How to prevent ‘code-grabbing’ of your remote control

HAS your garage door ever opened by itself out of the blue?

There have been a few recent reports of people accidentally opening their neighbour’s gate or the gate of someone else in the vicinity with their remote. So, how can someone “crack” the frequency or code of your gate’s remote and gain access to your property?

“In South Africa the frequency band on which most remote devices operate is 433.92 MHz, so it can happen that, when a neighbour with the same type of remote presses a button on their device while your receiver is in coding mode, your receiver accepts their remote to access your property.

“In coding mode, the receiver is “listening” for valid transmissions and if a neighbour were to press a valid button, it would be accepted into the system,” explains Elmarie Twilley, spokesman for Afrikaans insurance brand, Virseker.

Thieves can also duplicate your transmitter’s signal. Later, after you’re gone, they use that signal and open your gate or door.

Richard Rohman from Centurion Systems explains: “This is only really possible with older, fixed-coded remote control systems where the code transmitted never alternates. Most new transmitters employ code-hopping technology, meaning that each code transmitted is completely and randomly different from the previous one. This makes it virtually impossible for criminals to ‘code-grab’ the signal.”

New generation receivers boast features such as “press for three seconds” learning, and “double press” learning, which aids in addressing these issues.

“If your remote control has rolling code technology, the code changes after every use. This renders all other remote controls besides yours useless,” says Twilley.

Here are some safety tips:

• Ensure that you only use remote controls employing code-hopping technology and secure encryption, as this is vastly more secure.

• When closing your automatic garage door, always watch the door until it completely closes to make sure that no person slips in under the closing door.

• Contact a security company and enlist their help in setting up a new, more secure system.

• Keep your remote controls safe. This includes not letting children play with the controls. This will prevent anyone stealing them.

• If you park a car outside your garage, be sure to lock your car so that potential burglars cannot access your remote control and gain easy access to your garage.