What is an Alarm Filter
In the case of a break-in to your home you need to be assured that your alarm panel will successfully dial out to the monitoring station and report the intruder presence. On a simple “old fashioned” telephone line, the alarm panel simply dials out in the same way that we dial to make a telephone call. In this case, there is no other signal present on the line to interfere with the process. When your line is upgraded to broadband, the computer, by the very nature of broadband is always connected. So the alarm panel doesn’t have a “clean” line to dial out over. An example of an alarm filter developed specifically for the European security market is the APF7. Literally tens of thousands of them have been installed all over Europe in both home and office premises. It provides all of the filtering to electronically separate the voice from the data on a broadband line thereby giving the alarm panel that “clean” line to dial out over. The APF7 is not recommended for DIY installation. The whole purpose of installing the device is to give complete peace of mind, and if it is fitted incorrectly by an untrained person then it defeats the object of installing it. So, it is recommended that you contact your alarm installer and refer them to this web page.
