Orbi RBR50 Dropping Internet Connection Regularly

I think you have evidence of two things:

1. OptusNet is giving you an IP address with a lease time of 300 seconds (5 minutes), which is STUPID.
   If this applies to all subscribers, that means the DHCP server will be constantly responding to DHCP requests.
   Perhaps the next call to support would be, "Can you explain why Optus is assigning IP addresses with a 5 minute lease time?"
2. That parameter wan_lease is almost certainly the DHCP lease which Orbi provides to devices on the LAN, 86,400 seconds (one day). That is what my Orbi gives out to my devices.

Otherwise, there is something terribly wrong.The DHCP message says 300 seconds. The Advanced Tab says 5 minutes.  I think the lease is 5 minutes, which is insane.

Please do not think "aha, this it  the reason"  I see it as something to be explained.

I ran a traceroute on the DHCP Server Identifier: 49.187.128.1 response below, as mentioned Optus is the ISP (for now).

traceroute to 49.187.128.1 (49.187.128.1), 64 hops max, 72 byte packets
 1  165.225.232.89 (165.225.232.89)  37.796 ms  30.855 ms  31.939 ms
 2  165.225.232.3 (165.225.232.3)  32.119 ms  74.063 ms  52.999 ms
 3  static-161.7.255.49.in-addr.vocus.net.au (49.255.7.161)  52.420 ms  28.987 ms  34.597 ms
 4  220.101.73.81 (220.101.73.81)  35.441 ms  28.620 ms  32.875 ms
 5  * * *
 6  * * *
 7  n49-187-128-1.rdl4.qld.optusnet.com.au (49.187.128.1)  47.684 ms  45.588 ms  54.485 ms

Hmm. That is "interesting".  Because DHCP is based on "broadcast" technology, the most common DHCP implementations have a DHCP server in the IP subnet.  (Orbi, for example.)  The device sends a broadcast, "Can I have an IP address?" and one (or more) DHCP servers respond.  I honestly do not remember how my organization set this up when we implemented DHCP for 3,000-odd devices. I believe the switches forwarded the DHCP broadcasts somehow to a set of master DHCP servers.  (It has been years.)

Thanks again. I have followed up again with the ISP, without about as much luck.

Understand if the DHCP lease renewal is causing the issue, it is likely symptomatic rather than causal.

Figure I have two options remaining:

1. Setup the Optus Sagecomm in faux bridge mode & connect the Orbi to that & hope that somehow insulates the Orbi
2. Revert the firmware to a previous version and hope that helps

I don't have great confidence in either approach, but am running out of troubleshooting ideas.

Hi,

Anyone have any suggestions of best approach here, or alternatives?

Cheers, Joel

I would manually load firmware 2.5.2.4

The other suggestion is to see if you can capture the DHCP lease renewal packets.

The first IP lease offered was for 300 seconds (5 minutes).  So, at about 150 seconds, the Orbi should have begun asking to renew the lease. Do you see those packets? (and the response packets from the ISP?)

Thanks, I'll run some more tests now.

I have mixed feelings about this situation.

• On the one hand, it should not matter how long a DHCP lease is. (300 seconds, 86,400 seconds (one day), or even a full week).
  The device and the DHCP server should follow the protocol described in:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_Host_Configuration_Protocol 
• On the other hand, I have real suspicions about how ISP's and Orbi handle DHCP.
  I have documented that my Windows 10 PC does not use DHCP correctly when it wakes from 'sleep', but does when restarted.
  Heaven knows what is going on between the ISP and Orbi.

Had some issues getting the log capture. Once I had captured a long enough period I can see the renewal packets.

These are almost exactly 2:30 apart, which is what I would expect from a DHCP lease of 5:00.

If you use Wireshark to examine the DHCP packets, it will probably spell that out (in seconds).

Although what I consider "definitely absurd", I believe this is legitimate and may even be the default value.  (Maybe these folks, "don't have a clue" and never changed the DHCP default?)

Alas, this does not explain internet service being interrupted.  (Have I taken us off on a tangent?)

With logging working now, can you record traffic until there is an interruption and then dump the log when it resumes? (maybe while that ping trace is running?)

I captured the following drops ~10:22:18-10:22:24am.

I can see the DHCP Renewal Request & ACK slightly before the dropped connection at 10:21:59

I have captured the log files from the DHCP request through to the end of the dropped connection. I'm not really sure what to look for in these logs? And Netgear Community won't let me upload the file. As an alternative I have uploaded the log capture.

What a bizzare situation. Can you do two things:

1. Try to ping dnsany02.optusnet.com.au
   
2. Change the Orbi DNS entry on the Internet page from "Get automatically from ISP" to Use these DNS servers, and put in
   1.1.1.1 and 8.8.8.8

---

1. Try to ping dnsany02.optusnet.com.au
   Response received
   
2. Change the Orbi DNS entry on the Internet page from "Get automatically from ISP" to Use these DNS servers, and put in 1.1.1.1 and 8.8.8.8
   I can't select the "Use these DNS Servers" radio button unless I select the "Use Static IP Address" radio button above & I don't have a static IP address.
   

It is getting weirder.

---

Is Parental Controls enabled?  I believe that interfers with the ability to set DNS servers.  I seem to remember a post where someone said he turned off Parental Controls, was then able to set DNS servers, and turned Parental Controls back on again.

Ah yes, Parental Controls are turned on. I turned off Parental Controls and was able to set the DNS servers. However, I couldn't turn Parental Controls back on without reverting to Get Automatically from ISP. Note, I am using Circle.

When the DNS servers were manually defined there were no issues with dropped connections, as soon as I reverted the frequent dropped connections returned. Oddly the Lease Renweal times were unchanged ie. 5 minutes.

I have no understanding of Parental Controls.... and no idea who could explain how enabling Parental Controls would create this situation.

It is understandable why people want Parental Controls on the network.  This seems like a ("hobson's choice"?)

Yes, Parental Controls was defnitely a factor in our purchase decision, more for device control rather than site blocking in our case.

Does anyone from Netgear monitor these forums? Seems there is a legitimate issue here & one I am loathe to pay support just to report.

In happier news, these frustrations have prompted me to finally get my ethernet backhaul working.

Thanks for all your help. I assume I have now hit a dead end.

---

joel_smith wrote:

Yes, Parental Controls was defnitely a factor in our purchase decision, more for device control rather than site blocking in our case.

Does anyone from Netgear monitor these forums? Seems there is a legitimate issue here & one I am loathe to pay support just to report.

In happier news, these frustrations have prompted me to finally get my ethernet backhaul working.

Thanks for all your help. I assume I have now hit a dead end.

---

In the four years I have been following this forum, I cannot recall a single instance of anyone presenting themselves as a Netgear employee. The closest I can recall is when we had the "Traffic Meter Fiasco" in March when one of the forum moderators commented that "Netgear engineers have identified the problem...."  So, no.  I think the community forum is exactly that.  For the community.

I have been tempted to pay for a Gearhead subscription, but have never felt confident that (a) whoever works at Gearhead would know much, or (b) have a way to contact someone in Netgear engineering who does. 

I have this strong memory of someone commenting that they disabled Circle, changed to user defined DNS servers, and then enabled Circle again and their choices were not erased.  (My memory is not always correct.)  There is no reason for Circle to care which DNS servers are being used.  If the ISP DNS servers are OK, then certainly OpenDNS or Cloudflare would be fine as well.

Netgear has a "new & improved" Parental Controls which is taking the place of Disney Circle.  They offer a free trial.  Maybe that product will do what you want and not interfere with DNS?

Wowsers! I'm not sure what has happened, but while investigating OpenDNS, CloudFlare offerings, I thought I'd try re-enabling Parental Controls again, and.... it worked this time.

Maybe it was the reboots disabling Daisy Chain while configuring ethernet backhaul.

I am still seeing regular packet loss ~2.30 but only for one second as opposed to 5-7, this is tolerable if not ideal.

CrimpOn thanks again.

Netgear has set up a community forum specifically for the Circle product. Most of the people who watch that forum are more likely to have experience with Circle and know how to work it better than those of us who follow this "general Orbi" forum. Might be more likely to find someone who has a solution if the question is posted there:
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Circle-Smart-Parental-Controls/bd-p/en-home-circle

https://www.netgear.com/home/services/smart-parental-controls/
https://community.netgear.com/t5/NETGEAR-Smart-Home-Parental/bd-p/en-home-smart-parental-controls

Good Luck

Thanks FURRYe38