NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
RBR50 DNS Issues
Have the Orbi RBR50 all on the latest firmware. Have reset the entire router and satellite units. DNS keeps locking up. All devices connect to the Orbi fine yet when accessing the internet it locks u...
Hi,
So the latest regarding this DNS issue is that I have contacted the ISP and the Fibre line provider. Both are saying that the moden provided with the house is working fine, however something isn't quite right.
The TP-link router which was given to me by the ISP I stopped using because the wifi signal strength was poor, the orbi is 100 time better. The TP link has been off the network for over 7 mths.
Today I connected a brand new Mac laptop to the network. I punched in the IP address of the Orbi router and guess what the TP-Link home page came up, even though the TP-Link unit is in a box in the loft!
To me this suggests that there is another DNS server somehwre on the network.
I've started to chase the ISP to get an engineer onsite to make sure the modem is working properly.
SymonB wrote:Hi,
So the latest regarding this DNS issue is that I have contacted the ISP and the Fibre line provider. Both are saying that the moden provided with the house is working fine, however something isn't quite right.
The TP-link router which was given to me by the ISP I stopped using because the wifi signal strength was poor, the orbi is 100 time better. The TP link has been off the network for over 7 mths.
I punched in the IP address of the Orbi router and guess what the TP-Link home page came up, even though the TP-Link unit is in a box in the loft!
To me this suggests that there is another DNS server somehwre on the network.
Definitely strange, but not a "DNS" issue. The Domain Name System translates a URL to an IP address. Starting with an IP address takes DNS out of the picture. Before clearing cache (which I can never remember how to do), I click the "refresh" icon on the web browser.
Hi all,
So having spent several days on this problem I've got further forward with this problem.
I dug out my ISP router and my old ASUS router and connected them up. 100% connectivity works fine i.e. no DNS hangs or error messages from devices saying no internet. The only problem is both units the wifi isn't great hence the purchase of the Orbi system.
I reconnected the Netgear Orbi unit and the two satellite units and lo and behold the DNS issue came came even after a full factory reset.
I've managed to setup PI-hole and use that as a DNS server bypassing the Orbi as a DNS server. Eveything on the network is working flawlessly no more DNS hangs and in fact webpages loads very quickly.
The issue I now face is:
(a) Do I keep the setup as it even though I spend hundreds on the Orbi and using pi-hole for DNS which the Orbi should hve ben doing in the first place or
(b) Dump the Orbi kit and get a full refund as its not performing as it should and use back my ASUS router and get another Wireless mesh system such at the BT system which works with any router.
Having setup PI-hole, I like the system and it handles DNS very well. nice to surf the internet without the endless ads' Example IGN website runs a lot cleaner!!!
The Orbi wifi is one of the best system I've used. I have no dead spots around the house, garden etc and can pick up my wifi down the road. WIFI is very fast. I was initialy concerned connecting up my Xbox X via wifi (due to constriants of where the nearest ethernet port is in the house) but the Xbox downloads are at full speed and the laterncy is very low. Only issues I've had with the xbox was the DNS problem and the system coming up no internet available.
I guess for now I'll keep the current setup going and make a decision in a week or two.
In the meantime I have a support ticket with Netgear to see what they say.
Hi SymonB,
I am experiencing your problem exactly the same! I called the support here in HK, and they simply ask to get the device to their service center to check and take at least 2 weeks!!!
I think this must be the bugs or their QA problem!
I noticed that their is a new firmware released, only available to update manually.
https://kb.netgear.com/000061530/RBR50-RBS50-Firmware-Version-2-5-1-8
I am thinking if this is a good move to solve this problem.
- Hi,
Sorry to hear your experiencing the same issue as I did.
Snap I didn't get anywhere with netgear support. After spending £380 on the orbi initially and realising the limited support and only one year warranty I had huge concern about the lifespan of this product and the non existant suppose.
Thankfully for Amazon customer service I was offered a full refund for the orbi product.
Before I returned the product I did do another test just to prove the orbi wasnt working. I brought the BT mesh system for a third of the price £100 for three units. As soon as I setup them up all my WiFi devices and LAN equipment worked flawlessly. I left them connected for two weeks before contacting Amazon.
You could try the firmware and see if you get lucky on the issue being fixed but the real question is do you feel confident on the product that after a year warranty it doesn't become an expensive paperweight because netgear can't be bothered to support their products.
By the way I'm having the same issues with netgear Arlo products. Same level of poor support. Unfortunately it's too late to get a refund.
If you can't get a refund I would do the manual upgrade and then the patch the latest firmware outlined in the link you sent me. At this point you have nothing to loose because your unit isn't working in any case.
Good luck. For anyone following this article. I too just started having this issue within the past couple weeks. And I have had the latest firware update, 2.5.1.8, since early February. So this firmware does not fix the problem. Connectivity to the router is fine, but it fails to resolve DNS queries. The one change that I made recently before having this problem was enabling VPN access. I also have between 25-30 devices connected most of the time...perhaps the router is unable to keep up. I noticed that when doing nslookup queries that results would indicate "Default Server: Unknown" as if it didn't know what the DNS server was. Other times the DNS query would just time out and other times I would get no response from server. This type of behavior indicates it may be a resource utilization issue, however, ssh connectivity to the router appears to be disabled so I cant check cpu and memory utilization to confirm my suspicion. To resolve the issue I have just been rebooting the router. But I am at the point now where I may just setup a different DNS solution as others appear to be doing. I've been in the IT business for over 20 years....I've learned nothing ever works without issues.
Regarding checking CPU and memory load, you can see this from the http://orbilogin.com/debug.htm page. On this page, you can also enable telnet and then you can telnet to the system and login with the admin username and password you set. From there, you can run Linux commands like "top". ssh is not available with NG firmware.
I also have DNS resolver issues for local hostnames on my LAN network, but not for WAN addresses. I have other Linux systems on my LAN and they cannot resolve the hostnames of other systems on the LAN. The /etc/resolv.conf file is using the IP of the RBR50 router (192.168.1.1 in my case). Windows systems likewise cannot resolve the Linux hostname on my LAN. I have an open ticket with NG for this issue since May 2019, and it has yet not been resolved by them yet. Their DNS router functionality is lacking for the local LAN network devices. DNS server capabilities is a very basic function that a router is supposed to provide, but NG's implementation is flawed.
It does work however for external DNS resolving for WAN addresses, providing the DNS servers are setup correctly either by your ISP using the DHCP address it issues for you. Or set DNS servers manually to 8.8.8.8 or other public DNS servers. Also make sure you are not in a double NAT situation where your Orbi is behind another router on your LAN.
daverichard4 wrote:For anyone following this article. I too just started having this issue within the past couple weeks. And I have had the latest firware update, 2.5.1.8, since early February. So this firmware does not fix the problem. Connectivity to the router is fine, but it fails to resolve DNS queries. The one change that I made recently before having this problem was enabling VPN access. I also have between 25-30 devices connected most of the time...perhaps the router is unable to keep up. I noticed that when doing nslookup queries that results would indicate "Default Server: Unknown" as if it didn't know what the DNS server was. Other times the DNS query would just time out and other times I would get no response from server. This type of behavior indicates it may be a resource utilization issue, however, ssh connectivity to the router appears to be disabled so I cant check cpu and memory utilization to confirm my suspicion. To resolve the issue I have just been rebooting the router. But I am at the point now where I may just setup a different DNS solution as others appear to be doing. I've been in the IT business for over 20 years....I've learned nothing ever works without issues.
daverichard4 wrote:I noticed that when doing nslookup queries that results would indicate "Default Server: Unknown" as if it didn't know what the DNS server was.
A Google search of "dns default server unknown" indicates that this, by itself, is not a concern. Knowing the IP address, the nslookup program has asked for a "Reverse Lookup" to match the IP address with a "Name". It appears the IP relay in the Orbi is not coded to intercept these reverse lookup requests and return its own name. One of my computers is getting DNS from a local Pi-Hole (an an experiment), and gets the same "Server Unknown" response. So, the Pi-Hole also does not intercept Reverse Lookups and resolve them.
Sometimes these forum posts come to include a host of issues that appear to be "the same", but may differ slightly. For this most recent report, I suggest the following:
- Manually change the DNS server IP's on this Windows computer to something besides the Orbi.
i.e. use Google (8.8.8.8), Cloudflare, or one of the other "top 5" DNS hosts, or
manually put in the ISP DNS servers that the Orbi is using.
Does the problem disappear when (a) not using the Orbi, and (b) not using the ISP DNS? - If changing the DNS servers to "not the ISP" fixes things, try manually setting the Orbi to a non-ISP DNS.
Having 35 devices on an Orbi network should not in itself cause a significant resouce problem. Others have reported over 100 devices successfully. Many (many) users report over 50.
Netgear does not support SSH connection on the Orbi. They DO support telnet, by checking a box on the Orbi debug page (http://<ip of Orbi>/debug.htm)
- Manually change the DNS server IP's on this Windows computer to something besides the Orbi.
Thanks for the debug tip! That will come in very handy. However, unlike your issue, I'm not interested in resolving local names. My issue is
definitley on the WAN interface. When the issue arrises, now several times a week, no device in the house can browse if a new name lookup needs to ocurr. I know when this happens immediatly because I can hear my son and daughters running down the stairs to tell me the internet is down again, ha! Actually, you can still access the internet, just can't resolve new names. Also, no double NATing going on. I'm only using the one router right now. And as far as using a public DNS server such as Google, Cloudflare, OpenDNs, etc...the DNS servers are set to what my ISP issues and are working fine. To set them manually I would have to disable DHCP on the WAN interface and then I'm not sure how long that would work...the ISP may change the network I am on and I would not pick up the new IP becuase I would have disabled DHCP so I could manually set a DNS server. I've seen issues before where my IP was blacklisted or throttled due to some quirky security setups on the ISP side, but this issue immediately disapears after I reset the router everytime. I'm fairly certain this is an issue with the router itself. Thanks again for the debug tip!
This is just a technical point. Specifying DNS servers such as Google does not require turning off DHCP on the WAN interface. It is a simple choice: use what the ISP gives you or put in your own IPs for DNS servers. Just check the box and type in IPs. I get my WAN IP from Spectrum and use Google DNS.
Thanks, but that doesn't work for me. As long as you have DHCP configured on the WAN interface IP ("Get Dynamically from ISP"), you are forced to use the ISP's DNS servers also. Not sure how you are able to manually select your DNS servers with DHCP enabled on the WAN interface, but I'd like to see how. See screen shot. Thanks!
I am often mistaken, but I believe this situation may be related to Disney Circle. Is Circle activated on this Orbi?
If my memory is correct, someone reported getting around this by de-activating Circle, selecting the DNS servers they wanted to use, then re-activating Circle.
Simply enabling and re-enabling orbi on the iOS app (could not even get to orbilogin.com) worked immediately for me.
You can use manual settings for DNS when in DHCP mode. Be sure to try CrimpOns advise about disabling Armor or Circle to change DNS settings.
daverichard4 wrote:Thanks, but that doesn't work for me. As long as you have DHCP configured on the WAN interface IP ("Get Dynamically from ISP"), you are forced to use the ISP's DNS servers also. Not sure how you are able to manually select your DNS servers with DHCP enabled on the WAN interface, but I'd like to see how. See screen shot. Thanks!
