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NBN issue with latest firmware versions
I use a RBR750 with 2 satellites and they were just running perfectly. I am connected to NBN and I never needed to reboot and the connection to the internet was stable and great.
Later came firmware 7.2.6.21 and since then I have faced almost daily NBN connection issues where the LED on the router was showing a solid magenta LED. Rebooting the RBR750 was not helping at all, I needed to reboot the NBN modem. It turned out that rebooting only the NBN modem restores the connection for another day.
I opened a case with my ISP and they investigated this issue together with NBN after weeks of troubleshooting, they found out that the modem (my Netgear RBR750) caused this issue.
I then downgraded the firmware to 4.6.14.3 again and this issue was resolved!
Later came the latest firmware 7.2.6.31 which has the same problem.
I tried with this firmware factory resets, other cables and all possible troubleshooting steps. Nothing helps.
I am now running Firmware Version 4.6.14.3_2.3.12 and this is stable.
What has changed in the latest firmware releases that caused such an issue with NBN in Australia?
Is Netgear aware of this and working on a fix?
As I purchased my ORBI system in May 2022 Netgear is declining support, they offer only 3 months of support which made me think this was my last Netgear product.
It has been pointed out from the logs that there are many DHCP requests from several sources followed by a disconnect event. Thank you for this!
I now have assigned most of my devices a reserved IP address and have also enabled IPv6 on the ORBI.
Then I updated the firmware to the latest version 7.2.6.31 which never worked longer than 1 day. For the FW upgrade, I used this time the ORBI app on my phone.
Since then, no more crashes, everything runs very smoothly.
I will further monitor it, but it seems to me these frequent DHCP requests have caused the system to crash. Strange though, a DHCP request should be a very basic function...
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"they found out that the modem (my Netgear RBR750) caused this issue." The RBR750 is not a modem nor does it have a built in modem. This is a router unit.
What brand and model is the NBN modem or ONT that the RBR is connected too?
Be sure your using a good quality LAN cable between the modem and router. CAT6A STP is recommended.
Does the ISP support DHCP WAN configuration or something different like PPPoE?
After v.21 was loaded, did you factory reset and setup from scratch with out loading any backup configurations from file soon after the system was updated?
You’re right, the RBR750 is a router…
The Modem is from NBN and belongs to NBN, this is part of the infrastructure here. The model is G-240G-P and details can be seen here: https://apcoms.com.au/nbn-fttp-connection-box-status-lights/
From this NBN modem, I have a CAT6E cable in the walls to the centre of my house which is about 15m long. I have replaced this cable 2 times with 2 new temporary cables, but this made no difference.
My ISP supports DHCP WAN, it does not require a login and it is not PPPoE.
I did a full factory reset after v 7.2.6.21 and configured it all from scratch.
My ISP did some investigation and they said my router is causing this issue, I should try with another router. But after rolling it back to v 4.6.14.3 it just keeps working fine for months without rebooting.
With any later FW version I get this issue daily, so the only logical explanation is that the firmware causes this.
What a dismal situation. It would be useful to know one item of network trivia: what is the length of the DHCP lease offered to the Orbi by the NBN Optical Network Terminator (ONT)? The typical lease is 86,400 seconds (one day). The typical pattern is for devices to attempt to renew the lease when 1/2 of the time remains (43,200 seconds) and to keep attempting to renew until it expires. At this time, the device must cease using the IP address because the IP address is invalid. If there is an issue with the DHCP process, one would expect the ONT to router connection to fail in almost exactly 24 hours.
This information is displayed in the Orbi web interface on the Advanced Tab home page by clicking on the blue box Connection Status.
Troubleshooting this sort of issue is not trivial, and may not be worth the time, effort, and inconvenience.
My experiment was as follows:
- Purchase a gigabit Ethernet switch that has the capability to mirror traffic from one port to another.
- Place this switch between the NBN ONT and the RBR750 router.
- Connect port 1 of the switch to the ONT, port 2 of the switch to the RBR750, and mirror port 1 to another port.
- Connect this port to a computer which has an Ethernet port that can run a data collection program. I purchased a gigabit Ethernet to USB adapter and plugged it into my Windows PC.
- Run a program on that computer to monitor the connection. (I used Wireshark - free for Windows, MacOS, & Linux).
- Define a Capture Filter on Wireshark to capture only DHCP and DHCPv6 traffic. (no point in collecting gigabytes of user data).
- Run the program for several days (I ran for about 10 days) or until the NBN to Orbi connection fails.
- Examine the resulting file to display the DHCP conversations between the ISP device and the Orbi router.
What I discovered with my Spectrum connection was this:
- Spectrum assigned the Orbi router a regular DHCPv4 lease of 86,400 seconds as expected.
After 12 hours, the Orbi asked to renew the lease, and the Spectrum modem granted a new lease for 86,400 seconds. This went on day after day. - Spectrum assigned the Orbi router a DHCPv6 lease of one week 604,800 seconds (one week). After 3 1/2 days, the Orbi router asked to renew the lease, and Spectrum again granted the same lease.
By this point, it is probably obvious that investigating this situation is not trivial. It requires additional equipment, effort, and the inconvenience of changing firmware back to version 7 until the connection fails.
If the DHCP renew process is the root of this problem, it should be relatively obvious. However, it is not clear (to me) how "having proof" would improve your situation. So what? NBN and Netgear "blame the other guy" and neither of them does anything about it.
Or, the explanation could be a miserable failure. The DHCP lease could be renewed as expected and there is some other reason that the connection drops once a day.
I do this sort of thing because I enjoy it. Most users ........ probably not so much.
