Moreover, if the Ring Alarm Pro indicates the direction Ring is moving regarding security and privacy, that's worthy of encouragement. I still have problems with Ring's company policies, but those policies don't impact the Ring Alarm Pro too much because the core system doesn't depend on a camera. But all in all, it was simple enough to do, and within a few short minutes, I had a smart camera with local storage and processing, which was previously impossible with Ring devices. Setting up Edge took a bit of searching in device settings - and a small hiccup that required resetting my Ring Stick Up Cam. Now, with its optional end-to-end video encryption and Edge's new local processing and storage, it also enables some of the best security and privacy practices possible with any major brand in the home security market, rivaling Apple's HomeKit Secure Video service. After all, the company still enables the worst tendencies in both its customers and the police in their communities - encouraging a culture of posting footage of public spaces on the Neighbors app (often leading to toxic comments sections) and suspicion among neighbors. This doesn't solve all of Ring's problems. Alexa Guard Plus, which usually costs $5 per month, can also use deterrence measures, like playing the sound of a dog barking if connected devices detect motion outside.įinally, and perhaps most importantly, given Ring's history with police partnerships, its Neighbors app and troubling privacy policies, the Alarm Pro offers local processing and video storage. Yet another interesting addition to Ring's new home security system is free integration with Alexa Guard Plus, a feature on Echo speakers and displays that monitors your home while you're away for unusual sounds (like glass breaking, human footsteps and smoke and carbon monoxide alarms sounding). Translation: A brief outage probably won't interrupt your work even in the remotest part of the house, using cellular data. For instance, in the farthest back room in my basement, the download and upload speeds were 20.7 and 8.03 megabits per second, respectively, versus their typical 35 and 8.5Mbps in that same room. When I unplugged the Alarm Pro's broadband and power cables to simulate an outage, backup Wi-Fi was up and running in under a minute, and speeds were solid, if a little slower. The backup Wi-Fi worked quickly in my testing, with almost no latency. The monthly data limit for backup Wi-Fi is 3GB, so you won't be able to use it constantly - though Ring does offer extra data at a rate of $3 per gigabyte. The idea is if there's an interruption to your power or internet connection, Ring provides an internet connection to your Wi-Fi-enabled devices using cellular data. I noticed a similar pattern when testing the connection speeds, though it never affected them enough to significantly affect performance with any of my usual internet-dependent activities.Īnother cool feature the Ring Alarm Pro brings to the table is backup Wi-Fi. Too often, the router would leave us on the slower 2.4GHz band when it should have connected us through the faster 5GHz band. In our review of the Eero 6 router, we were disappointed by faulty band-steering throughout our speed tests. An Eero range extender will give you solid mesh Wi-Fi throughout even large houses.
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