When connected to the RBE771 wifi, I'm unable to download and install iPhone apps. As soon as I turn the wifi off the mobile, the apps download and install. Appreciate any helpOla

Do you happen to be using AdGuard DNS or a similar service? For me, that was the cause of App Store brokenness / slowness so I switched to NextDNS. It's also possible your ISP is at fault. Try first by switching your device to known "clean" DNS servers like 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8.

Yes, try 8.8.8.8 or 1.1.1.1 for your DNS. To be safe, 'Forget' your WiFi network and rejoin it after you change DNS. I assume the WiFi is working fine otherwise - speeds good, no connectivity issues with other apps or browsers? Also, I assume the 770 router is set to router mode not access point? Go to https://apps.apple.com on your iPhone's browser - this is the Apple app server IP address. Does it load? Assuming yes, some other things to check (test after each change): - As Furry said, turn off Armor and Parental Controls. - Is low data mode turned on, on your iPhone? Try it with that off - settings > wifi > (your WiFi SSID) > toggle Low Data Mode OFF - WiFi Assist can cause issues if the WiFi is flaky - turn it off for a test: Settings > Cellular > Wi-Fi Assist - Are you using a VPN on your iPhone? Some, especially if they do ad-blocking, can block Apple servers. Turn off your 3rd party VPN if it has a separate settings/config. Also see if Netgear's VPN is off: login at 192.168.1.1 > Advanced tab > Advanced > VPN Service - Is Private Relay on, on your iPhone? Same as VPN - Test with it off: Settings > iCloud > Private Relay - Are you using the Netgear router's Traffic Meter? It's possible it could be limiting traffic. Test with it off: login at 192.168.1.1 > Advanced tab > Advanced > Traffic Meter. - On your iPhone, reset your network settings - Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Reset > Reset Network Settings. The only risk on this is it will forget any networks/passwords, you will have to reenter them next time you log in. But resetting it can clear up a lot of network issues for an iPhone. Good luck - keep us posted!

I re-read the thread, and I don't see this - how exactly does the download fail - hang forever? error message? something else? And you didn't say, do all other internet actions work fine on WiFi except the apple store - browser works fine, mail, music, streaming, etc.?

OK I have been digging into this - so fun! I have a theory that I think may be the cause. I have a LONG explanation and a very short recommendation on how to fix it - which you can skip to if the details are too much to handle! If I understand all my reading... Apple distributes apps via a heavily load‑balanced content delivery network ("CDN"; for Apple, mostly Akamai), often preferring IPv6 endpoints and large HTTPS/QUIC transfers. Many—but not all—Akamai edges that serve .itunes.apple.com offer both A (IPv4) and AAAA (IPv6) dns query records. If your DNS query lands on one of those hosts, the resolver returns both addresses. Some edge hostnames rotate to an IPv4‑only POP, so the resolver quite correctly returns an empty (NOERROR ∣ NODATA) AAAA answer and a normal A answer. That’s perfectly valid DNS; it just means “no IPv6 here right now.” CDN operators do this constantly as they shift traffic around the globe. I suspect your ISP does this. Now, I see a number of threads over the years regarding bugs with the Netgear router's dnsmasq forwarder/cache (what receives and forwards dns queries from LAN clients) - not necessarily the 771, but could be there? I have also read that the RBE771 ships with a built-in DNS proxy that advertises IPv6 first, while I presume the R6300v2 router does not given its age - it may not even use IPv6 at all? So my theory is this: a RBE771 bug lives in its dnsmasq forwarder - its 'dnsproxy'. When a domain has no IPv6 address (including no address 'at the moment' as I explained above), an upstream resolver correctly returns NOERROR / NODATA – that is, “the name exists, but the answer section is empty.” This is sometimes called an "empty AAAA query record". That response is standards‑compliant (RFC 2308) and is what you’ll see from any well‑behaved resolver, whether it’s your ISP, Google DNS, or Cloudflare. Nothing is “bad” or “broken” about it. My alleged bug in the 771 router is that when it receives that paired response—A record plus an “empty” AAAA—it mis‑caches or mangles the two when it fuses them into its local cache. There have been hints of this in older firmware release notes. So this mangled result is sent to the iPhone, which sees a malformed AAAA (or a garbled TTL) and, per RFC 6724, tries the IPv6 route first (iPhones always do). That route either doesn’t exist or points to nowhere, so the TCP handshake for the multi‑gigabyte app payload just hangs. So to me, the workaround fix is one of two things - bypass the router's dnsproxy (which is mangling the AAAA query record), or get it to stop using IPv6 for dns queries (also eliminating AAAA records and their mangling). Once this is understood, it makes sense - you see the bug on the Apple Store (and maybe it would show some other large CDN sites); it can still resolve apple.com and load normal websites (small objects over IPv4 without the rotating/load balancing of the large CDN sites) but stall on the multi‑gigabyte app packages downloaded from large CDN hosts. The moment you switch to cellular, both the router's dnsproxy and its IPv6 path to the ISP's DNS resolver are removed from the transaction. It works. So please try this, in this order: 1. Point the router's DNS at 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8 - the 771 router's dnsproxy will still rewrite the packet. If the bug is purely in the proxy's handling of empty AAAA replies, this should fix the hang. Why? Changing only the upstream DNS on the router fixes things because Google/Cloudflare almost never send the “empty AAAA + valid A” combination that causes the bug on the 771's dnsproxy rewrite, from what I have read. But it still relies on the proxy behaving, so it's not a guarantee this fixes it. 2. If it still hangs - disable IPv6 on the router and reboot it. Now the proxy can only return A records, so the iPhone never tries the using IPv6 for queries as they are no longer supported on the network. You can also test by changing DNS on the iPhone to 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8, and bypass the router entirely. This will accomplish the same thing as step 1 and 2 before you mess with the router. If it works, you can then make the proper changes on the router, or continue to use to local DNS 'fix' on each mobile device that needs it. Please try this, it's simple to test - and let us know if it fixes the problem!

Given the result that 1.1.1.1 worked, and the R6300v2 works, but RBE771 does not, I actually think it may be a bug in the 771 FW. Some more research: Internode/TPG’s (@Olagarp's ISP) resolvers:• DNSSEC-sign most Apple CDN zones and send back very large UDP packets (many > 1500 bytes).• Set EDNS0 UDP size to 4096 and include extra options such as Client-Subnet. Cloudflare and Google resolvers, by contrast:• Strip DNSSEC for unsigned zones (Apple’s CDNs are mostly unsigned).• Cap the UDP payload to 1232 bytes (RFC 8900) and often omit EDNS-Client-Subnet. Large, option-rich answers force the RBE771’s dnsmasq to re-assemble fragments or fall back to TCP. In firmware 10.5.10.x that code path may have a bug, so the proxy sometimes mangles the packet and caches a broken record as I originally described. A possible clue - the R6300V2 uses an older dnsmasq (2.76) in “forward-only” mode—no reassembling of these big packets with DNSSEC—so it simply forwards the big Internode answer to the client intact. The iPhone is happy with that. Now, I think the 771's dnsmasq is newer (see below) - so, the IPv6 only solution didn't work because disabling IPv6 removes AAAA look-ups, but the bad packet is still large and still flows over UDP/53. The 771's dnsmasq trips before it ever considers whether the record is A or AAAA, so the hang persists. So the bug is some sort of mangling of the larger messages that's ewer than the FW dnsmasq version the R6300v2 has. It's not related to the AAAA messages as I originally surmised, but they are mangling the message to cause hangs, nonetheless. Netgear's 771 has a newer version of dnsmasq. Netgear hasn’t published the version number in the GUI, but the GPL-source bundle for the first RBE770/771 firmware (10.5.10.x) contains the tarball /package/dnsmasq-2.85/. So I am guessing it's version 2.85, and has a bug, while the R6300V2 has version 2.76, older and simpler. Just my 2 cents!

Unable to install iPhone apps using Orbi RBE771

29 Replies

FURRYe38
Guru - Experienced User
Apr 03, 2025
What Firmware version is currently loaded?
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.

Who is your ISP service?

Does this happen with the RBS turned OFF?

Be sure to disable any MAC Address randomizers on phones and pads while at home:
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi-App/NETGEAR-Mobile-Applications-and-Apple-Devices-FAQ/td-p/2220016/jump-to/first-unread-message

Try disabling the following and see:
Armor, IPv6, Smart Parental Controls, Traffic Meter.
- OlaGarp
  Aspirant
  Apr 06, 2025
  Hi
  
  Firmware: V10.5.13.1_2.2.34
  
  Modem: NBNCo
  
  Cable: CAT6
  
  ISP: Internode
  
  What is RBS?
  
  Tested with and without WiFi Private IP address
  Not using iCloud Relay
  
  Not using Armor, IPv6, Smart Parental Controls, Traffic Meter.
  
  Cheers
  Ola
  - FURRYe38
    Guru - Experienced User
    Apr 07, 2025
    Let us know if changing the DNS recourse helps.
    
    What is the Mfr and model# of the Internet Service Providers modem/ONT the NG router is connected too? There should be a model# on the sticker. Trying to check for a built in router here.
    
    RBS = Satellite.
    
    OlaGarp wrote:
    
    Hi
    
    Firmware: V10.5.13.1_2.2.34
    
    Modem: NBNCo
    
    Cable: CAT6
    
    ISP: Internode
    
    What is RBS?
    
    Tested with and without WiFi Private IP address
    
    Not using iCloud Relay
    
    Not using Armor, IPv6, Smart Parental Controls, Traffic Meter.
    
    Cheers
    
    Ola
MiniTuna
Guide
Apr 03, 2025
Do you happen to be using AdGuard DNS or a similar service? For me, that was the cause of App Store brokenness / slowness so I switched to NextDNS. It's also possible your ISP is at fault. Try first by switching your device to known "clean" DNS servers like 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8.
- OlaGarp
  Aspirant
  Apr 06, 2025
  Hi
  Not using AdGuard DNS or a similar service
  Cheers
  Ola
  - CrimpOn
    Guru - Experienced User
    Apr 06, 2025
    What happens when the Orbi DNS is changed from "Get automatically from ISP" to Google (8.8.8.8) of CloudFlare (1.1.1.1)?

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Unable to install iPhone apps using Orbi RBE771