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Orbi RBR50 + Circle frequent DNS failures
I've spent the better part of the past two weeks troubleshooting some DNS issues. They are similar to those reported recently here and probably here and related to similar reports as long as a year ...
I've already given up trying to get Orbi to function as a proper Router + Disney + Armor, because it's nothing but trouble. To get Orbi to a stable state, I have to disable practically everything that I could disable, including its internal DNS and DHCP client. I'm currently keeping Orbi for its WiFi capability and delegate all other router functions to DIY pfSense Router Firewall.
I went through a similar pain before I settled on the current setup, which has been holding up quite well during Stay-At-Home order.
- SB8200 -> pfSense -> Orbi AP Mode with static DNS servers and IP address
I settled on pfSense because I need a reliable Gigabit Router with enterprise class DNS resolver, DHCP, Firewall, DNS Filtering, VPN, plus a whole bunch of other features that I don't really need. If you're comfortable with installing pfSense, it's worth a shot.
I have the same issue. I upgraded my firmware to V2.3.5.30 and still no luck.
daisycat wrote:I have the same issue. I upgraded my firmware to V2.3.5.30 and still no luck.
If you're comfortable with telnet cmd, try the workaround suggested by dbwiddis :
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Eventually I found that using the GUI to "release" and "renew" DHCP solved the problem without a reboot, and after a bit more research, traced the problem to the "dnsmasq" service running on the router as part of Circle. I was (and am) able to recover the DNS by telnetting into the router and executing "/etc/init.d/dnsmasq restart".
...
Some users have also been successful working around DNS issue with factory reset, daily reboots, or disabling Circle. YMMV.
- Here is something interesting that isn’t making a lot of sense to me. I disabled circle via the admin console. However, I didn’t reboot the router. So circle still seems to be active because I added a computer and the app on my phone notified me plus it’s blocking YouTube on my kids machines etc. and I’m able to add/remove things to profiles.
However, I’m at like day 5 or so without any outages. So I’m not sure what to think about that one. Maybe the problem had been fixed or there is some glitch that was fixed when I “disabled” circle. I’m hesitant to reboot my router but figured I’d throw this out there. It seems circle related but not sure how yet.What happens if you power OFF the RBR for 10 seconds then back ON?
kgividen wrote:
Here is something interesting that isn’t making a lot of sense to me. I disabled circle via the admin console. However, I didn’t reboot the router. So circle still seems to be active because I added a computer and the app on my phone notified me plus it’s blocking YouTube on my kids machines etc. and I’m able to add/remove things to profiles.
However, I’m at like day 5 or so without any outages. So I’m not sure what to think about that one. Maybe the problem had been fixed or there is some glitch that was fixed when I “disabled” circle. I’m hesitant to reboot my router but figured I’d throw this out there. It seems circle related but not sure how yet.
So I'm starting to have the same issues again with the new router. I made sure not to enable Circle when I got the new router, so not sure why it's acting up again. Will open a new support case with Netgear and also try the dnsmasq option.
Shahab
Try a full power OFF of the ISP modem and RBR for 1 minute then back on if you see anything happen again.
It it still happens try downgrading FW to v30 to see if this corrects the problem.
Make contact with NG support as well.
Last thing you can try is voxels FW:
Shahab wrote:So I'm starting to have the same issues again with the new router. I made sure not to enable Circle when I got the new router, so not sure why it's acting up again. Will open a new support case with Netgear and also try the dnsmasq option.
Shahab
- A chronic fix where you have to reset it all the time is no fix at all.
- So I'm not sure what is happening but the DNS issue popped up again even with circle disengaged. The issue happened hours after I set the DNS back to isp after it was on 8.8.8.8. I did this because 8.8 for whatever reason was loading up my Gmail slow. It would try to resolve, then hang.
Anyway, I set the DNS to 1.1.1.1 and reset. Frankly, it feels faster but we'll see. Kids go to online classroom format starting today and there is a mild anxiety about the internet going down.
