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Devices are assigned strange IP addresses and fail to connect to wifi
Hi,
Occasionally, iPhones and iPads in my wifi network start getting strange IP addresses in the range 169.255.x.x or 169.254.x.x and fail to connect to wifi. These IP addresses belong to South Africa...
I found out the the issue was caused by my wired mesh speakers (connected to the Satellite). Once I disconnected those speakers (connected wirelessly now), all issues disappeared.
Do you have any wired Sonos connected to Orbi?
What FW is currently loaded?
What is the Mfr and model# of the ISP modem the NG router is connected too?
No those addresses are not located in Aftrica, those are self assigned IP addresses to devices in which if the device didn't get a correct IP address, 192.168.x.x from the router, the device will generate it's own IP address.
Turn OFF the satellites and just connect the devices to the router. Do they connect then with a correct IP address? If so, I would set up IP address reservations for each device ON the router so that everytime they connect they get an IP address and it's the same each time they connect.
What channels are you using? Auto? Try setting manual channel 1, 6 or 11 on 2.4Ghz and any unused channel on 5Ghz.
Any Wifi Neighbors near by? If so, how many?
Try disabling the following and see:
MIMO, Daisy Chain, Fast Roaming, IPv6 and Set 20/40Mhz Coexistence to 40Mhz only. Save settings and reboot the router and satellite(s).
Apple wireless issues:
Advanced Wireless Settings both 2.4GHz and 5GHz changed CTS/RTS Threshold to 2307.
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Orbi-RBR40-RBS40-V2-1-4-16-mesh-network-drops-connection-to/m-p/1601598/highlight/true#M35230
I changed the CTR/RTS threshold values for both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz (2341 and 2345 respectively), changed preamble modes to long preamble, and Set 20/40Mhz Coexistence to 40Mhz only.
Thanks for the reply.
One thing to note is that the issue does not happen all the time, I noticed that it happens mostly after a satellite goes down. It seems like a roaming defect. somehow the router and the other satellite still think that the device is already connected to the "dead" satellite and refuse to assign an IP address to it.
Now to your questions:
- Latest FW is loaded: v2.2.0.68 in router and v2.1.4.16 for the satellites
- I have a fibre modem that I got from the ISP that has no model number but the name of the ISP
- I use fixed wifi channels: 11 and 48
- I have now tried the following changes:
- CTS/RTS Threshold set to 2307 for both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz
- MTU size changed to 1492
- Disabled Fast Roaming and Daisy-Chain Topology
- Disabled 20/40 MHz Coexistence
I'll monitor the devices and see if this will help!
Thank you,
What is the distance between the router and satellite(s)? 30 feet is recommended in between them to begin with depending upon building materials.
Was a factory reset performed on the newer FW on the router after it was loaded? Something to try if this happens again.
- Distance is almost 30 feet.
- Yes I tried factory reset once recently.
- The changes made things much worse! My work laptop (my only Windows laptop at home) started behaving very strange. It connected to Wifi for few seconds then gave me the triangle that shows that no internet is reacheable. If I disconnect wifi and connect again the same thing will happen again (-intenet for few seconds then no internet). I was working from home on Friday and lost many hours trying to get my laptop connet to internet. I think that my issue is not related to radio so the following parameters should not have an effect on the issue I reported: - CTS/RTS Threshold: returned now to the default (2347) for both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz - MTU size: Returned it back to default 1500 I think the problem is in how the system is handling roaming. I could reproduce the issue -most of the time- as follows: - I have a router (R) and two satellites (S1 and S2) - Make sure my iPhone, Macbook and security camera connected to S1 - Switch off Satellite S1 - iPhone, Macbook and Camera are now connected to router R - Switch on back S1 - Return the security camera to S1 (by switching it off and on, since it works best when connected to S1) - At this instance both my iPhone and Macbook will start having the issue of getting a 169. IP address and not reaching internet. - If I leave the devices for some time (up to 1 hour) then everything will start working again. This must be a software issue that should be possible to fix. Somehow the use profiles are not being handled correctly.
This maybe a HW issue.
Try this, Do a factory reset on the system and set up the router from scratch. Then reset just 1 satellite. Re-add it and make sure it's about 30 feet from the router. Just disable the following, MIMO, Daisy Chain and Fast Roaming and IPv6. Set manual channel 11 and 48 on the router. Save settings and reboot the router and satellite
Test and let us know if this changes any thing. If not, then I would contact NG support and ask for an RMA.
Try setting static LAN IP addresses on all your devices which allow setting a static address. If you have any devices which cannot accept static addresses, assign them DHCP reservations. In my experience, the fewer devices making DHCP queries, the better.
Thank you guys,
I think that I now have a stable network, it has been so for 24 hours, I'll keep monitoring the network the coming days. I think the following helped:
- Assigning static IP addresses (outside the DHCP dynamic range) to the "fixed" devices like TV sets, Apple TV, Security cams,....
- Assigning static IP addresses (DHCP reservation) outside the DHCP range to the two sateliite hubs. It seems that I had issues when one of the satellites loose connection to the router because of IP address conflicts.
- Disabling Daisy-Chain. Since my base stations are close to each other and -I guess- the radio ranges of the base stations are much overlapping, daisy chain (and fast roaming9 are not suitable to my network.
