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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...
I have an RBR20 and in the last few weeks have been having the exact same issue. I'm a professional IT person by trade, and have a lot of networking knowledge, including previously being employed as a network engineer for a large software company - so I know a lot about how to troubleshoot issues like this.
- I am on firmware version: V2.3.5.36
- I use CloudFlare DNS: 1.1.1.1 for default
- I have also tried using a variety of DNS providers, including my own ISP, Google, etc. Same problems.
- I am using Circle for the kids in the house.
- I have tried turning off and on circle through the Orbi settings, as suggested in this thread - seems to have no impact on the issue.
I have done a lot of investigation and determined, when this DNS resolution issue happens:
- DNS resoltuion through the entire home, on multiple devices stops working, using the forced resolver of the Orbi (192.168.1.1 on my network)
- Manual DNS resolution on devices like my laptop works fine. I.E I can do a NSLOOKUP or DIG (depending on OS) of domains normally.
- DIG @1.1.1.1 google.com -> resolves properly
- DIG @192.168.1.1 google.com -> hangs and eventually times out
- Pings and public internet access (over IP only) work fine. This is definitely just a DNS issue.
To resolve the issue, what works is either:
- Rebooting the Orbi RBR
- Logging into the Orbi admin page, clicking on "Internet", clicking "Test". It fixes it a bit faster, without a full reboot.
I'm pretty sure what is happening here is that the Orbi is running dnsmasq or something similar locally, and it just hangs for some reason. Hitting "Test", or rebooting the router obviously clears this issue.
The issue appears to happen randomly. There is no specific timing between incidents. Sometimes we will go a few days without the issue, sometimes we will have it happen multiple times in the same day.
It's really starting to frustrate me. Hopefully someone from Netgear or elsewhere knows how to fix it. I'm guessing at this point it's likely going to require a firmware fix :-(
netgear - Please help!
All of your information stated is great. This is exactly what I'm experiencing. I have yet to read through this entire thread, but wanted to comment here as I am reading through these while on hold with support AGAIN. I am within my 90 days so I've been on the phone with them like 5 times trying to figure it out. They are useless.
Additionally, what I've found... is that it does appear to be random when it happens and when it does happen, it seems to affect maybe 50% of my devices on my network. Some of them continue to function just fine.
If the Orbi's DHCP Server settings could be configured to hand out the Primary/Secondary DNS server IPs during the DHCP request from the clients, we could fix this by using cloudflare 1.1.1.1 and google 8.8.8.8 but every client always just has 1 DNS... 192.168.1.1 which is the Orbi, which has issues with its DNS services. Very frustrating.
What I've found is that almost every time I get on Zoom (I'm on a new Lenovo C940 laptop, Win 10, 64bit, ethernet/wired or wireless), it triggers the problem in the router and my laptop is definitely affected.
I'll keep reading and see if you guys figured anything else out.
Just a thought and question - do people who see this issue regularly use VPN (e.g to access work)? The reason I ask is a that although I have had this issue, it is very infrequent for me. However (and I have no metrics to back this up), this first started for me when I started to use the work VPN (working from home). My company has a great web app access so I infrequently need to use the VPN but, I was using it a lot yesterday and had some DNS issues this morning.
Didn't need a reboot of the orbi so may not be the same issue but it did occur that most people that work from home will be using some VPN or other which, before home working was imposed, didn't get much use?