Remote Access – Priceless

It wasn’t quite a blizzard but wind-blown snow was coating the Interstate and ruining visibility. Some flatflanders were going forty – terrified by the weather; other were passing them at eighty in the snowy passing zone – too dumb to be terrified and probably with summer tires. It was dark and Mary was driving home from Montpelier.

She’s a good driver but she’d gone straight from a West Coast redeye to an important Telecom Authority meeting in the capitol. We’re getting too old to do that.

I was away and very worried about her driving home in that condition and those conditions. Didn’t want to call her cell phone and make her take her hands off the wheel or eyes off the road.

So I fretted. But I was online while fretting and was greatly relieved when I saw the screen below. Can you guess why? (read on for answer)

Right!

I was logged onto our home alarm system (why I need a permanent IP address from my ISP, remember?). A few seconds before Security had been ON. OFF meant Mary had come home. I checked the access code used (different screen) to make sure it was her, gave her a minute to take her coat off, and called before she fell asleep.

Yeah, monitoring’s useful for a lot of other stuff like making sure the heat is on, even turning it up before coming home. And I can see who’s used what code to come in and even set up new codes remotely.

But knowing Mary’s home safe even before she calls me – priceless.