Forum Discussion
Netgear61
Oct 24, 2026Aspirant
RBR750 Firmware Bug Report: DHCP Table Fails to Rebuild Automatically After Power Outage
Product/Model: NETGEAR Orbi WiFi 6 Router (RBR750) Firmware Version: V7.2.8.8_5.1.24 Description of the Issue: Following any sudden power outage, the RBR750 router fails to properly reini...
FrumpyGrandpa
Oct 25, 2026Luminary
How long is a typical power outage? Many years ago, I got tired of those "mini blips" where the power goes off for a few seconds and disrupts eveything, so I now power my networking equipment (modem, router, satellites) with a small UPS that keeps them going for 30-40 minutes. Still have to set clocks all over the house (sigh), but the overall effect is SO much less.
The reason for mentioning a network capture (such as Wireshark, which is available for Windows, MacOS, and Linux) is the possibility that some rogue device on the network is responding to the DHCP queries and your devices receive invalid information.
Total power outages are incredibly common. Nearly every household experiences one or more every year. If there were a coding error in the Orbi 750 product that caused every device connected to a 750 system to be unable to reconnect to the network after a power outage, every Orbi 750 owner would be clamoring.
It's all very straightforward:
- Power goes off.
- Every device in the house stops running, including networking gear and everything not connected to a UPS, or that has a battery (cell phones, tablets, many security cameras, etc.)
- When power is restored, every device goes through a boot process, which includes looking for a network information (IP address, subnet mask, gateway IP address, DNS server IP address, etc.)
This means every device starts broadcasting DHCP discovery packets.
Once they are notified that there is DHCP server on the network, they broadcast a DHCP request.
The DHCP server responds with the network information, and the device is now "on the network".
Apart from the ability to capture network traffic, do any of the devices report any details while they are not able to reconnect? For phones, does the WiFi appear to be connected? Anything show an IP address?