Hot to setup home security at minimal cost.

Well, from my experience the answer is X10. First go to the ( X10 Home Page ) and look for the Premier sale or Hot Deals link. This is where you find the best deals. Scroll down and get the “Active Home” package that has the whole bundle: My House online, On Alert, Smart Macros and I-watchout and includes the usb interface and plug in module plus some extras that will be useful. It goes for 49.99, a super deal! Then scroll down some more and get the 4 for 1 deal window and door sensors for 19.99. Scroll down some more and get the 3 for 1 camera expansion for 119.99. For under 199.00 get everything you need to set up surveillance which you can watch on your TV or computer recording to tape, CD or hard disk . You can view them remotely over the internet very easily. With the on-alert plug in you can monitor your homes doors and windows and know when one of them is tampered with! It can send you an e-mail when one is tampered with. You can add some home automation using what comes with it or add more modules as you can and also turn them on or off remotely! If you have trouble with the link above, go to geek spread.com and scroll down to the small Hot Deals banner. You can spend more if you like and fix up a more awesome setup. The low-light black and white cameras work pretty good, but the Vanguard is color with true night vision, zoom, pan and tilt all with the same software Active Home. Those are 299.00 each which is a big discount. You can buy a whole security outfit for about 100.00 which you still can monitor with Active Home and have dialers that will call up to 4 numbers when triggered! Personally, I use Active Home with all the plug-ins, several home automation plug in sockets, some sensors for doors and windows and have 4 color wide eye cameras (3 with pan and tilt) recording to my computer and 3 wired b/w cameras for nighttime connected to two vcrs. I have several motion sensors. This setup works great for me. I have used these cameras for several years and they still work great. I mount them indoors facing out. I too, looked for the deals and I am very happy with the whole set-up.