The Ring alarm is one of the most popular home alarm systems available for homeowners. But even though it works generally well, it can be jammed with an ordinary wireless jamming device. If that happens, it won’t be able to go off to warn you if there’s an imminent burglary.
This article delves into wireless jammers, explaining what these signal suppressors or interference generators do. It also takes a deep dive into Ring alarm systems, including this significant security loophole in them and just how to seal it to ensure your Ring alarm system is foolproof and unjammable.
How The Ring Alarm System Works
To better your understanding of how the Ring Alarm System functions, let me break down the components of this home security system. At a minimum, the alarm is made up of four components as follows:
- Base Station—it’s the central hub that connects your entire Ring Alarm system. In other words, it’s the brain of your Ring alarm system that keeps it online as well as connected to your devices.
- Contact Sensors and motion detectors—Several sensors and detectors form part of the Ring alarm system. The sensors are built to sense whenever someone comes into contact with your doors and windows and send you an alert as soon as they do while trying to break in. Motion detectors, on the other hand, are intended to detect animate motion in and outside of your property and notify you through the Ring App.
- Keypad—Characterized by a set of buttons bearing digits and symbols, it’s the input device that lets you input data into your alarm system to control, arm, and disarm it. This is placed indoors.
- Range Extender—Just as the name suggests, it helps extend the signal from your Base Station to all your Ring alarm system components and other devices that are integrated with it e.g the cameras.
The Ring alarm system works by using these sensors and detectors to sense and/or detect whenever a potential burglar comes close to your window or door before breaking in. The sensors and detectors will send you an alert as soon as they pick a signal so that you’ll be aware by the time that person attempts to get into your house. You might then call the cops if you receive a warning alert from your alarm system.
The beauty of the Ring alarm system is that it supports Ring cameras among other home security cameras. That means you can pair it with your cameras and it will trigger the cameras to record any intrusion event that may occur in your home.
The recorded videos can go a long way in helping the police to carry out investigations and track down the suspect(s).
Understanding Wireless Jammers
Wireless jammers are dangerous devices that every Ring alarm system user should be worried about. That’s because they can effectively jam the Ring alarm system, rendering it useless.
They jam susceptible wireless devices by polluting wireless signals with all kinds of wireless noise on specific bands. Here, I’m talking about certain bands that wireless networks such as Bluetooth and WiFi rely upon e.g band 2.4GHz.
This effectively blocks the wireless signal from reaching your Ring devices that need it to stay connected online. As such, the communication between them disappears, causing your Ring alarm system to jam.
The worst part is that wireless jammers are fairly cheap to acquire with as little as $10. This means any smart burglar can buy one and use it to jam your Ring alarm system. Fortunately, there’s a way in which you can make your alarm system non-susceptible to cheap jammers. However, be ready to lose some functionalities of your alarm system.
How To Protect Your Ring Alarm System Against Jamming
If someone blocks all Wi-Fi and cell phone signals near your home, what happens? Well, even though your Base Station will lose its functionality, meaning the detectors and sensors won’t be able to work, your Ring alarm system will still be able to work offline with the ability to sound a siren if someone attempts to break your door or window.
This is confirmed on the Ring support page:
Note: If the Base Station goes offline, you will be unable to access or control your devices through the app, but your device will remain armed, and the Ring Alarm siren will still function.”
Ring Support Pages
In addition, if you connect your Base Station to your router via an Ethernet cable, it won’t be affected by Wi-Fi jamming attacks. After all, it has a direct, physical connection to your home’s internet – allowing it to mainly bypass jamming attacks.
Are There Smart Home Alarm Systems with Anti-Jamming Protection?
Google’s Nest Secure, Abode Smart Alarms, and SimpliSafe, among other products, claim to have ‘anti-jamming’ protection.
While it sounds all good, the reality is that you can never truly protect a wireless system from jamming. Secondly, Google Nest Secure, which is the most trusted of these products was discontinued about two years ago.
That means you may no longer find it in a store near you.
Final Thoughts
Ring is one of the most trusted brands for smart home alarm systems. Their products are reliable, easy to set up, and fairly affordable. But just like other products, these products are not without some drawbacks. Speaking of which, one of the biggest disadvantages of Ring alarm systems is that they are susceptible to Wi-Fi jamming devices, which can affect their effectiveness.
However, you can help protect your Ring alarm system by using an Ethernet connection to plug it in with.