NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Solved
DHCP Server is buggy
Just a friendly message because it may help others. I'm using an RBR50 with 1 RBS50 sattelitte on firmware V2.3.1.60 ... I've been having a horrible time with the smart switches in my house (I have about 55 wall switches from TP-Link, (HS200 and HS210). They only communicate on 2.4ghz and I could never keep all of them connected to the network. I would reboot the router, or change channels, over and over again and every now and then I could get everything connected, but then a few days later things would be bad again.
I finally figured out what the problem was (although I've done a ton of troubleshooting, even setting up subnets and seperate wifi networks using old equipment I had lying around). What finally fixed the problem was disabling the DHCP server on the Orbi and enabling the DHCP server on an old ASUS router runnning tomato firmware and connecting the LAN switch to the the Orbi with an ethernet cable (after setting up a static IP address on the old router that was compatible with my network). As soon as I did this ALL my light switches connected and I also noticed things like my smartphone connect to the network much faster.
I short I think the DHCP server is buggy and is challenged when there are a lot of IP addresses in the network. If anyone uses the TP-Link switches and they just flash green forever (rather than turn red) then that flashing green tells you they are connected to the wifi network, but are not getting an IP address assigned. (I didn't know that, but it makes sense in hindsight).
Hope this helps anyone with a similar problem (and I hope I've used enough keywords to get google searches here).
I just noticed the new upgraded firmware (V2.3.5.30) and in the release notes is this fix:
[Bug Fixes] The client was not able to obtain an IP address when the router rebooted or the client renewed the IP address
I'll try to update over the weekend when I have some time, but this seems like a likely fix to my issue since my problem was that subsequent reboots of my large network always ened up with some devices unable to obtain an IP Address (with different numbers not working each time). I'll report back if this fixes it, but I'm hopeful.
17 Replies
- Yes, I tried assigning addresses, they were not honored by the router.
After setting a IP address, you have to save then apply the change. Do a full reboot of both RBR and client device. It should setup the IP address and work. I have a few set up on mine however I don't have that many devices like you do.
After loading v60 FW, did you do a factory reset on the RBR and setup from scratch.
Also did you attempt to setup IP address reservations, one at a time, for each of your IoT devices? Or did you have them all online at once while connected to the RBR? Possible having that many all at once could be bogging the system down.
55 wall switches and how many other devices are connected to the system?
What is the distance between the router and satellite(s)? 30 feet is recommended in between them to begin with depending upon building materials when wirelessly connected.
Instead of disabling the DCHP server on Orbi, why not try AP mode on the RBR with your Asus router?
vrtladept wrote:Just a friendly message because it may help others. I'm using an RBR50 with 1 RBS50 sattelitte on firmware V2.3.1.60 ... I've been having a horrible time with the smart switches in my house (I have about 55 wall switches from TP-Link, (HS200 and HS210). They only communicate on 2.4ghz and I could never keep all of them connected to the network. I would reboot the router, or change channels, over and over again and every now and then I could get everything connected, but then a few days later things would be bad again.
I finally figured out what the problem was (although I've done a ton of troubleshooting, even setting up subnets and seperate wifi networks using old equipment I had lying around). What finally fixed the problem was disabling the DHCP server on the Orbi and enabling the DHCP server on an old ASUS router runnning tomato firmware and connecting the LAN switch to the the Orbi with an ethernet cable (after setting up a static IP address on the old router that was compatible with my network). As soon as I did this ALL my light switches connected and I also noticed things like my smartphone connect to the network much faster.
I short I think the DHCP server is buggy and is challenged when there are a lot of IP addresses in the network. If anyone uses the TP-Link switches and they just flash green forever (rather than turn red) then that flashing green tells you they are connected to the wifi network, but are not getting an IP address assigned. (I didn't know that, but it makes sense in hindsight).
Hope this helps anyone with a similar problem (and I hope I've used enough keywords to get google searches here).
- I did not do a factory reset, but the firmware update occurred on the first night I owned the router, before configuring it a month ago.
I had everything working until I had to reboot due to a power outage. Then could never make it stable again. I have a total of about 97 devices on my home network.
I'm happy with how things are working with using the replacement DHCP server, as even if I nursed the orbi back to health a reboot seems to reintroduce the problem. I also marvel at how fast everything joins the network with the orbi as everything but a rhcp server and 7 year old router running tomato add the connected dhcp server. It's the best the setup had ever performed. The Orbis DHCP server is buggy!To determine if the FW or DHCP service feature is actually "buggy", you'll need to factory reset and setup the RBR again and test out setting up IP address reservations with just a few devices first, then graduate adding devices. Saving and applying the changes and rebooting the RBR and devices to see if the problem still happens.
Wow, 97 devices. Thats alot. Wonder if there maybe a problem with that many devices online at once. Not sure if NG tests for this or not. Most homes don't have that many devices. Thought I agree, as new IoT becomes available, more homes are getting more into automation.
