Hi I'm a newbie to this forum. I found this forum from searching ELK M1 related info and have already benefited from some of the great postings -- thank you!
I recently bought a house with ELK M1 & C1M1 dual path communicator. I'm still trying to figure out how to receive notifications and/or use mobile app to remotely arm/disarm the system. The previous owner told me which company installed the system and I contacted them. The installer said they usually use a local alarm monitoring company which charges ~$35/month and they also need to come to my house to do the setup which will take 3-4 hours (rate is more than $100/hour). I'm a bit skeptical -- the previous owner already hooked up with their recommended monitoring service, why would it still take hours to setup C1M1 again?
Anyway, from reading some of the posts in this forum it looks like I can't do self monitoring of the system without going through a monitoring service due to Telguard as a mandatory provider? If I want to have self monitoring capability that only option is for me to replace C1M1 with M1XEP?
Here is what I think my options are -- please let me know if there are better ones:
1) Go with the installer recommended monitoring service. Since C1M1 is already pointing to the backend of the CO, there should not be much configuration on C1M1 needed anymore? Is the understanding correct? I suppose I can call up the monitoring company and reactivate the account. That way I should be able to get an end-user account with ELKLink that allows me to use ELKLink or eKeypad mobile app to remotely arm/disarm the system, as well as receiving e-mail/texts after configuring.
2) Go with a different monitoring service such as Alarm Relay -- I read some users have had success with Alarm Relay. Does anyone know how much is the monthly charge? One post said it's higher than normal again due to Telguard cost, but did not see exact cost. In this case C1M1 would need to be re-configurated. The C1M1 setup utility is for dealer only? Would Alarm Relay be able to help configuring C1M1 somehow?
3) Replace C1M1 with M1XEP, setup port forwarding and setup DDNS, then use eKeypad mobile app to do the remote arm/disarm. What about e-mail notification in this case? Is it easy to setup with M1XEP? I understand this option won't have cellular path and will solely depend on Internet availability. M1Cloud would be alternative -- that will remove the need of port forwarding and DDNS. Does anyone have experience with M1Cloud and know how much does it cost per month?
Thanks a lot in advance for your help!
-Steelhead
I recently bought a house with ELK M1 & C1M1 dual path communicator. I'm still trying to figure out how to receive notifications and/or use mobile app to remotely arm/disarm the system. The previous owner told me which company installed the system and I contacted them. The installer said they usually use a local alarm monitoring company which charges ~$35/month and they also need to come to my house to do the setup which will take 3-4 hours (rate is more than $100/hour). I'm a bit skeptical -- the previous owner already hooked up with their recommended monitoring service, why would it still take hours to setup C1M1 again?
Anyway, from reading some of the posts in this forum it looks like I can't do self monitoring of the system without going through a monitoring service due to Telguard as a mandatory provider? If I want to have self monitoring capability that only option is for me to replace C1M1 with M1XEP?
Here is what I think my options are -- please let me know if there are better ones:
1) Go with the installer recommended monitoring service. Since C1M1 is already pointing to the backend of the CO, there should not be much configuration on C1M1 needed anymore? Is the understanding correct? I suppose I can call up the monitoring company and reactivate the account. That way I should be able to get an end-user account with ELKLink that allows me to use ELKLink or eKeypad mobile app to remotely arm/disarm the system, as well as receiving e-mail/texts after configuring.
2) Go with a different monitoring service such as Alarm Relay -- I read some users have had success with Alarm Relay. Does anyone know how much is the monthly charge? One post said it's higher than normal again due to Telguard cost, but did not see exact cost. In this case C1M1 would need to be re-configurated. The C1M1 setup utility is for dealer only? Would Alarm Relay be able to help configuring C1M1 somehow?
3) Replace C1M1 with M1XEP, setup port forwarding and setup DDNS, then use eKeypad mobile app to do the remote arm/disarm. What about e-mail notification in this case? Is it easy to setup with M1XEP? I understand this option won't have cellular path and will solely depend on Internet availability. M1Cloud would be alternative -- that will remove the need of port forwarding and DDNS. Does anyone have experience with M1Cloud and know how much does it cost per month?
Thanks a lot in advance for your help!
-Steelhead