As a family, we travel a considerable amount - we take off almost every weekend on little road trips and a couple of times a year on larger planned vacations. We don't have a professional security system at home, because honestly, I haven't felt the need for it so far. I use a very basic webcam monitoring service that's available off the internet. What I've done is - set up 2 webcams, one each at both points of entry to my house. I have a webcam sofware (GotoCamera) that i've downloaded, which sends me an email alert every single time there's any motion that is detected in front of my webcam. So basically, if a burglar enters, he's not only caught on camera, but I'm also informed about it immediately. All this costs me less than $4 a month. The reason i'm writing such a detailed note is that i know a bunch of people who don't know ways to take care of their homes while away on vacation. Since I do, I hope it helps out atleast a few people who don't. Currently, I use GotoCamera www.gotocamera.com for the webcam software. If any of you happen to come across other good options, do let me know! Thanks!