InGrid InGrid Home Kit

Setting up the console and handset was a breeze, as was positioning the necessary sensors around my house. Unfortunately, though, I had trouble when I tried to connect my system to the Web-based control center at MyInGrid.com. After receiving some misinformation from a support rep, I eventually realized (with the help of the instruction manual) that I needed to make a formal introduction (complete with bows and curtsies) between InGrid and my Belkin router. After that, the InGrid system in my home began to register its actions with InGrid's command center and with my control center at MyInGrid.com.

To control and monitor your new high-tech security force field, you can use the console, the handset, or the InGrid Web site. When you go out, you simply press the 'Away' button on the console and enter your security code; you then leave the house within 1 minute, and the system is armed. When you return home you must enter your security code again, so the system knows you're not an intruder.

If something goes wrong in your home while you're away, InGrid will let you know via the Web interface, e-mail, a text message to your cell phone, or a call to any specified phone. A loud alarm will sound in the house, and InGrid and Guardian will immediately begin working on the problem. Meanwhile you can monitor the situation from your online control center.

The wireless system and its ease of use are nice, but the broadband remote-control capability of the system is what really pushes it ahead of conventional, analog home-security products. From your control panel at MyInGrid.com, you can see every sensor in the house, view a log of sensor "events," and arm or disarm the system. If the housekeeper has to get in, for example, you just disarm the system until she leaves.

Setting up the system may take some work, but in the end the control it gives you over the security of your home makes it a good deal.

--Mark Sullivan