Before I thought to even ask or research about a security system on the forum, we already signed a contract with ADT. I was pretty happy because it was half the price of the first quote, and we are 2 miles from small town, and 20 miles for next largest town, so just never thought to check on a more local outfit. Okay so anyways, we just finished up our install the other day. So we are still on the learning cycle, which means we are not "live" with any alarms calling anyone unless it is fire. Okay so yesterday morning, my DH forgets and opens the door. So the count down begins. He keeps punching in the code, and telling it to Stay, like it was the dog. I guess he was thinking that since he was Staying, that should shut it off. Well it didn't. It was engaged so it needed to be code, then OFF. So the countdown has begun with the initial inside alarm, and it is talking to you, so everyone in the house hears it. I kept thinking, okay he is a highly intelligent fella, it is just a matter of time before he shuts it off. I guess everyone else in the house was thinking the same thing, but eventually I got up and the teenager in the house had also already begun his crawl out of bed and he turns it off, but not before the BIG siren goes off outside. Okay so anyways, this was at 6:40 yesterday morning. We don't have real close neighbors breathing down our neck, but they are plenty close to hear this blarring alarm going off inside and outside at 6:40 a.m. on a Saturday morning. So THIS morning, at 6:40 in the morning, guess who was out mowing his yard? Coincendence? Maybe lol, but I think not. haha We wouldn't be able to hear his mowing too awfully much anyways if we were still in bed, we are insulated pretty well, but I had already been up with the horses, but anyways, we got a kick out of it :-)

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."

"If you get your windows armed and wish to arm the system at night, you cannot have your windows open. There are special screens you can choose which will set off the alarm if the screens are cut. Then you can have your windows open at night if you wish." The first sentence of that paragraph is not exactly correct. It all depends on your system. You can have the windows "armed" but it's done in such a way that when a window is opened beyond a certain point, the alarm will sound. So, you can have one or more windows open (but not fully open) for ventilation without setting off the alarm. If a burglar comes along and tries to open the window further so he/she can get in, it will set off the alarm. You can also have an alarm system that has specific windows assigned to specific "zones." When you "arm" the system, you can bypass whatever zones you want. So, you can have windows (or doors) in any specific zone(s) completely open because they're bypassed and won't set off the alarm. "You can arm your system to sound off if there is motion within the house. If you have pets you can de-activate the motion detector part of the system so pets can walk around." You can have the motion detectors' infrared beam set to a point that is low enough to catch a human's movement through the area, but high enough to miss cats or dogs walking around. If you have a bird that is allowed to fly through the house, you wouldn't want a motion detector, or if you had cats that jump up on high surfaces. If you have stairs in the house, the beam should be set high enough to catch the motion of someone going upstairs. Again, motion detectors would be set as a specific zone(s), so they could be bypassed when desired. We have a monitored ADT system, and are very happy with it. We can, and have, set "guest codes" so that when we are away on vacation my sister can come into the house without having to know our "official code." There is also a "distress code" -- if I come home and a "bad guy" is waiting outside and forces me to go into the house and turn off the alarm, I would enter the distress code. That turns off the beeping sound (that starts when the door is opened), so the bad guy thinks everything is ok, but it notifies the monitoring company that there's a problem and they would dispatch the police. Or, if I push a specific sequence of keys on the keypad, the monitoring company would call and ask for a "secret word." If I give the right word, all is well; if I give any other word, they know there's a problem and will dispatch help. We have two keypads in the house -- one is in the foyer by the front door, and the other is in the master bedroom (upstairs). Yes, our monitoring company is in the United States.

For viewing many IP cameras over the net, you do NOT have to have it upload to a remote server, because the camera itself contains a web server. Any portable device such as a phone, tablet, or laptop with a web browser most certainly CAN look into your home network and see that web server. You just have to configure your router to pass through incoming requests on an http port such as 80, 8008, 8080, or any of several other http ports less often used. Once the router is set up to allow port forwarding, you can point your portable gadget's web browser at your home IP address (and port number if it's not the default 80), and log in to the camera's web server. The camera's server pushes a series of jpeg images (motion jpeg) to your browser. Some cameras even have mpeg encoders built in, and can stream to an mpeg decoder on your device. I know this works, because I've done it with my own cameras. Many cameras even have a public view that doesn't require a login.Here's one you can see right now. Here's another. And another. And another. And yet another. There are thousands more of these cameras out there on the net, open to anyone who wants to view them. You can password-protect yours if you want to, as I did.