RBR50 intermittent DNS lookup issues

Try a factory reset and setup frorm scratch. 

Has Armor or Cicle been ever enabled?

One extra note to the above, it does seem to occur more frequently in the evening, less than an hour between errors.

Growing list of the same complaint here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/orbi/comments/m5l3vk/orbi_dropping_dns/

I am experiencing EXACTLY the same problems as KevinDubs

RBR50, Firmware V2.7.2.104

ISP is Comcast

Problem started March 14, still here on March 16 - lose internet connection multiple times, generally 1 to 2 hour intervals

Same issue whether I allow ISP to pick DNS (75.75.75.75 / 75.75.76.76) of I manually select DNS (8.8.8.8 / 8.8.4.4)

Problem extends across all devices - wired and wireless, Windows, Android, iOS, and Echo units)

Must reboot the modem to regain internet services'

Nor recent changes to firmware, ISP connection or the devices used.

What is going on, and how do we fix it?

 I am experiencing EXACTLY the same problems

RBR50, Firmware V2.7.2.104

ISP is Comcast

Problem started March 14, still here on March 17 - lose internet connection multiple times, generally 1 to 2 hour intervals

Same issue whether I allow ISP to pick DNS (75.75.75.75 / 75.75.76.76) of I manually select DNS - OpenDNS (208.67.222.222 / 208.67.220.220)

Problem extends across all devices - wired and wireless, Windows, Android)

Test Internet button seems to temporarily fix the problem.

Nor recent changes to firmware, ISP connection or the devices used.

I'm glad I'm not the only one having this issue! My house is going crazy with all of the cannot connect to the internet errors on my Google home devices.

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kevindubs wrote:

I have RBR50 (Firmware V2.7.2.104), with one RBS50 satellite, connected to a CM1000v2 cable modem, Comcast ISP.

Starting 3/14, I sporadically get DNS lookup errors.

I've tried setting DNS servers to a) Get Automatically from ISP b) 75.75.75.75/75.75.76.76 and c) 8.8.8.8/8.8.4.4

same result. When the error happens, I cannot resolve new sites, but things like Netflix continue to stream fine.

 

On the router, if I go into Internet Setup and click the Test button, the light ring on the router goes blinking white, then all is fine for a while.

 

On 3/15, the issue occurred about 5 times during the day and 3 during the evening.

 

I also tried power cycling the modem and router, no luck.

 

We live in an apartment building, both my wife and I working from home. We haven't moved or disconnected anything in months.

 

Any ideas?

 

Thanks

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Success (at least for the last 20 hours)

I changed my NTP server to 1.pool.ntp.org

AND I turned OFF "Automatically adjust to daylight savings time"

Then rebooted.  No problems since.

Same issue here -- the following has been happening for a few days now:

1)  At least once every 24 hour period all of my 56+ devices (smart house) are no longer able to find internet -- note the wifi signal is fine and my LAN works great

2) Manually configuring a device with DNS works around the issue entirely, but practically I can't configure DNS for all of my smart devices

3) Resetting the RBR50 or even just pressing the "Test" button in the Internet Setup page in the Admin interface resolves the issue for another ~24 hours

I updated the firmware yesterday to V2.7.2.104, but no change in behavior. I would very much like to avoid a factory reset, so I am trying the NTP server change and disabling DST as suggested by others here.

I have been experiencing internet connectivity issues and initially thought it was my DSL.  After troubleshooting and researching online I used telnet to connect to my Orbi and discovered that dnsmasq was not running which explained why DNS lookups were not running on my system.

As a workaround I created a cron task to run a bash script which uses the ps command to check whether dnsmasq is running and forces a restart if it is not running. 

The steps I performed are outlined below:  

1. Enable telnet mode using http://X.X.X.X/debug.htm where X.X.X.X is the IP address of the Orbi router.

2. Telnet into the Orbi router.

3. Create the bash script using the following command:

    echo 'DNSSTAT=`ps|grep -c dnsmasq`' >/tmp/dnsmasq-test.sh
    echo 'if [ $DNSSTAT == 1 ]' >>/tmp/dnsmasq-test.sh
    echo 'then' >>/tmp/dnsmasq-test.sh  
    echo '/etc/init.d/dnsmasq restart' >>/tmp/dnsmasq-test.sh
    echo 'fi' >>/tmp/dnsmasq-test.sh

4. Make the bash script executable using the following command:
    chmod +x /tmp/dnsmasq-test.sh

5. Create a cron job to run the batch file ever minute using the following command:
    echo '* * * * * /tmp/dnsmasq-test.sh' >>/tmp/etc/crontabs/root

The above steps should force the dmsmasq process to reload and should keep DNS outages down to a couple of minutes until a better or permanent fix becomes available.

Please note that changes to the configuration or reboots of the router will require reapplication of the workaround.

Model: RBK50v2
Firmware: 2.7.2.104

I've been experiencing the same issue as OP starting immediately after the recent time change. Adding a root cronjob that restarts the dnsmasq service every hour has significantly reduced the occurrence of the symptom. I just got done bumping the cron job up to run every 30 minutes. The NTP config change sounds appealing and easy to apply and revert. I will likely give that a shot if the symptom appears again. I reached out to a Netgear admin and moderator via DM to provide my assistance in troubleshooting if necessary. My hope is that they can develop a fix and release a firmware update soon. My next fallback is Voxel's custom RBK50 firmware since the issue has not been reported using it. If all else fails, I'll return my RBK50 to Costco thanks to their liberal return policy.

As previously linked, I found the information available at https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Orbi-DNS-and-DHCP-and-NTP-Broken-Short-Term-Fix-Options/m-p/2071273/thread-id/116734 the most helpful.