Would you like to know which is best, hardwired or wireless alarms? Are you confused about the differences between the two? By the end of this video, you’ll have a better idea about the answers to both of those questions.

As you know, if you’ve seen any of my previous videos, we love answering questions here at security. And one of those about alarm systems is which is best, hardwired or wireless? I guess it’s probably sensible to first explore what I mean by hardwired and wireless. When alarm systems first came out, all the detectors were connected back to the control panel by cabling.

So that’s what hardwired means. All of the cables, sorry, all of the detectors, are connected back via wired cables, wireless, obviously is the opposite. Everything’s connected wirelessly by little radio signals. Some of the original wireless systems still needed the siren connected by wires, still, called themselves wireless.

And the vast majority of systems still need the control panel to be connected to mains, electricity by wires. But, that’s basically, what we mean by hardwired and wireless. Wireless systems, generally speaking, are quicker to install because you haven’t got to run the cables throughout the house to do the job properly, really, you’ve got to hide the cables as best as you can.

That means drilling holes in walls, running, cables up and down cavities, for instance. If you’re lucky and you’ve got an older house with a picture rail, then you can hide cables, above the picture rail. But that’s not very often possible, certainly in any house that’s built probably after about 1950 or something like that.

So that’s one of the downsides of a hardwired system, is it takes a long time to install. Conversely, a wireless system is quicker to install, hardwired systems, though, have the advantage that they cannot be hacked or, otherwise breached, because you physically can’t kind of tap into the signals.
The original wireless systems were very susceptible to, both hacking and jamming, you’d sometimes find when a taxi would pull up outside, perhaps with a slightly dodgy transmitter, and it would transmit on all frequencies and just clog up the airwaves, and your wireless system would work and burglars took advantage of that, and just jammed the system so that, when a detector noticed that it had been breached, it would try and signal back to the control panel, but the control panel wouldn’t get that signal.

Similarly, there is hacking of wireless systems, where people have a little thing called a software defined radio. It snoops in on the radio signals between detectors and control panel, and often between the remote control fobs and the control panel. The burglar can then mimic the action of the key fob and disarm the system, allowing them to break in without having to worry about the alarm system.

Modern systems, top end systems have got that sus, they use encrypted technology, and they use channel hopping to overcome that. So it’s not a problem, if you go for a high end system, cheaper systems, may be a little bit more susceptible to that. M wireless systems tend also to be cheaper to buy as well as to install, is another, thing that you might want to take into consideration.

Which is best? Well, that’s not for me to decide. I don’t like saying this is best. That is best. It’s horses for courses. Whatever you decide is best for you. What we’re trying to do is to give you the pros and cons of everything so that you can make your own mind up.

But if you want my opinion, then please give me your. If you found this video helpful, it’d be really helpful to us if you could like or follow or subscribe to us on your favourite social media platform. Thank you.