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hjawad's avatar
hjawad
Aspirant
Nov 25, 2022

ORBI RBR50 DNS Issues

I have an ORBI RBR50 that my PC is hardwired to. My firmware is V2.7.4.24

More often than not my page resolution drags and stays in a state of spinning without resolution.  I have tried multiple browsers, multiple PC, wired and wireless PC's and they all exhibit the same behavior. My ISP is Wow.  The only thing that remedies this issue is going in to my router and changing my DNS from ISP assigned to static "8.8.8.8" or "8.8.4.4" or vice versa, depending on which was put in last. This is almost a daily thing. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Troubleshooting

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  • CrimpOn's avatar
    CrimpOn
    Guru
    Nov 26, 2022
    hjawad wrote:

    The only thing that remedies this issue is going in to my router and changing my DNS from ISP assigned to static "8.8.8.8" or "8.8.4.4" or vice versa, depending on which was put in last. This is almost a daily thing. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

    The RBR50 router allows users to specify up to three DNS servers.  Each time a device sends a request to resolve a URL into an IP address, the router either answers from a cache of recent queries, or sends a request to every DNS server listed. Personally, I use CloudFlare 1.1.1.1 and Google 8.8.8.8.  Depending on what part of the globe the user is located, there may be DNS servers that respond more quickly.  When the router receives a response from any of the DNS queries, it will relay the response to the user device.

     

    Once the DNS server entries have been set, they remain indefinitely. (They do not get set back to the ISP suggested entries.)

     

    If specifying DNS servers solves the problem, it should remain solved.  If the problem comes back, there is something else going on.

     

    DNS queries are based on UDP packets, which do not guarantee delivery.  Unlike TCP, which works by establishing "connections" and keeps track of individual packets so that they can be resent, UDP just fires it off and forgets about it.  The underlying application may set a timer and decide to resend if a response is not received.

     

    What this sounds like is the ISP has excessive packet loss and the router is having to keep sending requests.

    • hjawad's avatar
      hjawad
      Aspirant
      Nov 27, 2022

      Thank you for the detailed explanation.  Can you please tell me the best way to determine if there is packet loss between me and the ISP?

      • CrimpOn's avatar
        CrimpOn
        Guru
        Nov 27, 2022
        hjawad wrote:

        Can you please tell me the best way to determine if there is packet loss between me and the ISP?

        Diagnosing issues such as this is difficult if the problem is intermittent.  Much easier if it happens constantly.

         

        What many people do it open a command window and issue a command to 'ping' some internet resource, such as:

         

        ping -t dns.google.com

         

        There are also apps that include ICMP (ping) as a feature, such as PingInfoView (Windows, from Nirsoft).