I'm hoping someone here has some first-hand knowledge of what I'm looking at getting. I'd like to have an intercom for the exterior entrance into the basement that will ring up the phones down there. A screening process before opening my door is always a good idea, right?

I'm also thinking of buckling and getting a cell phone, but at home I'd rather just pick up a normal phone, so I'd like one of the devices that allows you to link your cell phone to your home phone. The cell phone would actually be my only phone service at that point, no landline, but yeah, a normal phone would be better for me at home. Is anyone currently using one of these?

It wouldn't be hard to integrate both, would it? It would be cool to have distinctive rings for both different callers and for the intercom function. What other features should I be looking for?

Charles, I've had this intercom at the front entrance of my house for 10 years now.

I have the video (with night vision) and intercom system. Basically what happens is when someone rings the intercom at the front door, my phone rings three times consecutively (distinctly different from a regular phone ring). At that time, I can answer the phone and talk to them at the front door, and I can also change it to a specific channel to view the camera outside.

You can also link your cell phone to this device; I do this when I go away. My cell phone is programmed into the system, so when I am leaving the house I just have to punch in a three digit passcode on my home phone, thus transferring the intercom calls to my cell phone.

The system is very versatile and works extremely well.

If you have any questions, ask away.

Thanks, Cam! That looks like a great unit. I know you'd mentioned your intercom before, so I figured at least you'd have some input. I'll put it on my list. If I think of more questions to ask, I'll be sure to run them by you.

As a bonus, I found out a couple weeks ago that the night vision can see through clothing. Yep, I saw through the t-shirt of a girl friend, and saw her sports bra. It was too quick to see if it sees through multiple layers to bare skin, but I'm destined to find out!

Hey, maybe you can get an airport security job where you man one of those fancy new whole body scanners. They definitely do the trick.

That's a great suggestion, J.P!

Always happy to help!

Be carefull what you wish for!!