Why would my garage door opener reset my router?

Toopy14

Toopy14

Axe-Master
It's looking more and more like the garage door opener is rebooting my home router.

The router is a DSL Sagecomm Fast 5250, which operates at 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. The garage door opener is from Wayne Dalton and operates at 372 MHz.

Those frequencies are not even close....however, as I was typing this, it occurred to me that the remote may be causing interference on the copper pair. I believe the router uses the VDSL2 protocol and according to this graph, VDSL2 operates between 2.2 MHz and 12 MHz, which is well below the 372 MHz of the remote.


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I've tried everything, call tech. support and getting elevated to level 3 support...they did send a tech. and he got me from 40 Mbps to 46 on a 50 Mbps service, so that was a bonus but still the same reboot issue. Tried a new router, moved the router, new power supply, different outlet...I'm out of ideas.

Anyone have any other ideas?
 
Can you build a shield between the router and the garage? Around the cabling?

Does the router reset if you use the remote right next to it? If the garage door is unplugged but you use the remote, does it reset? Etc...too many variables to test I guess. interesting problem though frustrating.
 
I thought about trying to shield it, but obviously don't want to block the router itself which is an AP. Interesting thought about the cabling!

Will definitely try some of the suggestions you made. It certainly doesn't happen every time, but enough that it's not a coincidence.

Thanks!
 
Possible there's a power drop when the opener engages?

If the router is on the same circuit maybe a power fluctuation could cause it to cycle?

Guess you'd need to connect a meter to the outlet to see?
 
unix-guy said:
Possible there's a power drop when the opener engages?

If the router is on the same circuit maybe a power fluctuation could cause it to cycle?

Guess you'd need to connect a meter to the outlet to see?
Click to expand...

The router is plugged into an outlet in the house, which is on a 200 Amp. service and the garage door opener’s are on their own circuit which is on a 100 Amp. sub-panel.

I did try plugging the router into different outlets though. I’m going to try unplugging the opener’s to see if it’s RF related or motor noise or motor power related.
 
I like Unix-Guy's theory. Do you have a UPS? If so, you could run the router off of battery and test to see if you can rule out power-related issues.
 
If you have a voltmeter. Unplug your router. Applying the voltmeter electrodes to the router's outlet to get a current reading of the voltage, activate the garage door. If you have a bad ground, you might see voltage spikes. Bad grounds are common - even in newish wiring, and they can cause all kinds of issues.
 
If you suspect it’s causing the interference with the routers WiFi I would get an wireless access point and turn off wifi on the router. Worth a shot. Then the new WAP will possibly manage this better and isolate this cause.
 
JimmiFXII said:
If you suspect it’s causing the interference with the routers WiFi I would get an wireless access point and turn off wifi on the router. Worth a shot. Then the new WAP will possibly manage this better and isolate this cause.
Click to expand...

That's a good idea! I already have two other AP's bridged to the DSL modem/AP. The DSL modem is in the basement, close to the demarc point. Then I have an AP on the first floor and one on the second floor.

First though, I'm going to try something. The garage door opener doesn't always cause the router to reboot, but there is no question that it does. So I got to thinking about it and realized that the modem/AP is most likely set to Auto for selection of the 2.4 GHz. and 5 GHz. channels. The other two AP's I have are set to channels 6 and 11 for the 2.4 G band and 48 and 161 for the 5 G band. My working theory is that one (or more) of the channels the modem/AP selects automatically, may be affected by the garage remotes...maybe they are a harmonic frequency???

I've been into the modem/AP interface many times, but there is no access to the advanced settings. I did a Google search and sure enough there's a setting called 'Whole Home Wi-Fi', that when enabled locks you out of the advanced Wi-Fi settings. When it's disabled, you have access to the advanced settings, like channels, etc. Sure enough, it was set to Auto, which would support my theory. So what I am going to do now, is manually set the different channels and see if one of them is the culprit.

If harmonics can take down a bridge, why can't they take down a router? lol



Stay tuned! ;)
 
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So channel 40 on the 5 GHz network is 5.2 GHz. The 14th harmonic of the 372 MHz garage door transmitter is...5.2 GHz.

Is this the cause? Don't know, still just a theory, but now that I turned off the auto select on the 5 GHz network...I can hopefully find the answer.
 
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