First day the system locked up... sensors wouldn't work, neither would remote control... disconnected power and turned panel off then back on and all seemed ok... the next day the same thing. Keypad would react and allow me to set alarm, but once again none of the sensors communicated with it and neither did the remote. Reset again and seems to be working.

Now an hour later the sensors not functioning again. Relearned them to panel. Worked for another hour and then lost the sensors.

Called customer service number and after 15 minutes decided to leave a voice mail. Will post with their response. No call back, being returned.

I received an email today about my review, asking me if customer service was able to help me... customer service still hasn't called me despite 2 messages left... so they are good and quick at reading the reviews, but not so much having tech support call back...

Well good thing is it's better than nothing. Apparently it will make noise and notify you if someone triggers the alarm in your home. The bad thing was thief could simply turn off the thing by using on/off switch on side of unit. But the people at Fortress listened to customer feedback and moved that switch to back on newer units. I'd say cover if you have older or used one cover that switch with a piece of black tape or something. A big bad thing that hasn't been resolved is the phone line feature. Thief can cut your home phone line. Also many people don't have land line and just use there cell phone. I recommend getting the version with sim card which will call you via cellular. But that version is much more expensive. They can easily find out everything about this unit and how to defeat it. I wouldn't bother putting sticker outside your house saying you have it because that will give thief heads up. I think this unit is okay for budget starter system. I use magic jack with it because I don't have landline.

A better alarm option would be one with sim card that calls you wireless via cellular. I will upgrade to one with sim card and app once I can afford it. I know there are cheaper ones with that on amazon. I do like fortress customer service. They seem to answer your questions fast via chat or phone. I think this unit will give you atleast some advance alert if someone breaks in your house. How much time I dont know. So if goes off act fast and have your cell phone and peace maker nearbye. Police on speed dial. Have a rapid plan in place for you and your family if the unexpected happens. I pray there is never a need for it in your home or mine.

We used this product before going out of town. We opened the packaging and all items were neatly boxed and marked. We opened the instruction booklet, reviewed it and the products together to verify the contents. We reviewed the products as we opened the boxes they came in and continued to read the instructions on how to set up each piece. Some people will have trouble with the install as each person interprets instructions differently and some just want to do it their way and not read the instructions. we set up the sensors at the doors and windows, you will need to purchase other items to fully protect your home such as cameras, Large animals, guards, and glass window sensors. This product does what most families are looking for something to let them know that there home has been infiltrated. For the money and ease of use this product works well, we attempted to sneak into the home and the sensors caught us, we have attempted to open doors and windows and the sensors caught us. We use more than one system to hopefully protect our home and I think this is the first step for your peace of mind.

We had a break-in 2 weeks ago. The intruders triggered the motion detector, the siren sounded, and the intruders ran out pushing each other on the way. Thank you, Fortress Security.
Luckily for us, we had video surveillance which recorded the intruders from the moment they came to the house and until the moment they ran away. Now I know exactly what I need for this security system to be complete and to protect my house.
I am writing this review to share with you our experience and the use of the Fortress Security before and after the break-in - the lessons learned.
1. WHY IT IS PRUDENT TO BUY YOUR OWN SECURITY SYSTEM.
There are two considerations to that. First is the cost. If you choose ADT, for example, you will be paying monthly fees which are at least $25. Second consideration is the response. Your own security system calls you and notifies you, while, for example, ADT system, which we also considered, notifies an operator who in turn call the local emergency line. In an area with high crime the response of the police to the calls that come to the emergency line about burglary are at a very low priority. The police may show up in one hour or even more. They go to attend violent crimes first and if everything else is done then they will respond to the break-in reported by ADT. I am speaking from experience.
You must have a "break-in routine" in place. If you are in the area, you can call 911 and notify them about the break-in. If you are not in the area, you must have a police emergency number for the area where your house is. Keep their emergency number on speed dial. From there on you control your destiny. With your own security system you can alert anyone about the break-in "“ a neighbor with a shotgun, for example. Or you can run a loud siren mounted on the roof of your house to alert the neighborhood.
2. MY CHOICE OF FORTRESS SECURITY
It was affordable and a number of different sensors was available. We selected the Fortress Security system S02 since we know it is easy to disrupt an internet connection but the land line isn't easy to find these days. We were disappointed to see that this system is easily disarmed by just unplugging it. Basically, anyone can swiftly "turn it off" if they know what you have in your house. This why I knocked off one star.
3. INVASION
The burglars do not appear out of thin air. Imagine you have an invisible line 1 ft away from the outside walls of your house. The burglars WILL cross that line (POINT OF DEFENSE 1). They will look for the entrance. If your doors are protected and the burglars are not trained to pick locks, they will look for the windows that are low, close to the ground. If the doors are not protected and/or the burglars are trained to pick locks, they will go through the door (POINT OF DEFENSE 2). The windows, however, are the easiest (POINT OF DEFENSE 3).
Do not think that Home Depot window bars will protect your windows. My bars were destroyed within 2 minutes just by pulling them forcefully. A complete waste of money and effort from my part.
The burglars with try to open your window from the outside. If this doesn't pan out, they will break the glass and attempt to unlock the window and open it. They will try to open it because they do not want to climb through a broken glass.
When they are inside, they will walk around to explore the area (POINT OF DEFENSE 4).

4. SENSORS
If you want to trigger the alarm at the POINT OF DEFENSE 1, Fortress Security doesn't have anything that will help you do that. We found some great sensors from another company and adopted them to work with the Fortress Security. After the break-in we installed one outdoor sensor per wall which triggers the Fortress Security alarm when anyone over 3 ft tall approaches the house doors or windows crossing the 1 ft perimeter.
For the POINT OF DEFENSE 2 you need to get a door open sensor. They come with the basic package for the Fortress Security or you can choose them as add-ons. For the POINT OF DEFENSE 3 you need a window open sensor unless you have a very large glass window that shatters and through which a person can walk in unharmed. Then you need a glass break sensor. All are available from Fortress Security.
For the POINT OF DEFENSE 4 you need motion detectors for every major crossing in the house. Say, someone broke-in through the bathroom or a bedroom window and your "open window" sensor there was out of battery and so it didn't work. The burglar will not stay just in the room he entered. The burglar will go further. So you may have a walkway leading to the bedroom doors. Put one there. If you have a living room in the center, then put one there. You get the drift.
Do yourself a favor "“ get a siren. No burglar wants to attract attention. If your house is surrounded by other houses, if you are not in a secluded location, a siren will help you. Fortress security has a basic, very loud indoor siren.
5. POST-INVATION
After the break-in we understood that we only can rely on ourselves, since the police takes forever to arrive. We wanted to know if and when strangers trespass our territory. We learned how to mod outdoor sensors and to have them work/communicate with the Fortress Security. We have a sensor that intelligently scans our backyard. We have 4 house perimeter sensors. Luckily there are 32 zones for the Fortress Security S02 where each allows up to 20 accessories. The only downside is that with the S02 we receive a pre-recorded message which doesn't specify which sensor is triggered. As I mentioned, we have a video surveillance of the outside of the house and we now installed one camera on the inside which is focused on the Fortress Security display window which, when triggered, will show the number of the sensor that did that. Upon a phone call from the system, we go to the surveillance feed and check what's going on there. Combined with the sirens, a loud speaker that allows to communicate with the burglars though my phone, and a very loud outdoor siren that I can turn on or off from my phone and alert the neighbors, I think we are pretty much set.
I would say, the Fortress Security is a pretty decent and affordable option if you want to build your own custom security and take control of your security in to your own hands.

I love this alarm!!! It's REALLY, REALLY LOUD!!! I arm it for home while my wife is home during the day and I left one of the basement windows unlocked after installing the window sensor. The top part of the window slid down a little which activated the alarm. My wife almost jumped out of her skin because the alarm starting screaming SO LOUD! She ran down to the basement with a baseball bat to "catch the thief" was the way she put it. But there was no thief; it was just my mistake leaving the window unlocked. I highly recommend this system for anyone that wants an alarm system that would scare aware anyone that tries to break into your home.