Looks like ATT is cancelling their "Digital Life" program. Trying to shift us to Brinks.

Anyone have any experience with Brinks or can recommend a home security/alarm company.

Thanks.

I'm not sure who might provide a decent service, but I can assure you Vivint sucks ass. Stay away.

Smith & Thompson is decent

Thinking about Ring

+1 for Smith & Thompson
Cost effective and very good response time on my (mostly false) alarms

Interesting, have had AT&T for years and haven't seen this yet.

ST. affordable, no contracts, service works well enough. responsive on alerts and support requests

htxag09 said:

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Interesting, have had AT&T for years and haven't seen this yet.

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This is part of the email.

Hi M,

As part of our network upgrade and the sunset of 3G in early 2022, your Digital Life controller which utilizes 3G will not be upgraded and your AT&T Digital Life service will be impacted. The good news is, we have worked with one of the most recognized names in security, Brinks Home, to provide you an opportunity to continue your home security and automation services, without interruption and including upgrade options we know you will value.

I would recommend not throwing money away on a service that neither prevents or deters crime. Buy a(nother?) glock instead.

When I was in high school, I stole a Brinks sign from a house in the rich neighborhood and put up in front of our house in Alief. Sign was in front of the house for a decade or so and nobody robbed the place.

I have 3 German Shepards.

Good luck.

I use SimpliSafe. I bought the system on sale for around $250 and pay about $25/mo for monitoring. My system has door, window, motion, and glass break sensors, plus a couple cameras. It was very easy to install. I can control everything through the app, including viewing cameras remotely.

TexAg2001 said:

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I use SimpliSafe. I bought the system on sale for around $250 and pay about $25/mo for monitoring. My system has door, window, motion, and glass break sensors, plus a couple cameras. It was very easy to install. I can control everything through the app, including viewing cameras remotely.

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Can you add additional cameras?

My understanding is that you can have up to 10 cameras. They cost about $100 each to purchase. They have a sleeve to go over it if mounting outdoors.

TexAg2001 said:

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My understanding is that you can have up to 10 cameras. They cost about $100 each to purchase. They have a sleeve to go over it if mounting outdoors.

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Thank you.

I have been using Ring Security for four months and its great so far. I picked it up at Costco on sale and you install the contact & motion sensors yourself. Base station has a battery and cell backup. I'm paying $100/year for professional monitoring. I only have the Ring doorbell camera so I can't comment about the rest of the Ring cameras or their pricing. I'm installing some wired cameras to cover the rest of the house.

Hello. I am a current Digital Life customer. They are going away with the sunset of 3G feb.2022. They said "no worries" we have made arrangements with Brinks. BUYER BEWARE. The Brinks replacement equipment is a complete downgrade not an upgrade. Example with DLife I enjoyed having a camera that detected motion. When a package is delivered the camera would record any activity around the house. Not true with Brinks. The only recording taking place is all cameras if an alarm is triggered. You do not get to choose. They may have that stuff but no one offers or mentions it even when I purchased from them two new cameras. My fault for not asking, but this was put out as an upgrade. No "rules" making is available. When you select add a rule it does nothing. Not even an error message. If you change your Wi-Fi password your new useless IP cameras have to all be deleted and reinstalled. Not easy. Some of the "Manage Devices" lead to only rename, or dead-end, or to something different. Very little website help. Very underdeveloped site and app. Brinks is just a basic we'll watch for your alarms service for three year contract. The installers have to be watched as they will remove "all" of the Digital Life equipment and take it away. It is 1. not required 2. Don't let them. I did not yet cancel my DLife yet which at least will allow me to cancel Brinks and shop. I am think of going with WYZE security.

Another recommendation for SimpliSafe.

Smith Thompson. 16$ a month.

Dill-Ag13 said:

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Smith & Thompson is decent

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Smith & Wesson works better and faster.

Whynotboth.gif

UPDATE: I have to say that while it took a great deal of effort, in the end we got things to work and I am happy with the system. Information is scarce even for some of the Brinks people but they are making a strong effort and are catching up fast. This exchange of service requires a lot of info. The two companies operate differently so for the average Joe it is easy to get lost, confused and frustrated. Bear with it is my advice. They did reach back out to me on their own and took a genuine interest. I think the future will be fine. Plus...no 3G worries now. BTW the installers were on time quick and good.

We had a lightning strike a few months ago and Digital Life recommended we go to Brinks then. We couldn't get Brinks to commit to a cost to convert. They wanted a 3 year contract signed prior to sending out a technician to look at our system. It was a 3 year contract with no idea whether we would pay $0 or unlimited amounts of money. So, we went back to ADT, pricey to convert back but we've been happy with the service. While looking around, found really good reviews of not only ADT but also SimpliSafe. Brinks had good reviews as well. It was that unknown cost that backed me off. There are a lot of options available now, especially if you are handy with tools.

Edited to add that AT&T also just split off its tv media. It received cash from a private equity fund and spun off DirectTV to now be its own company which contains U-Verse and something else. HBOMax and other WarnerMedia are are going to Discovery I think. They have lost millions on the tv media and digital life. . We had bundled. Not sure how this will end. Good luck.

FYI... Ring is going to double their monitoring rate to $20 /mo. I think you can lock in for $10 a month until 2025 if you get it by the end of this year.

No one has recommended them, but a word of warning on Comcast (Xfinity). Their equipment is proprietary so if you ever want to switch, it is going to cost a lot. And you'll eventually want to switch because the sensors are so buggy that eventually they will just give you a lot of false alarms. If for some reason the sensor makes it till the battery runs out, the tamper setting inside the sensor is so tricky that you likely won't be able to replace the battery successfully. When the tech comes out, they will struggle so much as well that they will just replace all the sensors of the type they were called out on. Luckily this has been under warranty. Unfortunately, I think effective this month Comcast has greatly reduced the term of the warranty and made it retroactive to existing customers. So no grandfathering.

So if you want an expensive service with faulty equipment that they won't warranty and sitting through an hour of some dude in India walking through their troubleshooting checklist like you are an idiot before they will even consider sending out a tech, by all means go with Comcast.