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Forum Discussion
New RBR750 / RBS750 Firmware Version 4.6.3.16 Released
Security Fixes:
Fixes security vulnerabilities.
For more information about security vulnerabilities, visit https://www.netgear.com/about/security.
Bug Fixes:
Fixes the issue where the s...
TSpoonEars wrote:
Ok, update as I’m home now. I performed a full factory reset and still the same problems. The unit simply isn’t giving out proper IP addresses and the device list is changing almost as I watch it. I tried to give static IP addresses but even then it’s only handing out 169.254 addresses even to some the ones I force static. The DHCP server is completely screwed up. Is there some limitation on the number of devices on the network now that wasn’t there before? I have about 45 devices on my network. Could the table only manage 32 now or something?! This is completely unacceptable. I can’t even stop upgrades it seems as this was pushed onto my device.
The 169.254 addresses are not issued by the DHCP server plain and simple.
They are used when the client can't get an address and are nothing to do with the DHCP server.
You need to work out if the router DHCP server is not giving an IP address to the problem client by observing the client interfaces page when it's trying to connect.
If you can confirm it isn't getting an address then you need to try re-connecting (or refreshing the DHCP lease of) some other clients to work out if the DHCP server is not giving out IP addresses for other requests.
If it isn't giving out IP addresses you have three choices:
1) Reboot the router and hope it doesn't stop giving out addresses due to the flood of requests it will get when it boots, keep rebooting until the number of requests slows and the DHCP server is still giving out addresses.
2) Use some other device as the DHCP server.
3) Reduce the router DHCP address range and set the IP address on devices in your network that are outside the DHCP server address range.
Rebooting the router has no effect. I get the same situation. I can give fixed IP addresses to some devices on the network but not most of the IOT devices, there’s simply not that option. I can literally watch the attached devices page update as certain devices get a 192.168 IP and then go to no IP address assigned with the 169.254 address. Even those I told the Orbi to give a fixed address to. It sees them, but with a 169.254 address. Why wouldn’t it assign them a proper address if it can see them?! It’s quite strange. I spent hours on this tonight. I went back to my old Gryphon which I used to have problems with and that just worked. I simply don’t have time to troubleshoot for hours like this - this needs to work as I work from home most days and it was working for a year until the FW that added parental controls got pushed. I guess I know now not to recommend the Orbi to all my tech friends since Netgear screwed it up with this forced update. (Note, I don’t recommend Gryphon either for several reasons - I suspect I’ll end up going to Ubiquity as at least they sell commercial WiFi)
I have switched to using PiHole as both DNS and DHCP server and turned off the Orbi faulty DHCP server. The only static allocation I have on my router is the IP address of PiHole. This way I have a complete control over DHCP settings being provided to the clients, lease time, DNS server, etc.
So lets be clear if your seeing 169 on your devices, these are NOT coming from the RBR. These ARE device SELF assigned IP address. This means that the devices failed to conenct TO the system due to either not connecting to wireless or wired correctly or there is a problem with the service on your Orbi. 169 IP address NEVER come from ANY Router whatsoever. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apipa
Only thing I would do is manually re-download the RBR and RBS v16 FW files and manually apply them to the RBS first then RBR lastly. Factory reset and setup from scratch. Id leave OFF the RBS for now. After the RBR is setup. Set up a new IP address block range of 192.168.1.100 to .200 on the RBR.
GIve a SSID name and for a quick test, don't set WPA2. Disable WPA for meantime. See if any if your wifi devices connect that are seeing this 169 IP address. Do any of them connection while in the OPEN? Check for 192 or 169 IPs.
Then re-eanble WPA2 and AES. Check again for wifi devices and IP addressing.
IF any of this fails seems like your system needs to be returned to place of purchace and find something else.
TSpoonEars wrote:
Rebooting the router has no effect. I get the same situation. I can give fixed IP addresses to some devices on the network but not most of the IOT devices, there’s simply not that option. I can literally watch the attached devices page update as certain devices get a 192.168 IP and then go to no IP address assigned with the 169.254 address. Even those I told the Orbi to give a fixed address to. It sees them, but with a 169.254 address. Why wouldn’t it assign them a proper address if it can see them?! It’s quite strange. I spent hours on this tonight. I went back to my old Gryphon which I used to have problems with and that just worked. I simply don’t have time to troubleshoot for hours like this - this needs to work as I work from home most days and it was working for a year until the FW that added parental controls got pushed. I guess I know now not to recommend the Orbi to all my tech friends since Netgear screwed it up with this forced update. (Note, I don’t recommend Gryphon either for several reasons - I suspect I’ll end up going to Ubiquity as at least they sell commercial WiFi)- The Orbi was showing the devices in the attached devices list with an IP address of 169.254.xxx.xxx I understand they are self assigned addresses but if the Orbi can see them and show them in it’s list of devices it should assign them a proper IP address! The list then morphs randomly as devices attach and disconnect. The DHCP server is simply broken in this firmware, certainly with 50 devices like I have on my network.
I did run the setup from scratch and it did exactly the same thing. I simply don’t have time to do any more troubleshooting. I’ve spent hours on this already and it’s eating into my real job time. I should be sending Netgear an invoice for my time! FInd something else.
Good Luck.- Thanks, I’m going to have to unfortunately. I’m quite disappointed because everything was working great and I even paid for the parental controls as they were quite useful to limit my son’s iPad time.
TSpoonEars wrote:
Rebooting the router has no effect. I get the same situation. I can give fixed IP addresses to some devices on the network but not most of the IOT devices, there’s simply not that option. I can literally watch the attached devices page update as certain devices get a 192.168 IP and then go to no IP address assigned with the 169.254 address. Even those I told the Orbi to give a fixed address to. It sees them, but with a 169.254 address. Why wouldn’t it assign them a proper address if it can see them?! It’s quite strange. I spent hours on this tonight. I went back to my old Gryphon which I used to have problems with and that just worked. I simply don’t have time to troubleshoot for hours like this - this needs to work as I work from home most days and it was working for a year until the FW that added parental controls got pushed. I guess I know now not to recommend the Orbi to all my tech friends since Netgear screwed it up with this forced update. (Note, I don’t recommend Gryphon either for several reasons - I suspect I’ll end up going to Ubiquity as at least they sell commercial WiFi)It does sound a lot like the DHCP server is not assigning IP addresses but I thought those devices wouldn't show up in the devices list so maybe you have a slightly different problem.
There's no doubt in my mind the DHCP server is broken.
I spent more than an hour rebooting one time and evenutually gave up and setup my NAS as a DHCP server and things have been fairly good for me since then with the .16 firmware.
Even the initial affinity of devices to the main router seems to have settled down for me.
I sould also add the DHCP server problem is not a new problem. When I switched back to an RBR50 (becuase of the firmware problem) I also saw it once, it's not nearly as pronounced on the 50 series. Note that I hadn't seen it before on the 50 series but the number of devices I have now has grown to 60 to 70 and that's nowhere near what I had the time before that when I was using the 50 series. I'm convinced it's related to the number of devices and the volume of concurrent requests to the DHCP server.
TSpoonEars wrote:
The Orbi was showing the devices in the attached devices list with an IP address of 169.254.xxx.xxx I understand they are self assigned addresses but if the Orbi can see them and show them in it’s list of devices it should assign them a proper IP address! The list then morphs randomly as devices attach and disconnect. The DHCP server is simply broken in this firmware, certainly with 50 devices like I have on my network.What I saw on my system after reboot was the number of devices grow to between 40 and 50 and then devices would start to disappear and it would slowly make its way down to around 20 to 25 and no new devices would be able to get an IP address.
I don't understand why your saying if the devices is connected to WiFI (or ethernet) the router should be able to assign them IP addresses, that is the job of the DHCP server (which has probably crashed) which has stopped giving out IP addresses!
TSpoonEars wrote:
Thanks, I’m going to have to unfortunately. I’m quite disappointed because everything was working great and I even paid for the parental controls as they were quite useful to limit my son’s iPad time.The reason I wanted to get the Orbi myself is for the enhanced Security and the Parental Controls. The Orbi app (needed for this) is quite poor for the security side of things although it seems to have improved a little lately, and is actually quite good for the Parental Controls.
For me, with the DHCP server on my NAS and the .16 firmware the diconnects (while still occuring) are almost gone, the satelite random reboot has gone away and the device distribution over router and satelites is not too bad.
Up time is over 12 days.
