NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Solved
RBKE960 "Refused to Connect" after IP reservation changes
This is a report of a newly encountered issue with my Orbi RBKE963 (1 router + 2 satellites) running latest 7.2.7.15 firmware:
After making IP reservation changes/additions and router rebooting, the router refuses to connect to browser at the designated IP address, and Orbi phone app reports "We can't find your Orbi" or "Unable to connect to router"
This issue was observed immediately after the IP reservation list was edited.
System configuration:
Router:
Orbi RBKE963 (RBRE960 + 2xRBSE960)
7.2.7.15 firmware installed in router & satellites
Router LAN IP address set to 192.168.0.1
Satellite #1 IP address set to 192.168.0.2
Satellite #2 IP address set to 192.168.0.3
Router DHCP IP address range set to 192.168.0.100 to 192.168.0.199
Client computers:
ASUS ROG Strix Z690-I Gaming, and several other PCs with Gigabit/2.5G Ethernet
Windows 11 Pro 24H2 64-bit or Windows Server 2025 Standard Edition OS
Microsoft Edge browser in use
Apple MacBook Pro 14" (M2 Pro)
macOS 15.5 Sequoia
Safari & Chrome browsers in use
Client phone:
Apple iPhone SE 3rd generation
iOS 18.5
Orbi app installed
Steps to Reproduce:
- On PC client connected to router via Ethernet, open a browser and verify proper access router admin via 192.168.0.1. Also verify Orbi phone app can access the router from phone.
- Navigate to LAN Setup -> IP reservations.
- Manually add entries to IP reservation list.
- Click Apply. Router will reboot.
- After router completes reboot, verify clients connected via Ethernet or WiFi have proper internet access
- Open browser to 192.168.0.1 again to access router admin page. Observe the error "192.168.0.1 refused to connect".
- Launch Orbi phone app. Observe error screen displaying "We can't find your Orbi"
Note: Steps 3 & 4 may need to be repeated before issue occurs.
Expected behavior:
Router should continue to respond to browser at 192.168.0.1 or Orbi phone app
Actual behavior:
Router remains functional (Ethernet & WiFi) but browser & Orbi phone app both fail to connect to router for admin.
Impact:
Complete loss of admin ability with router refusing to communicate with PC or phone client attempting to access admin pages.
Frequency:
Occurs nearly every time the IP address reservation list is edited.
Troubleshooting:
Once this issue occurs, the only way I found to regain admin ability is to issue hard reset by holding down reset button on the router, then go through router setup and restore from backup file.
"Refused to connect" will easily return again after any changes (especially additions) are made to the IP reservation list and the router reboots afterwards. I even tried making small IP reservation changes, rebooting router, saving a backup file, then repeating, but after about a dozen IP address reservations are added, after the router reboots the issue hits and I lose access to the admin pages and so cannot finish adding all the IP reservations I need.
From what I can tell, this issue started occurring after router/satellite firmware got updated to 7.2.7.15. Issue was not observed with router/satellite running previous firmware 7.2.6.21 or older.
I will thus claim that this issue is induced by a firmware bug newly introduced in 7.2.7.15.
I have tried manually flashing the router with same 7.2.7.15 firmware but it made no difference. I have not tried flashing back to 7.2.6.21 but will consider doing so if it can restore persistent admin access.
No, ALL IP address reservations, per standard networking practice, something I went to school for, all should be with IN the DHCP IP address pool range. If you have a short pool range, then anything out side of this pool range is used for STATIC IP addressed devices, meaning that if you configure a devices for a static IP address in the device itself, this IP address needs to be OUTSIDE of the DHCP IP address pool range. Never with in it.
If you can get back in to the RBR, then you'll need to factory reset the router and setup from scratch, set your new IP address pool range then set RBS or any devices with IP address reservation INSIDE the IP address POOL. NOT outside of it. I've been using this configuration for going on 20 years now. Has not failed on any router system I've set up.
8 Replies
Not sure why the UI let you set the RBS at an IP address that is out side of your default IP address range, .100 to .199. IP address reservations need to be set WITH IN the IP address range, can not be out side. I use this same config and set my RBS at .149 and .150 for my IP address range of .100 to .150.
So set your RBS to .198 and .199.
The two RBSE960 satellites have no functional issues being given 192.168.0.2 & 192.168.0.3 reservations while the router is 192.168.0.1. I've had this configuration for years. I always thought that IP reservations should have addresses that don't fall within the router's DHCP IP assignment range, to avoid confusing the DHCP server, and I've never had any issues with the Orbi configured this way. All my IP address reservations (~90) have been using 192.168.0.4 to 192.168.0.99 for a long time, but this issue of the router refusing connections has been observed very recently.
I'm losing admin access only to the RBRE960 router after adding more address reservations. The two satellites still respond to the browser at their respective IP addresses, but the router would persistently refuse connections to its 192.168.0.1 address.
I just restored router admin access via a hard reset and restoring from backup, but it would seem that rebooting the router can sometimes cause it to refuse connections afterwards. It's either that or the act of adding a bunch more IP address reservations.
All router/satellite functionality appear normal, except for the router's refusal of connections. Once this is triggered the admin ability of the router is completely lost, and I have to resort to hard reset to regain it.
No, ALL IP address reservations, per standard networking practice, something I went to school for, all should be with IN the DHCP IP address pool range. If you have a short pool range, then anything out side of this pool range is used for STATIC IP addressed devices, meaning that if you configure a devices for a static IP address in the device itself, this IP address needs to be OUTSIDE of the DHCP IP address pool range. Never with in it.
If you can get back in to the RBR, then you'll need to factory reset the router and setup from scratch, set your new IP address pool range then set RBS or any devices with IP address reservation INSIDE the IP address POOL. NOT outside of it. I've been using this configuration for going on 20 years now. Has not failed on any router system I've set up.
Thanks for the clarification, FURRYe38!
I just made one quick change to the DHCP IP address pool range to be 192.168.0.2 to 192.168.0.199, which makes all my IP address reservations fall within the DHCP assignment range. A DHCP start address of 192.168.0.2 will even encompass the two Orbi satellites at 192.168.0.2 and 192.168.0.3.
The router has so far not gone into that mode of refusing connections. Even the Orbi phone app is happy now. I've added back the 80 or so address reservations and the router is still behaving properly.
Many thanks for this tip! I shall correct my understanding of how DHCP IP address assignment works.
The only thing left to do is to regain the active Netgear Armor subscription for this router...
Glad you got it working. Be sure to save off a back up configuration to file for safe keeping. Saves time if a reset is needed.
https://kb.netgear.com/000062080/How-do-I-back-up-the-configuration-settings-on-my-Orbi-WiFi-System
Enjoy. 📡Going through this thread, I believe that my issue is exactly what you have experienced. I went through a file I created that had my IP address listed and realized that I have a single device with a static IP address that falls within my DHCP range.
But reading through your message above, I'm a little confused. Did your RBS's have static IP addresses originally of 192.168.0.2 and 192.168.0.3 or were they dynamic?
The reason I ask is because you use the term 'IP address reservations'. I've always associated that term with static IP addresses.
You stated above that you changed your DHCP address pool range to be 192.168.0.2 to 192.168.0.199 so that your satellites are included. But if your satellites have static IP addresses, that would be an incorrect configuration.
So, are the satellite IP's static or dynamic?
Thanks in advance for your response.
The two Orbi satellites were given 192.168.0.2 and 192.168.0.3 addresses via the Address Reservation feature of the Orbi router. Those satellites were never manually assigned static IP addresses as I actually don't know how to do so. The satellites' IP addresses are thus effectively dynamic, though via Address Reservation those addresses never change.
I find that Address Reservation feature of Orbi pretty much eliminates the need to set static IP addresses for any WiFi client, so they can all be left using DHCP by default. I have a PC acting as VPN server and it needs some port forwarding to properly support outside-in access to my home network. Using Address Reservation ensures this device has an unchanging IP address. Building up a set of address reservations in the Orbi router is also way easier than manually setting up multiple clients with static IP addresses.
Hope this helps!