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Home Up About Monitoring Alarm Panels Downloading		tm                   About Downloading & Uploading Copyright © 2000  Luis Arellano, III. All rights reserved. Revised: February 06, 2008 11:04
Enjoy a download today!		We want to provide a complete and useful description of this important aspect of our service.  If you have questions that are not addressed here, drop us an email.  If you need more answers now to reach a buying decision, by all means, please call.

How do Downloading and Uploading apply to Alarm Systems?

Reconfiguring Zones for Troubleshooting

What does it cost?

About Pass Codes and Keypad Codes

Who do I contact to update my Keypad Code List?

Tell me about "Temporary Keypad Codes."

What if there are software updates?

How do Downloading and Uploading apply to Alarm Systems?

Downloadable panels can save many premise visits by technicians, reducing travel costs and frequently helping to avoid inconvenience to you.  It helps make system updates more timely.  It makes possible system integrity checks that might otherwise have taken days to arrange and accomplish.  At our office, a computer or dedicated program box can be set up to ring the phone line to which your system is connected.  When it connects with your panel, a secure handshake occurs to prevent unauthorized access.  Once a two-way link is established, we can do a variety of things including:

• Reprogram all or part of the downloadable device.
• Arm and disarm the system.
• Temporarily shunt out or permanently disable specific zones.
• Reset the burglar and fire alarms and various other conditions.
• Retrieve an internal event log that tells us what zones were tripped and reset, when the system was armed or disarmed and by whom, when automatic test signals occurred, when trouble signals were generated and restored, etc.
• Update the time and day settings for "auto-arming" of the system, if implemented.
• Update users' Keypad Codes.

Reconfiguring Zones for Troubleshooting

If you have had a false alarm, and collectively we have been unable to determine the cause, we may suggest a "bake-in" period for the particular zone to which the detector is connected.  This allows a "wait-and-see" period during which you can use the balance of the system as usual, without fear of an unwanted dispatch from one suspect device.  There are several possible techniques.  Some include:

• Make the suspect zone silent and non-reporting.  It would still arm and disarm and trip along with the rest of the system, but there would be no audible siren and no central station report.  You would later see an indication on the keypad telling you the zone had tripped while set. When uploaded, the panel's internal log will tell when and how many times it tripped.  You could therefore make a more informed decision about returning the zone to normal operation.
• Make the suspect zone audible but non-reporting.  This scenario assumes you can tolerate an unexpected siren activation if the zone is still malfunctioning.  It allows you to use the zone as a local-only warning to intruders while you wait to see if it can be put back on line with the Central Station.
• Disable the zone altogether until a suspected interfering condition has been rectified.

What does downloading cost?

Actually, the net result is a savings in setup and ongoing service costs.  Most of the recent alarm panels are downloadable as built.  Thus, there is no equipment cost to add this capability to a system.  If the panel is installed in a local-only application, it would still be desirable to connect it to a phone line for installation and service purposes, future keypad code updates, remote arming and disarming capability, etc.  You would therefore incur the one-time installation cost of a permanent phone jack on your regular phone line.  (Once a local-only panel is programmed and operational, it is not mandatory to leave it connected to the phone line.  It can be unplugged to minimize the risk of storm damage.)  

We have several ways of billing for the actual downloading we do to panels that are still in our supported product line:

• If you have an optional Repair Agreement, we allow up to ten free downloads per year.  The majority of subscribers will not need anywhere near this many downloads.  This allowance is subject to adjustment, depending on your specific requirements and the dynamics of your account.
• Otherwise, our current, usual fee for most downloads is $25.
• There is no charge for any download that we have to do as part of the initial installation or that we do during the limited labor warranty to get the system to conform to your operational needs.
• There is no charge for downloading necessitated by changes in our receiver equipment or Central Stations, or due to changes in our company's programming practices.  
• We would usually bill our standard fee for program updates necessitated by updates to the public telephone network or to your own phone service or equipment.
• Some keypads display the current time, which must be set and adjusted by remote downloading.  Clock setting would be billable under one of the above arrangements, but would not cost extra if we are doing some other downloading function, the cost of which is covered in one way or another.  We do not guarantee the accuracy of clock settings, although we usually hit it within a minute or two.

Note that as panels become obsolete, we can not guarantee that we will always retain the ability to link with and support every system ever installed or serviced by us.  This has already become a problem with the advancement in PC modem technology.  At the moment, none of the newest high speed modems we have can support the oldest, slow data formats, nor do we have the support software to drive newer modems at some of the slower data rates.  We are therefore forced to keep on hand several obsolete PC's and modems dedicated to the support of older existing panels.  When the old modems break down or the old PC's become inoperable, we expect to lose some of our support capabilities.  A few of the panels we monitor had to be remotely programmed for us by other dealers under a courtesy arrangement.  We cannot guarantee that the other dealer will always offer that capability, either.

If you have a panel that is not in our supported product line, you need to ask what the charge will be.  The cost will depend on whether we have to set up a special unit to do the job, and the nature of the reprogramming.

About Pass Codes and Keypad Codes

Most of the panels we support are capable of having multiple Keypad Codes.  You can have a code for your own use and also have other codes for use by house cleaners, house sitters, plumbers, heating contractors, an so on.  If you fire a house cleaner, all you have to do is unprogram the cleaner's particular code, without disturbing any other user codes.

Most current systems will allow one or more designated users to change the keypad codes right from the keypad.  This is good if you have an urgent situation.  For example, let's say you just fired an employee and want to ensure he no longer has access before you close up for the day.   However, we recommend that you have us do your keypad code changes remotely on a consistent basis, so that if we later reprogram the panel, we don't inadvertently overwrite your changes with an old, obsolete set of keypad codes.  If you do change codes yourself, we recommend that you call us to advise us of the change.  We don't necessarily need the new codes themselves, just the knowledge that they now differ from we previously downloaded.

We suggest also having these Keypad Codes listed at the Central Station as valid Pass Codes.  The Pass Code is the name, number or word you give the Central Station Operator in case of an accidental alarm. 

Who do I contact to update my Keypad Code List?

You would normally contact our office (as opposed to the Central Station itself) with your changes.  We can usually make the needed changes by remote download.  While we're at it, you may wish to have us program one or more Spare Codes that can be assigned later on.

The two sources of new Keypad Codes are:

Get a code directly from the end user.  This code is less likely to be forgotten than one we arbitrarily assign.  We might advise against some codes that users ask for, like 1234 and 2468, because they are too easily "cracked."

We assign the codes and pass them to you.  In this case, we usually open a phone book and pick some tasty numbers at random.

Tell me about "Temporary Keypad Codes."

There are several types.  When the system is first installed, we may have to put in a "temporary" user code just to get things running, until we can get a more finalized list of user codes from you.  These temporary codes are usually wiped out when we insert your first real list of codes.

Let's say you are planning some renovations.  You can use your spare codes or have us install new codes for your General Contractor and any others who will need regular access for a period of time.  When the project is complete and all warranty work is over, we can unprogram the codes you gave out and optionally, install some new spare codes.

Some panels have the ability to limit the hours during which particular user codes will work.  This could be used to prohibit house cleaners, workers, etc. from entering outside of an expected time frame.  Ask us whether your specific panel has the ability to do this.

What if there are software updates?

If our programming practices change or software enhancements are required in the panel or in the downloading equipment at our end, we may alter your panel's behavior while performing other ordinary updates like keypad code changes or clock resets.  If the behavioral change is likely to cause confusion and we know about it, we will usually endeavor to advise you in advance.  However, in most cases the difference is subtle and we will usually just do it.  We can assume no liability for incidental or consequential results of software updates.