Alarm.com FAQ’s

Login & Account Info

How do I change my login or password?

Go to Profile>>Password.  There you can change your password as well as your security question.  You cannot change your primary login name on the website.  If you would like to change your primary login name, please contact your security provider or send a message through our Contact Us form with the new login name.

How do I add a new login to my account?

Go to Profile>>Manage Logins.  Click on the “Add a Login” link on the bottom right.  Enter the desired login name and email address for the new login.  A notification will be sent to the e-mail address with a temporary password and instructions on how to log in. For security reasons, this email will not contain the user’s login name, which you will need to provide that to them separately.

How do I change my email address?

Go to Profile>>Account Info.  Click on “Update Account Info”.  There you can change your email address, phone number, and other details.

Alarms & Events

What is a Crash & Smash event?

Most security systems have built-in entry delays and alarm reporting delays to ensure that customers have enough time to disarm their systems upon entering their property, before an alarm is tripped and an alarm signal is sent to the central station.

This functionality is critical to reducing the incidence of false alarms and unneeded emergency response. Unfortunately, these delays give intruders more time to locate and destroy the security control panel – also known as a “Crash & Smash” event – before it has successfully transmitted the alarm to the central station.

So how does Crash & Smash work?  When an intruder enters the home, a special ‘Entry Delay’ message is transmitted to the Network Operations Center by the communicator/module in the security panel.  The Network Operations Center is then expecting to receive a ‘Disarm’ message, and when it doesn’t, because the intruder smashed the panel, it sends a ‘Suspected Crash & Smash’ signal to the central station, who can then respond to the threat.

“Crash & Smash” detection works during the Dialer Delay also, so the property remains protected even if the intruder circumvents the entry delay doors and finds another way in. As soon as the security system goes into an alarm state, a ‘Pending Alarm’ signal is transmitted and can be routed to the central station even if an ‘Alarm’ message is not received shortly after because the panel was disabled.

What is a pending alarm?

A pending alarm occurs when an alarm has been tripped, but the central station has not been notified yet.  This is due to what is known as the Dialer Delay, in which the central station is only alerted of an alarm 30-120 seconds after an alarm sounds if the system is not disarmed.  This is in place in order to reduce the number of false alarms.

Why can’t I see each time my sensor is activated?

If you have a Basic Interactive service plan, as opposed to an Advanced Interactive service plan, you are not signed up to receive Sensory Activity alerts.  This means you will only see a sensor event, such as an opening or closing, when it sets off an alarm.  Please contact your security provider to learn more about the Advanced Interactive plan if you wish to see normal sensory activity events.

With an AI plan, you have a limit of 10 sensors that will report normal sensor activity.  Please contact your security provider about adding more sensors to normal activity monitoring or changing which sensors you want to report normal activity events.

How can I get access and control my system via my mobile device?

For information on accessing your system via one of the mobile apps (for iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry) or via the mobile website, go to Other Apps >> Mobile Access.

How do I set it up so that I can see who is arming/disarming my system?

You can go to Security>>User Codes on the website.  Here you can add and edit user codes for your alarm system.  If the user you want is already in your Address Book, you can enter a personalized 4-digit code for them here and give them Security Panel Access by checking the box on the right.  This will allow them to enter their code into the security panel to arm/disarm the system.  This will be reflected in your Event History.

If the user does not exist yet, click on “Add a User” on the bottom left of the page.  This will take you to the Address Book page where you can add a new contact, along with their email and phone number for notifications if you like.  Once you have added and saved your new contact, click on “Go to User Codes Page” on the bottom left of the page.  From the User Codes page you can know enter a personalized 4-digit user code for your new contact.

Some systems don’t require code entry in order to arm the system.  If you would like this to be required for tracking purposes, please contact your security provider who can set that up for you.

Notifications

I entered my email address on the site, but I’m not receiving notifications.  Why?

You must sign up email addresses and phone numbers for notification individually.  Under the Notifications tab, click on any of the notification event pages to set up notifications for that event.  You can add/edit/delete notification schedules and add/remove notification recipients for each notification.