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Orbi RBR50 No connection to ethernet wired devices
Firmware 2.7.2.104 MacOS computers. 3 or 4 days ago, my orbi lost connection with all of my ethernet hard wire devices. Has there been a recent firmware upgrade? I've noted that any hard wired de...
All,
I have a final update on this issue.
Unfortunately I experienced the same weird IP address issues, even after switching out the RBR50 for the RBK852 router.
Going back to square one, I eventually tracked the issue down to a faulty ethernet connection on an old Blue-ray player in my entertainment system.
Hard to believe that one bad ethernet port could cause such havoc. While it didn't bring down the whole network, it did bring down any ethernet hard wired device on the network. Turns out that neither the Orbi nor an Orbi update was to blame.
So . . . after switching over to the RBK852, as I said, I was still having issues getting any internet connection on any device using ethernet.
The issue was hard to track down.
At first I thought I had lost the entire ethernet switch that was feeding my entertainment system. What I learned from CrimpOn earlier in the thread was that one bad ethernet connection was all it might take the throw things off. So . . . by slowly connecting and disconnecting one device at a time on the switch, I was able to narrow the issue down to the ethernet port on the Blu-ray player being the culprit. Hook the BR player up via ethernet and strange 168.254 IP addresses started appearing. Take the Blu-ray out of the loop and bingo, ethernet was working properly again.
Kudos to CrimpOn. This nugget of information from him also helped solve the problem:
>> 168.254 is a valid IP address, although not one that an Orbi would assign.
169.254 is an IP address that a device self-assigns to itself when it cannot reach a DHCP server.
It did not come from the Orbi. <<
Thanks CrimpOn for sticking with it, offering advice, and continuing to ask the right questions.
Also thanks to Furrye38 for his helpful suggestions and support. We are lucky to have this community of experts that is willing to offer their
time and support and show an interest in helping solve our problems. You have made me feel validated by not treating me like the novice I know I am.
Roborbi
roborbi wrote:Firmware 2.7.2.104
3 or 4 days ago, my orbi lost connection with all of my ethernet hard wire devices.
Has there been a recent firmware upgrade?
Firmware 2.7.2.104 was released in Feb, 2021 (three months ago). Do you recall being prompted to undate firmware 3-4 days ago?
roborbi wrote:
I also use a number of Mac Computers that have static IP addresses via ethernet connections. These are no longer recognized by the Orbi router. I have attempted rebooting the router and changing various settings via the Orbi app and the Orbi router web page all to no avail.
"Static IP" means (literally) that the network parameters in the device itself were set to a specific IP address. If this is the case, then nothing done to the Orbi will change them. Orbi has a mechanism to reserve or assign IP addresses to devices by putting their hardware MAC address in the Orbi LAN setup table. (Orbi web interface, Advanced Tab, Setup, LAN Setup). This is also the place where the Orbi DHCP range is specified. To avoid confusion, the typical practice is to use part of the IP subnet for those assignments and a different part of the IP subnet for the DHCP pool. (for example 1-99 for assignments and 100-200 for pool). Are these "Static IP" addresses actually "Static" or are they assignments?
Modern Apple and Android systems have a feature that gives the user a choice between using the actual hardware MAC address or a "made up" MAC address. It is hard to manage device tables when the MAC addresses change all the time.
Has anything else changed recently? A new modem? New piece of entertainment equipment? When devices use DHCP to learn their IP address, they will respond to the first DHCP server that answers their query. There are entertainment systems which "network themselves" independently of the home network, which can wreak havoc on networks.
I think you have identified the key factor: where are these 168.254 IP addresses coming from?
I do not see firmware release as being relevant.