reports on them and their scam. I immediately called our home owners assoc and let them know since the guy that came to my door said the name of our assoc president as who had recommended them, the pres had no clue who they were. We managed to save most of the elderly from falling for it, but unfortunately not all.

So going with a very well known company like ADT, Brinks, is a good idea, in fact I just saw on tv that ADT is offering install of a wireless system for $100 and then give you a $100 visa card for signing up so pretty much free you pay your monitoring fees and that depends on which plan you go with.

on all of my homes the windows had magnetic sensors so if your windows are open you have negated that, I also had the glass breaking sensor which would go off if it sensed the sound of glass breaking. I did have the motion detectors but had them set up higher since I had large dogs and cats. I had the magnetic sensors on all doors so that anytime a door opened it would beep, love that feature. I did want a very loud audible alarm, believe me when they are super loud and go off it does get attention! Mine also had yellow lights that would go off outside so the police could spot it quickly.

Be prepared once you call some of these places you will be bombarded with calls and mail!

At our most recent assoc meeting the local police came to talk to us, their recommendation was as many outside lights around the house at night the better, motion sensors great but just light up the area too so less places to hide, and get driveway sensors which let you know with an alarm sound indoors when someone drives or walks through your driveway or property depending on where you set them up. We do have one of those now and it works well. He was giving examples of houses in our neighborhood and was talking about our house he said I do not know who lives there but that is how it should look at night LOL yes we are well lit up. Since we live in a heavily wooded area it is really essential.
This is the type of wireless driveway sensors we have, it is the brand the police recommended. We got ours at Northern tool.

Here is a link that might be useful: Chamberlain

We pay $45 per month with ADT here in CA.

Blessings!
Haley

We also have ADT and 3 big cats. We have glass breakage sensors and motion detectors as well as the door and window monitors. Some of the window sensors can have two location for contact, or so I am told, we do not have them so that would be something to ask about. Our system is set up with a wireless phone back up tho it is no longer active. I used to have a power interruption notification when I had the big koi pond.

before you get attached to wanting a system that calls police you need to find out the fees charged by your police & fire dept for false alarms. here in the orlando burbs that is $250 for the first incident and doubles each time after that. it's a serious problem here and kept me from having that type of system. we have a secruity system that was installed by a private sec. company and not monitored by police/fire. it calls our cell phones and alerts via email. i am such a serious security freak that i could not even think about a stranger installing a system. we went w/ a company that does high end security systems, home theaters, etc...i completely checked them out w/ many references. i am psychotic about this and won't go into too much detail but we have had interior & exterior internet connected cameras that we took offline a few yrs ago (got VERY hot ie fire hazard i thought) but are reconnecting soon w/ new safer cameras. we have 2 large dogs and a cat and have a pet sensitive motion detector they don't set off. i can't tell you about the window sensors & open windows on ADT type systems but can tell you we have 2 sensors set to have 2 inaccessible windows open 2" lol.

as mentioned if you don't have a heavy duty front door (x-long deadbolts top and bottom for kick-ins) and garage door, you need those. heavy locks on all exterior gates etc...landscape lighting (not cheap solar), security floodlights (there are decent solar) etc... i would definitely not ever advertise we have guns LOL LOTS and lots of breakins around orlando lately related to only stealing guns. people out in the sticks are being hit really hard who are only being robbed of guns, no $$, jewelry, electronics, cars, they take nothing but guns. can't be too careful! ~ liz

We have basically the same ADT setup as Lynn. We also have motion lights, guns and a dog. We've been very happy with ours.

The only one I know of that is actually monitored by police is Sonitrol. My brother used to have that, you do have to be careful when you have it on when you are home, they heard everything! Lol

Wow - I'm learning lots. I never knew about police charging for false alarms, but it makes sense. I don't understand what calling my cell phone would do; wouldn't I just call the police? And in the meantime, my house would be being robbed? I know I'll find out all of these answers and I appreciate you all helping me get a head start.

Regarding motion sensers, I have deer and other wildlife that walk thru my yard and I really don't want lights going on and off all night, including scaring them away. But I understand the need for lighting outside and I do have a call in to an electrician to come talk to me about options for that.

And salesmen coming to the door and being so pushy? Yuck! Yuck to getting bombarded with calls and emails, too, as soon as I show any interest.

Alrighty - I already know way more than I did when I posted. Thanks!

Our system calls the ADT monitoring system hey then call the police if we don't answer with the code we set up, if the system was activated they didn't call our cell, they either called the house phone or they speak via the security system directly. In our set up we used a wireless phone system as back-up to contact us in the event of the standard phone being unavailable. The center also called my cell and/or office if we lost power at our home because we had a koi pond that needed power 24/7.

We, too, have had an ADT system for about 17 of the 20 years we've lived here. It is monitored 24/7, but not by the police -- it's monitored by the ADT folks. I don't know how much it costs per month because Hubs pays that bill, but I know it's not bad. (Of course, peace of mind and security are worth any price they'd charge.)

As for keeping windows open -- the way that a window is monitored is that there is a contact point on the inside of the frame, and a corresponding contact point on the part of the window that moves. When the two points are in contact with each other, everything is fine. When they lose contact with each other, it sets off the alarm. So, if you want to have a window open, the alarm installer can put the inside-the-frame contact point high enough to allow the window to be open enough to allow air/breezes in, but not high enough that someone could crawl through the space and into your home.

Motion detectors can also be set so that the beam is low enough to catch a human going, for example, up the stairs, but high enough that your animals can roam through the house without being caught by the motion detector's beam.

As Lynn just mentioned, if for some reason our alarm goes off (say, for example, Hubs opens the door from the breakfast nook to the back deck, but forgets to turn off the alarm), and we enter the proper code to turn off the alarm, all is well. If the wrong code is entered, ADT will immediately call us and ask for a preestablished code word. If we say the right word, all is well. If not, the police/sheriff are notified. If we don't answer the home phone, ADT will call our cell phones.

We have two control pads for the system -- one is near the front door, and the other is upstairs in the master bedroom. When you enter the house when the alarm is on, you have a preset amount of time to enter the code to turn it off. We have plenty of time to come into the house from the garage and get to the keypad by the front door. We wanted the extra keypad in the master bedroom in case, Heaven forbid, we thought someone was attempting to break into the house during the night. We don't want to have to go downstairs to enter panic codes into the system.

We live in an unincorporated area of Sacramento County, so in our case, the Sheriff's Office would be notified. And, we have to pay $75 to them every other year for an "alarm permit."

Our outdoor motion lights do absolutely nothing to scare the wildlife away.

Yes, the lights go on and off, but the animals are able to continue doing a very fine job of eating my plants during the winter!

A few things to consider:
Make sure the alarm co. knows your full and correct address WITH cross streets. Make sure they do not give police your mailing address as this is sometimes different from where you actually live. Having cross streets can prevent mistakes in the address. Trust me, this happens very frequently. Also, alarm companys often call the police in a wrong jurisdiction. Make sure they have it right. The alarm co. will actually ask for the phone number for the correct agency without bothering to confirm anything with their customer. All of these things cause a delay in police response. It is the alarm co. job to have all of this in order but most do not. I can't tell you how many calls my department takes from alarm companys that give us the wrong address of their customers.
At my department we have gone to charging for false alarms. We spend an incredible amount of time responding to these. Even something as simple as a helium balloon will set an alarm off.
Personally, I would not spend my money on a system as I have seen how long it actually takes a monitoring company to call the police. But if I did, I would choose ADT or Gaurdian. These 2 companys are most consistant and usually have all of the correct customer information that is needed.
I hope this helps!

I'd think, along with all the other good advice on this thread, you'd want to know where the monitoring people actually are. I don't know about security systems, but a lot of those personal alert systems (I've fallen and I can get up personal monitors) have outsourced the actual monitoring to foreign countries. In an emergency, I would NOT want to rely on someone halfway around the world, who had never been in my neighborhood, who maybe speaks English as a second language for getting help to me quickly. It may be these home security systems are locally monitored, but it's definitely something you'd want to check on before you buy.

I do not have an alarm, but 2 things i do have:

1. a motion sensor in the driveway that wirelessly turns on the porch lights. I think that is effective because it looks as if I saw someone coming in the drive and I turned on lights to welcome them.

2. I installed a fake camera on the porch ceiling. It only takes a battery and a little light stays on to appear as though it is on. (see link)

I really can't afford a monitored system and I live in a kind of rural area.

Here is a link that might be useful: mine is similar to this

No ideas - I have one I've never used in 20 years. Low crime area and more of a PITA than it's worth not to mention the added expense. I am a big believer in interior lights on timers though so the house doesn't look unoccupied at night.

Does anyone know where you can purchase a fake ADT sign? I know if I was a criminal , I'd never enter a home with a sign in the front. A rehabbed criminal on a talk show said crooks fear dogs barking more than anything.

Does anyone know if a high room temp (e.g., sunroom) will trigger a motion detector?