klausfiend
join:2008-05-07
Los Angeles, CA
|  [Line Problem] Cordless phone reboots my router!
Hi there,
I just had an issue the other day with my AT & T phone line; it got broken somewhere in the neighbourhood, and another line pair had to be run to the phone box in my building.
Now, whenever my cordless phone does anything (rings, I pick up and dial, having a conversation), my wireless router reboots -- every 10-12 seconds or so, for as long as the phone handset is active. The Internet link itself is fine and dandy, but the router resets without fail (it's a D-Link DIR 655). The other phone (I have an old rotary as well) doesn't have any problems like this, but it's obviously got a limited user interface. 
This is a new thing; I've been at my place for about a year, and previously I was able to use my cordless phone with wireless with no issues, so this is a bit of a surprise. I've confirmed that it is the cordless phone, I've also tested all thirty of its possible frequencies, and each one of them reboots the router.
I'm debating just buying a 5.8 GHz cordless phone to get around the issue, but I'm still curious to find out the cause of the problem. Has anyone else had this happen to them? Can anyone shed some light on possible cause(s)?
thanks,
Klaus |
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tonydi
Premium,MVM
join:2001-05-11
San Jose, CA
| That's really weird. I can't think of anything that the AT&T repair could have done that would cause the wireless part of your phone to affect the router.
I'd be more inclined to call it a coincidence that either the phone or the router just developed a problem at around the same time as the phone line repair.
Have you tried changing the wireless channel of the router? I've had decent luck using Ch 11 when I've had conflicts with cordless phones. |
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klausfiend
join:2008-05-07
Los Angeles, CA
| I've got it set right now on Channel 1 (too much interference on the default) ... my boss surmised that it might be due to an MTU device on the new line, or a termination problem on the line itself leading to line power problems, but I wanted to ask around.
It's extremely surreal; the cordless phone worked great since my DSL was first hooked up, but now, it's like a magic bullet for killing my wireless router. |
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tonydi
Premium,MVM
join:2001-05-11
San Jose, CA | Both of the things you mentioned might affect the DSL modem's sync, but you're losing the wireless connection between the computer and your DLink router. That connection has absolutely nothing to do with the phone line. |
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klausfiend
join:2008-05-07
Los Angeles, CA | No, I'm not losing just the wireless. The entire router reboots. I watch the NICs on my wired systems, and they restart as well. The whole unit effectively power-cycles itself -- it's bizarre. |
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tonydi
Premium,MVM
join:2001-05-11
San Jose, CA | Again, this has nothing to do with your phone line. And no offense, but I haven't found DLink products to be the most reliable pieces of equipment so that's where I'd start looking. |
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JoeG4
join:2001-12-16
945941
 ·Vonage
| reply to klausfiend
The 655 *is* the most reliable router they make, but I have no fricken idea how that could happen. Well, except for coincidence, and on that note, is your phone plugged into the same power circuit as the router?
The only thing remotely close to this I can think of is whenever my mom uses the shredder my wireless mouse/keyboard stop working, but that's completely different.
IT *is* possible for the router to reboot if the interference is so wild that the router crashes, but I really doubt if that's the case, however take a good look at the logs page - if it shows a bazillion errors when you start using the phone.. yeah. |
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klausfiend
join:2008-05-07
Los Angeles, CA
| See, that's the crazy thing ... I've had this setup for months (since I moved in), and it worked great -- until my phone line got broken upstream and was reconnected. Yes, I realize it sounds crazy, which is why I'm still scratching my head.
They've worked together successfully both on the same electrical circuit and different circuits; they're right now on different circuits (across the room from each other), as they were before the repairs, when they worked fine together.
Unfortunately, the logs get obliterated by the router rebooting, but I'm going to try logging them to my Linux machine via syslog and hopefully some info squeezes out before the thing resets itself, but yeah ... totally bizarre. |
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klausfiend
join:2008-05-07
Los Angeles, CA | reply to tonydi
See, if this was a problem with a brand new piece of gear, I would too; but it would be an amazing coincidence if the D-Link went on the fritz simultaneously with the phone being repaired when it worked beautifully before. |
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tonydi
Premium,MVM
join:2001-05-11
San Jose, CA
| Not to single you out specifically, but I see this type of statement a lot around here....that such and such [insert piece of equipment here] has been working fine or my DSL has been bulletproof for 37 yrs so how can it now be giving problems.
Things change! Things break! Things degrade!
Now that I realize that your router is actually completely resetting itself, that's more of a power issue. Forget about the different frequencies or channels, those shouldn't make the router do a reset. You said that when the cordless phone disconnected everything works fine. Is that with the phone line disconnected, or with the power to the cordless base station unplugged? |
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klausfiend
join:2008-05-07
Los Angeles, CA
| Hey Tony,
I work with this kind of gear on a daily basis, so I am painfully aware of how things break ...
Anyway ...
So I ran one more test with the cordless disconnected from the phone line, and it killed the router yet again, so it looks like I'm in the market for a new phone.
I'm still rather mystified what would cause such an abrupt change in such a short period of time when things were stable and worked well until then ... I guess the timing of the phone repair is simply coincidental. Weird. |
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