RS700 DHCP Issues with newest firmware

So after work today I did a bit more troubleshooting.  The first thing I tried that I didn't do before was disable dynamic DNS.  Rebooted router.  Same issue.  My phone showed IP Configuration failed after trying to connect to Wi-Fi multiple times.  After about 20 minutes my desktop computer finally connected so I logged in to the web UI and looked at attached devices.  Many of them had 169.x.x.x IPs or 0.0.0.0 like before.  Then I went to Wi-Fi setup and didn't make any changes, but just clicked apply to re-apply my Wi-Fi settings.  Then after about 2 minutes all of my devices connected again.

Next step was to set the DHCP pool back to 192.168.1.1 and removed all IP reservations.  Rebooted router.  Same as above after the reboot.  

Third step was to load the prior firmware again.  I tried this before as stated above, but figured I would try it again.  Loaded the firmware manually from Edge browser.  After a reboot same issue.  So I reloaded the newest firmware again and rebooted.

So 4 times I had to go through the steps listed in my first paragraph to get things stable again.  

I use smart connect in my Wi-Fi settings.  I am wondering if maybe this could be related?  If it's a feature it shouldn't cause any issue I would think, but with 60ish devices maybe something is causing it to hang up on router bootup?  I also have a 2.4Ghz IoT network setup as well.  

Wondering if your unit maybe faulty. 

When faced with DHCP issues, I typically open Wireshark (free for Windows from https://www.wireshark.org) to monitor the network interface (in this case the WiFi adapter) and set it to display DHCP packets only.  (type dhcp in the bar at the top).  Then, restart the RS700.

What one would expect to happen is...

• When the router reboots, the PC should reconnect automatically to WiFi.
• The PC should issue a DHCP request.
• The RS700 should respond with a DHCP offer.

I think I may have found the solution.  I don't know why I didn't try this before, but I disabled smart connect under wireless setup.  I left all of my SSID names the same for 2.4, 5, and 6Ghz.  I rebooted the router and within 5 minutes it was fully back online and all devices connected. 

I kept that enabled because it is supposed to be a useful feature, but apparently it must be buggy to cause the same exact issue on repeated reboots of the router.  

I am going to try rebooting a few more times this evening and make sure it is still coming back online within a few minutes with all devices connected.  

OK, I applied your subnet configuration to my RS700. 

Thought default DHCP IP address pool range is set for .100 to .150 for my needs here.

Smart Connect enabled on my router.

Got a few devices connected and there not exhibiting any issues:

Did a couple of reboots on the router.

Router came back to ready in about 2-3 minutes. 

I noticed one reboot, two devices had same IP address. I rebooted them. 

Rebooted the router a 2nd time. All devices reconnected in good time with out issues. 

Will let this run for a day or two. 

Not sure if you saw my reply to CrimpOn above, but I think I fixed the issue:

I think I may have found the solution.  I don't know why I didn't try this before, but I disabled smart connect under wireless setup.  I left all of my SSID names the same for 2.4, 5, and 6Ghz.  I rebooted the router and within 5 minutes it was fully back online and all devices connected. 

I kept that enabled because it is supposed to be a useful feature, but apparently it must be buggy to cause the same exact issue on repeated reboots of the router.  

I am going to try rebooting a few more times this evening and make sure it is still coming back online within a few minutes with all devices connected.

I think I spoke too soon.  I did a few reboots last night with smart connect off and it still takes the router around 20-30 mins until it stabilizes and everything connects.  With smart connect off I don't have to go into wireless setup and apply the settings each time the router is rebooted though.  I just have to wait until things stabilize on their own.  I logged in to the web UI last night after a reboot and this is what I saw in connected devices.  Still some 169.x.x.x invalid IPs and 0.0.0.0 and I noticed the Device Name and Device Models in the list are switched around between devices.  You can see my LIFX bulbs are showing the device name as Rokus and my Nest Mini and Chromecast are showing device name as LIFX bulbs.  These are just examples though as there are much more than that.  After about 30 minutes everything seems to stabilize and fix itself.  This is definitely some weird behavior though. 

Wondering if the total amount of connected devices is causing issues. 

Any way you can maybe turn OFF some of these devices and see if the router continue to have issues? Possible router is having issues handling this many devices. 

My router came to ready in 2-3 minutes however only have about 5 devices connected to it currently.

I could attempt to do that, but the router advertises that it can support up to 200 devices and I don't even have a third of that amount connecting to it.  If my previous two routers could reboot and be up and running within 5 minutes of a reboot I would think this one should be able to handle that as well.  

Ok. Well possible there is some problem happening during reboot and the DHCP services mis handling all the devices trying to get connected at once during the reboot process. Something NG will need to review. 

Is there a way to get in touch with them about this other than having to pay for support?  I wasn't sure if they replied here or not either. 

Someone should be reaching out to you via PM. 

Awesome thanks!  I was going to submit a hardware support request, but I am still not entirely sure if this is an actual hardware issue or if it is software.  

Something to do while you wait for NG to contact you, enable debug logs under router IP address/debug.htm...Have the WAN/LAN check box enabled as well. Start logging. Give about 5-10 minutes then save off the logs and post to a cloud share. Send the link to whom contacts you via PM. Hopefully this will be helpful as well.