NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Solved
Orbi RBR750 doing odd DHCP things
Rather a long question. The essence is: how can I configure my RBR750 to stop meddling with things?
Firmware: V7.2.6.31
I have a somewhat complicated network for a home system. Briefly, fibre comes on to the property to a 'modem' in a workshop. This provides the usual functions of a wireless and wired router and it seems to be pretty robust. It's a Genexis router.
One Cat 6 wire runs to the front of the main house. This is intended to feed a wireless access point.
Another goes to a garage where it connects to three small switches (for a set of IP cameras and a wirless access point) and then goes to the house where it connects to another couple of switches. This feed connects to the wired ethernet ports around the house and to more wireless access points.
About three years ago I decided to reduce the number of different wireless access points (mostly cheap routers configured to run in AP mode) and buy an Orbi system: One RBR750 and two RBS750s. It was an absolute pig to set up, largely because the RBR750 seems to want to run everything and of course, in my network, it cannot. Eventually I came to accept that it wasn't important that the 'phone app could see the satellites, nor even that they appeared in the browser interface (they don't) but that they provided WiFi throughout the house (they did, quite well).
So (I hope you're still with me) this uneasy truce held for a few years, and then the network started doing odd things. My gateway is 192.168.1.1 but, suddenly, addresses in the range 192.168.10.x started to pop up in my DHCP clients. Something is clearly acting as a DHCP server, apart from my Genexis Router.
I collected the Orbis together, updated the firmware (V7.2.6.31) went through the tedious process of getting them to synchronize, and put them back where they normally live, connected with Cat 5 cables for better "back haul".
It sort-of worked for a few days, but then the old problem of "connected without internet" croped up on wireless devices again and closer examination of the issue showed that something was still handing out addresses in the 192.168.10.x range.
By trial-and-error, pulling components out, resetting the network and testing again, I found the culprit. It's the RBR750. But, it's doing this when its DHCP server is supposed to be off, and it's configured as a access point, not as a router.
Right now, I'm tempted to take a hammer to it and put the remains in the bin, but this would be a waste of an expensive piece of kit. Is there any way of making it behave like a dumb access point and doing what I want, instead of it trying to take control of (and breaking) my network? I haven't, so far, found any alternative firmware that can do this with my particular model.
I think it's fixed.
The system has been running without a glitch for several days now. What seemed to do it was:
1) Hard reset of the RBR750 by holding a pin in the hole for 20 seconds
2) Setting it up with a laptop plugged into the Orbi
3) Telling it to skip trying to set up satellites.The satellites are working. The "Router" is working as a wireless access point. Whether they are aware of one another, I neither know nor care. The non-Orbi access points are fine. It is time to stop tinkering and take the win.
Thank you to everyone for your helpful suggestion.
8 Replies
Had this been working prior to updating FW?
- Thanks for replying.
Everything was fine until a few weeks ago. It was because of the problems that I updated the firmware, hard-reset the three Orbis, and set everything up from scratch. Sadly the problem persists, but only when the RBR is plugged in. Everything (including the two satellites) works well without its malign presence.What is the Mfr and model# of the Internet Service Providers modem/ONT the NG router is connected too?
What was the prior version of FW used on the system?
Nick-Hack wrote:
Thanks for replying.
Everything was fine until a few weeks ago. It was because of the problems that I updated the firmware, hard-reset the three Orbis, and set everything up from scratch. Sadly the problem persists, but only when the RBR is plugged in. Everything (including the two satellites) works well without its malign presence.
How did you establish that the RBR750 is responding to DHCP requests when the DHCP function is disabled?
(For example, do DHCP messages appear in the Orbi log?)
(I would attempt to capture the actual DHCP conversation between devices and the network to observe the MAC address of the DHCP server. This can be tricky when WiFi devices are involved.)
Can you describe how the router and satellites are connected?
The Orbi system expects that the router WAN port will be connected to the internet source (the Genexis router) and that the satellites will be connected to the router LAN ports (when 'wired'). There have been a number of posts on the forum this year describing issues with Orbi systems in AP mode where all devices are wired to the primary network and the Orbi satellites are not connected to the router LAN ports.
