akg4y Posted September 17, 2009 Share Posted September 17, 2009 Is anyone here using the Concord 4 security system with VOIP, specifically Ooma? Up until now I had no land line and my security system would report phone failure whenever it was armed or disarmed... I installed Ooma last night (awesome by the way, clear voice, no delay, one time fee for hardware and no monthly fee... I highly recommend it, especially if you barely use a land line in the first place like us) and for the first few hours it still showed phone failure but now that message is gone... Im wondering if I could get it to work with a monitoring system now since it seems to be working.... anybody try this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jberger Posted September 17, 2009 Share Posted September 17, 2009 You would need a wireless or IP comms module in the security panel to get it monitored via central station. The panel probably saw the dial tone from the Ooma and tried to dial out, hence the failure message. I'm not a concord expert. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akg4y Posted September 17, 2009 Author Share Posted September 17, 2009 No the failure message was before I got Ooma, when my regular landline was disconnected. With Ooma I have no failure message, which is what makes me think it is working. I wonder if there is any way to test if the Concord4 can dial out... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poscash3757 Posted September 17, 2009 Share Posted September 17, 2009 Call the central station and tell them you are doing a test. If you do not have a central station have the concord 4 call your cell. At least you will know if it is attempting to call someone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mav-Jason Posted September 18, 2009 Share Posted September 18, 2009 If you have dial tone and a phone #, you can be monitored. Simple as that.We have our own VOIP in place, very cool stuff. And I can tell you, dial tone is dial tone... you're good to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akg4y Posted September 18, 2009 Author Share Posted September 18, 2009 Thanks poscash, so to get it to call my cell do I just tell it that the 'central station' number is my cell phone number in the programming then trigger the alarm?Mav- Thats what I suspected, good stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poscash3757 Posted September 20, 2009 Share Posted September 20, 2009 yes. I did the very same thing. My Central station did not accept the concord4 protcol. So i did it this way until they figured it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nvgvup Posted September 20, 2009 Share Posted September 20, 2009 the compression in voice over ip can cause problems with audible data transmission that dial up modems (like the one the alarm is using) use Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c4wirepro Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 The GE Concord 4 is an analog panel NOT DIGITAL! This means that VOIP is not compatible with a Concord 4. To the earlier user.... YES a dial tone is a dial tone. But during the up and down conversions from analog to VOIP there will be packet loss. Hence giving you a phone failure on the concord keypad. From my experience the panel will call out to the central station and recieve the signals, however usually wont communicate back to the panel letting you know that the attempt was a success. Which is why you would recieve a phone failure message. There is no TCP/ip module for the concord 4 to communicate over an IP address or the internet.I install a few of these a month and have plenty of experience with these panels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mav-Jason Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 ^Sorry I must disagree... see panel below.At the top right is the Linksys VOIP module, below it is a Comcast modem serving 30mbs down and 2mbs up. This client has Control4 w/ a Concord4 panel. 11 months in use and not a single problem yet.Could be a hardware limitation in play somewhere? Or maybe it's the net speed? Don't know, but it works like a charm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jberger Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 Spent some time with the guy at DSC in charge of communications last week, very interesting discussion and helped me understand why VOIP can be so hit or miss. He is in charge of the receivers that the central stations use to communicate with the panels, so he had a very high level of expertise in the entire process.Using cable provider VOIP is a completely different animal that using an internet VOIP provider. Cable networks are considered "Managed Voice Networks" as the cable company controls the entire path until it hands the call off on the telco side. Since they control the entire pathway, they can ensure that protocols like ContactID are passed correctly. The major cable providers (Verizon, Quest, Brighthouse, Comcast, etc) perform alarm contact ID testing and certification on their networks and they are recognized by the alarm industry as reliable platforms. There is even an exception granted in the latest fire alarm standards to provide for these "managed voice networks" as primary communication paths. NOTE, not all cable providers are considered reliable. Most of the problems with internet VOIP providers and alarm panel communications are a result of the protocols the provider is using to pass voice. Most of them do not use a version which allows the systems to communicate reliably, and if the protocol is swapped at any point in the unmanaged network, the alarm communication can fail. That's why VOIP on an unmanaged network can work at times, and not at other times. And any change, firmware update or router update can break a once functional connection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mav-Jason Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 ^ Very interesting info.I just went back and looked at what we did at that job above. We did not use Comcast for VOIP, we used our own VOIP service on that one, and it had nothing to do with the the Concord4. We used a GE Cellular Antenna mounted in the attic for communications on that one, through alarm.com. (apologies for disagreeing w/ C4wirepro). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phillipah Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 Sorry to give an old thread but now that VoIP is more widely used has anyone used it specifically with the concord 4 system? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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