CSL, the provider of Dualcom Plus, Dualcom GPRS and Dualcom GSM, is based in Harefield, Middlesex, and was formed in 1996, undergoing a management buyout in June 2006. With over 100,000 connections to the Vodafone Packet Radio Service (VPRS) and the addition of many new base stations, CSL is set to continue to be a leader in the provision of dual-path signalling for the security industry.

Dualcom Plus

Dualcom Plus is an integrated dual-path signalling device using both the low traffic, high speed, Vodafone Data Network (VDN) radio path and the PSTN telephone path. Taking typically 3 seconds to deliver an alarm signal to the Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC) and with 5 minute polling of both radio and telephone paths, the Dualcom Plus also conforms to the Association of British Insurers (ABI) requirements for local indication of signal path failure.
With an ATS Grade of 4 for its primary path and ATS 3 for its secondary path, the Dualcom Plus is suitable for Intruder Alarm Systems (IAS) fitted to EN50131 Grade 3C. The classification to Grade 3C will fulfill the requirements of almost all Grade 3 installations  including high-end domestic and virtually all commercial property.

Dualcom GPRS

Dualcom GPRS is an integrated dual-path signalling device using both the Packet Radio (GPRS) system as its primary encrypted signalling path and the secondary path can be either IP (Internet Protocol) and/or PSTN telephone network, thereby providing up to three diverse paths of alarm signalling!
Like the Dualcom Plus, the Dualcom GPRS has an ATS Grade of 4 for its primary path and an ATS of 3 for its secondary path, making it similarly suitable for Intruder Alarm Systems (IAS) to Grade 3C, encompassing the requirements of virtually all Grade 3 systems.
Installers particularly like the Dualcom GPRS “plug and go” feature, which saves time and automatically locks onto the Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC). Costs for the Dualcom GPRS make it eminently suitable for use as an enhancement to Grade 2 systems, thereby providing additional peace of mind to residential and small commercial owners.

Dualcom GSM

Dualcom GSM uses the Vodafone GSM network and SIM card to provide its primary signalling path at ATS 4 and the secondary path uses the PSTN telephone network at ATS 3, making it similarly suitable for Intruder Alarm Systems (IAS) to Grade 3C, encompassing the requirements of virtually all Grade 3 systems.
The Dualcom GSM is particularly suitable for areas where the preferred VDN network is unavailable or of variable signal strength, such as The Highlands or other remote locations.

General

Dualcom Units have the edge over some other providers in being able to be used “out of the box”; no special arrangements with a specific telephone network provider are required and the unit can be up and running even when a telephone line is yet to be installed as with a new property or a relocation.
The Dualcom units can share any analogue telephone line and are quite happy sharing a line with voice, fax or modem communications. As with all telecoms equipment, if the line is used for Broadband Internet connections then an installer-fitted Broadband filter will be required.
To establish suitability for use, field strength testers are available at a small charge from CSL and these will quickly establish the number of base stations available at the site, the signal strength from each base station and the quality of the signal; alternatively a postcode check will give a more general indication of the likely suitability for Dualcom use.
A high gain aerial is available in the event of the site being located in a variable signal strength area.

Written by Roger Byng - Visit Website
Roger Byng, owner of RJB Security Systems, has been active in the Security Industry for over 20 years. Being associated with the IAAI, NASS and SSA Trade Associations, Roger helped form the SSAIB in 1994 and served as its Vice-Chairman until retiring from the Board in 2004. RJB Security Systems is UKAS Certified for the installation of Intruder Alarm Systems, CCTV Installations and Access Control and holds the SSAIB "Certificate of Excellence". Operating throughout the South West, South and Mid Wales and the Thames Valley, the company has both domestic, public and high-end commercial amongst its customer portfolio.

Intruder information

Stuff here about various types of intruder alarms in general, the grades required for various levels of protection and why.

Written by Richard Laker - Visit Website

Info on fire detection systems

Written by Richard Laker - Visit Website

This article is a brief explanation of IP and how it relates to our industry. I wont be going into details of all the application layers on top of transport layer (tcp/ip)

History of IP
The Internet Protocol Stack (IP) started life as part of a project by DARPA (Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency) at the beginning of the 1970’s. This project was the ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) and the very beginning of what we now know as the ‘internet’.

Throughout the project various implementations and protocol stacks were developed which culminated in DARPA contacting the University College of London and Stanford University. Their goal was to develop a transmission control protocol on the various hardware platforms. Four versions were developed TCP v1, v2, v3 and the version currently in widespread use today v4.

In 1975 a 2 network TCP/IP was tested between Stanford and The University College of London. In 1977 a three network TCP/IP test was carried out between the U.S., the U.K. ans Norway. In march of 1982 it was agreed that TCP/IP would form the basis of military computer networking in the U.S.

Technology
The TCP/IP stack is made up of 5 layers.
1. The physical layer, Ethernet cable, wifi, modems etc
2. The data link layer, ATM, PPP, GPRS etc
3. The Network Layer, IP (v4 & v6), ICMP, IPsec etc
4. The Transport Layer, TCP, UDP etc
5. The application Layer, DHCP, HTTP, POP3, SSL etc

Implementation
The main bits that we need to worry about are the physical layers and the application layer. Usually the other layers are either provided for us by default or by others (telcos etc). As the bulk of our use of IP is for CCTV or signalling, we will usually be plugging into an existing network and will usually be an ethernet port. It might be a ‘patch panel’, a router or a socket either way they are all basically the same.

All devices that ’sit’ on this network as with anything needs an address. This address is most commanly recorded as dot-decimal notation. i.e. 192.168.0.1.
Various address’s are reserved and cannot be used publically. Your isp/telco will inform you of your ‘public’ i.e. internet address which will be different to your internal ‘private’ address

Obviously 2 devices cannot sit on any network with the same address. Common ways of addressing devices are DHCP (Dynamic Host Control Protocol) or static. If using DHCP a server will automatically assign the correct details to the device, if the device supports DHCP. IF not then we must statically assign the address manually. To do this we need a spare address and we need to know the subnet and the gateway.
The subnet mask is a means to restrict the available address’s on a network. For example a subnet of
255.255.255.255 allows 1 address
255.255.255.0 allows 254 address’s
255.255.0.0 allows 64,516 address’s etc etc

The subnet will usually be provided or will be 255.255.255.0 on small (less than 254 devices) networks
So if we assume a subnet of 255.255.255.0 this will allow address 192.168.0.1 - 192.168.0.255 to communicate with each other, but address 192.168.1.1 will not be able to communicate with any devices beginning with 192.168.0.x as the subnet restricts this.
An easy way to test communication between devices is the use of the ‘ping’ command. On windows and Unix/Linux machines using

ping 192.168.0.1 will usually ping the router/gateway and can be used to test the communication path. You would expect to see times for the ping to be reported. If the communication fails due to an invalid address or a fault then you will see ‘timeouts’. Be warned most system admins block pings on external networks for security reasons

Next we have the ‘gateway’ or router address. This tells the device how to communicate with devices not on its own address/subnet range. If we assume our network is made of
Router - 192.168.0.1
PC 1 - 192.168.0.2
IP cam - 192.168.0.3
IP signalling device 192.168.0.4

and our PC wants to connect to our camera, it can communicate directly as its on the same subnet/address range. But if it wanted to connect to 192.168.1.1 then as its not on its own address range it would use the ‘gateway’.

The gateway would then send a request for the data to 192.168.1.1 on PC 1’s behalf and when a reply was received it would be forwarded on by the gateway to PC 1. Obviously this would apply to PC 1, the ip cam or the signalling device.

A gateway also uses ‘port forwarding’ when in a NAT based system. NAT (network address translation) is how the router works in the above example. Acting as a go between for all the devices on the network and the internet. As the router only has 1 address on the network, but may ‘translate’ for thousands behind it. When PC 1 requests data the router sends the request on, and when the answer is returned the router knows that PC 1 requested the data, so that data is forwarded onto PC 1. But what happens when data is requested from the router on its public (internet) address. It doesn’t know what to do so we use ‘port forwarding’ rules. i.e. if the request for data comes in on port 80, then we can set up a rule to forward all requests for data on port 80 to the ip camera. That way when entering the public ip of the router on a remote machine, the machine will request the router for data on port 80, the router will look at its ‘rules’ and send the request onto the ip camera. The ip camera will then send the requested data (the image) to the router, which in turn will send it to the machine requesting it. We can have thousands of ports doing different things on a single ip address.

Written by James Wilson - Visit Website
James Wilson is Technical Manager for Secure It All. Secure It All are a Midlands based leading electronic protection provider who are NSI Gold Approved for Access Control, CCTV and Intruder Alarms. James started his career at Secure It All in 1992. James has gained many specialist qualifications throughout his time at Secure It All and also won the coveted Security Installer 'Engineer of the year' award for 1998.

The Security Systems & Alarms Inspection Board

The Security Systems & Alarms Inspection Board (SSAIB) was formed in 1994 as a result of the efforts of a number of Intruder Alarm System installers who wished to help improve and regulate standards within the security industry. Initially the List of Approved Installers consisted of smaller companies and sole traders who submitted themselves to a regime of inspection and agreed to adhere to good installation practices and company procedures.
The SSAIB soon received the backing of the police in England & Wales through ACPO and in Scotland through ACPOS, both of who agreed to provide a representative to sit as an observer on the Board. Other Board Members and Observers were drawn from a small number of installers, the British Retail Consortium, Master Locksmiths Association, Electrical Contractors Association, Association of Security Consultants, Department of Trade & Industry, Federation of Small Businesses, Trading Standards Institute, Security Industry Training Organization and a number of well known security professionals. Further changes to the Board took place in 2005, designed to streamline the efficiency of the Board’s activity.

In recent years the SSAIB obtained UKAS Accreditation as an Independent Inspectorate concerned with the technical inspection of its Roll of Approved Companies; inspected companies are provided with UKAS Certification of their products, Intruder Alarm Systems, CCTV and Access Control. Companies are expected to install to the requirements of current standards and to keep copies of those standards, in addition each customer must be issued with a “Certificate of Conformity”, confirming compliance with the relevant standards.

Since its inception the SSAIB has had an active interest in training and raising standards, this led to coperation with the Security Industry Training Organization and latterly a number of training organizations to provide installers with an opportunity to obtain NVQ qualifications in Level 2 and 3.
Currently the SSAIB provides a Certification route for Electronic Security, Guarding, Fire and Alarm Receiving Centres and assists any who wish to obtain ISO 9001 Certification.

The SSAIB states that its role is “To ensure high standards of service and business ethics within the community of security, guarding and fire service providers in the interests of end users. This is achieved through rigorous assessment of providers against SSAIB’s scheme criteria and maintained by regular and ongoing audit of management systems and inspection of installation.”.
Its aim is ” To ensure that purchasers, specifiers and end users of security systems, fire detection and alarm systems and guarding services have access to a pool of competent, professional and ethical providers of products and services.”

The SSAIB can be contacted on 0191 296 3242 and further information, including finding an approved installer for your area, can be found at www.ssaib.org

Written by Roger Byng - Visit Website
Roger Byng, owner of RJB Security Systems, has been active in the Security Industry for over 20 years. Being associated with the IAAI, NASS and SSA Trade Associations, Roger helped form the SSAIB in 1994 and served as its Vice-Chairman until retiring from the Board in 2004. RJB Security Systems is UKAS Certified for the installation of Intruder Alarm Systems, CCTV Installations and Access Control and holds the SSAIB "Certificate of Excellence". Operating throughout the South West, South and Mid Wales and the Thames Valley, the company has both domestic, public and high-end commercial amongst its customer portfolio.