Just finished installing my first alarm!

[Wiretap]

I had a Br1nks Alarm system & was tired of paying their monitoring fee, so I canceled it & ordered an Elk M1 Gold to replace it.  It came in Friday and today I finally ripped out the Br1nks and went to work installing my new toy.  It was actually a fun project and I learned a lot. I came on this forum earlier and wanted to post a question but was denied access until my account was approved. . Now that I'm approved I've already figured it all out and my Elk M1G is online!  I was annoyed that my Elk "Nav" keypad didn't come with installation instructions (as the M1 did) -- and Elk won't allow me to download them since I'm not a dealer.  But I got it working and even programed the alarm via the keypad since i also couldn't download the Elk Windows software.

The alarm has tons of options and I only have 8 zones, no automation yet.. But im still finding lots of cool things to play with...  But anyway I do have a couple questions:

1) I couldn't get the system to see my zones until I changed each zone option to "1 Normally Closed"-- by default it was saying "short" on all my zones I think because they don't have resistors on them.. Do I need to install them?  What good do they do on a residential system?

2) I also bought an XP ethernet connection box for the
M1G, but it requires some software to program & operate.  The box did not come with a CD or download instructions.  Where & how do I get the software?

[DEL Installations]

A: You can register with Elk as an owner and get access to the same items as the dealer side, it takes a day or two to get approved, however if you have a valid SN, it's not an issue.

1. You don't necessarily need to install them, however there are certain reasons why you may. It's been covered here many times and is also located within a FAQ: http://www.diyalarmforum.com/diy-alarm-faq38/

If you have multiple items in series, the value of an EOLR diminishes, however it'll still function.

2. Assuming you got an XEP, there's no software to install, however it is recommended you download Elk RP for programming purposes. It can be downloaded from Elk themselves and will be full featured with a valid panel SN.

I don't know which vendor you purchased your items from, but all hardware comes with documentation from Elk, so something seems amiss.