Looking for advice on alarm and network cabling install in Northern NJ (home owners insurance)

[piespies]

My insurance company have offered me a good reduction in my home owners insurance if I get a monitored alarm (smoke and break in) for my house.

The obvious option here is to go to Slomin or ADT for a quote, but I think their monitoring costs are very high and would negate the insurance cost savings. They also seem to require that you enter a long term monitoring contract.

From initial research, it looks like you can install your own alarm equipment and have it monitored by an independent company without a contract for a lot less than the ADT type companies are looking for.

The house has an older alarm, but the windows have all been replaced since it was installed and don't have sensors on them. I also did not connect the land line that it was using, so it is essentially useless at the moment.

Basically, I am looking for feedback from anyone who has gone the route of using an independent alarm monitoring company.

-Did you use existing equipment or install new equipment? If new, what's a good source for this?
-For any installation work, who did this for you? An electrician? An alarm contractor? Any recommendations for someone to do this?
-What options did you look at for the monitoring? Did you investigate internet monitoring (rather than using a land line or cell)?

While I am at it, I'd like to get some other cabling done - Network cable outlet drops throughout the house and update the basement den to run HDMI cables to where a projector will hang. I would hope that whoever does the alarm install could also do these pulls.

Thanks for any suggestions.

[badamson82]

what area are you located? i have a friend who does alarm/securty camera installation on the side if your interested, im sure he can help you answer your questions