Overview
When it comes to home security, most modern systems are wireless. But what does that mean, exactly?
Wireless refers to how your sensors—the entry sensor on the patio door, for example—communicate with your control panel or base. Usually, wireless home security systems do that with radio frequencies (RFs), like Z-Wave or Zigbee, or a Wi-Fi network.
Sometimes, you’ll hear that some security systems use cellular connections. Cellular is a specific type of wireless communication, and it’s how your equipment at home—your control panel or base station—talks to your security system’s professional monitoring system. And yep: it works the same way as your cell phone.
For the purposes of this article, when we talk about wireless, we’re talking about systems that use wireless communication. But we also mean without wires: we’re looking at home security systems that use a wireless protocol and don’t have a control panel that needs to be wired into your wall.
Read on for help finding the best wireless security system for you.