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Forum Discussion
DHCP flood in log.
The Orbi 970 with one satellite is struggling to provide reliable coverage in a small house. A single 970 unit failed to come anywhere close to the connectivity performance of my old Synology router, which recently died. I purchased the satellite hoping to improve things, but even with it, the signal strength is only fair on a few devices—and overall performance remains poor.
I also noticed the system logs are flooded with DHCP entries, primarily from Wi-Fi devices. Unfortunately, the Orbi interface offers very limited granularity in its settings to manage or mitigate this issue effectively.
With the number of devices involved, I have a hard time believing it's the device and sure smells like an Orbi issue. Any suggestions. Netgear support seems to think I should disconnect the satellite, but that comes with a major downside of lost connectivity with some important wifi clients. The firmware is V9.13.1.2_1.3.24 60 devices.
13 Replies
Was the flooding happening before you installed the RBS?
What brand and model# devices do you have?
What is the size of your home? Sq Ft?
What is the distance between the router 📡 and satellite(s)🛰️? 30 feet or more is recommended in between RBR 📡 and RBS 🛰️ to begin with depending upon building materials when wired or wirelessly connected.
https://kb.netgear.com/31029/Where-should-I-place-my-Orbi-satellite 🛰What channel configurations are currently set on the router?
What is the Mfr and model# of the Internet Service Providers modem/ONT the NG router is connected too?
Be sure your using a good quality LAN cable between the modem and router. CAT6A STP is recommended.Is IPv6 enabled on the RBR?
“Was the flooding happening before you installed the RBS?”
Unknown but orbi 970 alone was flekey as well, but had not thought of looking at the log then
“What brand and model# devices do you have?”
Orbi RBE971V9.13.1.2_1.3.24
“What is the size of your home?”
Sq Ft? 2,600 sq single story with basement
“What is the distance between the router 📡 and satellite(s)🛰️? 30 feet or more is recommended in between RBR 📡 and RBS 🛰️ to begin with depending upon building materials when wired or wirelessly connected. “
Orbi is located in the basement, and the satellite is on the first floor. I would guess about 15 horizontal and ten feet vertical - limited to no other option, at least one that will fly with the wife. Without the satellite, numerous Wi-Fi clients on the first floor had poor to fair signal strength, and that is why I added the satellite. The old Synology router had much better wi-fi connectivity. Only mention this as a means to rationalize any building impediments for RF, which past experiences with other routers suggest nothing unusual…
“What channel configurations are currently set on the router?”
2.4 set to AUTO
5GHZ 40
IoT is enabled and limited to 2.4
"What is the Mfr and model# of the Internet Service Providers modem/ONT the NG router is connected too?"
Xfinity Model number: CGM4981COM Friendly model name: XB8
Be sure your using a good quality LAN cable between the modem and router. CAT6A STP is recommended.
"Is IPv6 enabled on the RBR?"
Disabled
What brand and model# devices do you have connected to the orbi system?
15 feet is too close between the RBR and RBS. 30 feet is starting distance between them.
Try changing to manual channels 1 and 40 on the RBR.
Your ISP Modem already has a built in router and wifi. This would be a double NAT (two router) condition which isn't recommended. https://kb.netgear.com/30186/What-is-Double-NAT
https://kb.netgear.com/30187/How-to-fix-issues-with-Double-NAT
Couple of options,
1. Configure the modem for transparent bridge or modem only mode. Then use the Orbi router in router mode. You'll need to contact the ISP for help and information in regards to the modem being bridged correctly.
2. If you can't bridge the modem, disable ALL wifi radios on the modem, configure the modems DMZ/ExposedHost or IP Pass-Through for the IP address the Orbi router gets from the modem. Then you can use the Orbi router in Router mode.
3. Or disable all wifi radios on the modem and connect the Orbi router to the modem, configure AP mode on the Orbi router.
New: https://community.netgear.com/kb/en-orbi-knowledge-sharing/static-ip-address-configuration-for-ap-mode/2456256
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi-WIFI-6-AX-AND-Wi-Fi-6E-AXE/Procedure-for-Factory-reset-of-RBS850/m-p/2367505/highlight/true#M53985
https://kb.netgear.com/31218/How-do-I-configure-my-Orbi-router-to-act-as-an-access-point and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7LOcJ8GdDo&app=desktop
Try option #2 first...
the system logs are flooded with DHCP entries
Please define "flooded". Orbi routers issue IP addresses with an expiration of 86,400 seconds (one day). If devices remain connected to the network, there should be two entries in the log every day for each device. (Devices that go away and come back or are turned off and back on will have more.) There is no setting for DHCP because the server responds to requests.
See attached to get the gist of what I meant by flood.
Thanks for posting the Orbi log. Yes, devices requesting DHCP from the server that often is unusual.
Is it correct to assume that 192.168.1.x is the primary network and 192.168.2.x is the Guest WiFi network?
(if so, there seem to be a LOT of devices connected to the Guest WiFi network)
I use guest for a lot of connectivity for devices that don't need to see my network, and my amazon echos...
GN is mostly a transitory network, not really ment for long term connections or IoT devices.
You should be using the IoT network for most IoT devices, including echos. I keep my 3 echoes on the main WLAN here.
15 feet is too close between the RBR and RBS. 30 feet is starting distance between them. This maybe causing devices to ping pong back and forth trying to lock on to a signal when the signal over lap is bad thus causing many DHCP requests to be seen in the logs.
Try changing to manual channels 1 and 40 on the RBR.
Examining the DHCP log, it seems that some devices make DHCP requests more often than others.
This file has the DHCP entries sorted by device IP (with MAC address) and then by Date/Time.
Is there "something different" about the devices that make many DHCP requests?
Not really. It’s a mix of wired and wireless devices: Lenovo notebooks, Lenovo AIO, a Dell AIO, several Echos, a Swann DVR and cameras, HP printers, a couple of Magicjacks, a Home automation server, and more. I even ditched the satellite, rebooted the Orbi, and the DHCP flood continues. Now I’m left with a bunch of Wi-Fi devices showing poor signals. The Orbi rollout has massively interfered with the HA in the home for the first time in 25 years, and through many router migrations...
So I’m screwed with just the Orbi, and I’m screwed with the Orbi and a satellite too because I’ve been told I can’t place it far enough away to be effective. So I'm pretty much defeated and need to move on to a more scalable solution and with more granular admin control than Netgear provides. Thanks for the suggestions.
Would it be convenient to capture the actual DHCP conversation between the Orbi and some of the computers? (the Home Automation stuff lacks the ability to capture network traffic)
My tactic would be to install a packet capture program, such as Wireshark (free for Windows at https://www.wireshark.org) (We computer nerds use Wireshark all the time.)
(Windows includes a packet monitor [pktmon] and [netsh], but I have never tried them.)
Once some network traffic has been captured, a Display Filter of "dhcp" will show the DHCP packets and examining the actual DHCP query and response will show what is going on.
Why? My experience with Orbi routers and DHCP is mostly with the WiFi5 and WiFi6 models. Having no access to a 970 system, there is a chance that it does not process DHCP exactly the same as the earlier systems.
If you have "moved on", that's OK.
