Final 6.2.1 update causing LAN instability/sluggishness

Thanks to _frantic_ and dsnpvl for finding the cause and a solution.

Since I'd rather not have to mess with the terminal to have a functional, up-to-date ReadyNAS, I'd appreciate it if Netgear or the OS 6 developers could release a 6.2.1.1 or 6.2.2 update that corrects this issue.

dsnpevl wrote:
Netgear should be forever in our debt for doing their work for them :)

You say this in jest, but there's a certain amount of truth to it. If this had been implemented in the beta, we could have caught it before it went to final. Instead they made untested, fundamental changes between RC3 and GM, and we — or I should say you — got to spend hours on troubleshooting.

I have 2 RN314s in 2 different houses. 1 Upgraded to 6.2.1 fine...no issues, rebooted several times..no problems at all. The other one is not so good. Updated 6.2.1 remotely fine, but it takes down my router and I can't access anything form any device on my network. Had a friend go to my house reboot my modem/router...locks up after a while. Had him reboot the RN314, came up fine but locked the router up.. unplugging it from the network fixes the problem; real disappointed in NETGEAR for this crappy release. I can't get to the house to fix it for a few weeks and hope I can access the UI to install the 6.2.1 RC3 or 6.2.0 versions....fingers crossed. I just don't have days to rebuild the whole thing...ugh!

Lesson learned...don't update firmware just because it says it's released...wait a few weeks and read the forums to see if people are having issues.

Hoping there will be an easy fix for everyone affected.

Same Problem with me. As soon as I connect my Readynas to the network the router can't be accesses properly. Furthermore, the internet connection breaks down. As soon as I disconnect the network cable from the NAS the router-interface reacts normal and internet gets reconnected.

If I connect to the NAS, the network-interface isn't shown either.

My NAS has a static IP and some Apps installed, where Owncloud, PHPmyadmin, and VPN-softether come to mind right now.

Update: Just read the propable solution to the problem. One question there, since I have no internet conection while my readynas is online, I can't downgrade, can I? May old packages still be stored?

Otherwise I will just have to downgrade and wait for a "proper" update...

Well you could downgrade to 6.2.0 or 6.2.1-RC3, but you would lose other changes since then.

scravatt wrote:
Lesson learned...don't update firmware just because it says it's released...wait a few weeks and read the forums to see if people are having issues.

My thoughts exactly. Didn't have too many issues with upgrades before, since I bought the RN back in 2013, so we must give Netgear some credit. I was getting used to blindly accepting an update, as soon as it came out. But after this experience I will start following a policy that served me well over the years: "If it ain't broken, don't fix it". For me, Netgear needs to rewin my trust in the quality of the OS upgrades first. And judging by comments in this and other threads, I'm not alone in this. But then, if no one upgrades, how are we going to find the issues....?

The models RN 312 and higher are marketed as a "Business Desktop Series". Although I'm using a RN516 for "just" a hobby project (gone wild), I get very frustrated when my website on the RN goes down for the outside world. A lot of time and money has been spend to get the system to do what I want and creating the content. The web-site name is approached as somewhat of a brand-name. Any down-time leaves a bad impression to the outside world. If used in a business critical situation (with or without a website), you really cannot afford days of down-time. You would need (near to) 24/7 availablity.

Most of the time went into talking on this fourm, problem analysis, fixing and testing. Initially I even assumed the problem was with my router, as I had one break before. So a lot of time was spent with the ISP helpdesk, resulting in a new router being sent. In this case, the ISP had no part in the problem and the router was not at fault. I went as far as borrowing a same make and model router from a friend to verify if the problem was with the router. After several tests, we found the other router presented exactly the same issues, so that was ruled out as the root cause and made me turn my attention to the RN. The router also handles fixed telephony. So during two days I was not reachable on the fixed line. Not to pleased with that either.

scravatt wrote:
Hoping there will be an easy fix for everyone affected.

Yes, I my view, Netgear now needs to provide a fix for this ASAP. Similar comments have already been made in this thread. You can't have an ReadyNAS OS that freezes up routers and switches by flooding a network with packets (suspected root cause).

Guess it all depends on what you call an "easy fix". If you are not afraid to work on the command line via SSH (and risking voiding the warranty), it's just two commands and only takes 5 minutes and the problems are solved (at least for me they were on a stand-alone RN516). But, in good Netgear tradition, I make no guarantees nor warranties of any kind if you use the SSH command line. The risk is all yours :)

Having said that, this fix works for me:

- Look for the installed versions of connman:

apt-cache showpkg connman

- Provided 1.26-netgear1 is listed, you can then downgrade from 1.27-netgear1 to 1.26-netgear1

sudo apt-get install connman=1.26-netgear1

- Details and full screen output above.

First thanks to community for helping each other. Netgear are here too :-)

We do want to track down what is causing. It does not seem to be a wide spread issue with 6.2.1 and command 1.27 (many are running it without issue), There is something specific to the users in this thread that we want to track down

From a related thread I seen
--Re: Release notes for 6.2.1
--Post by nsne » Sat Dec 20, 2014 1:45 pm
--As for apps in common, it looks like _frantic_ and I both have Logitech/UE Media Server installed.

Another common item I think I see is updating from RC3 to final.

@dsnpevl would you also use Logitech/UE media server?

OptimusPrime wrote:
It does not seem to be a wide spread issue with 6.2.1 and command 1.27 (many are running it without issue)

Good to see Netgear involved! Just talked to a friend who has RN312 who upgraded to 6.2.1 final without any issues. That confirms your statement.

OptimusPrime wrote:
There is something specific to the users in this thread that we want to track down.

I suggest you first look to the differences between the connman packages 1.27-netgear1 and 1.26-netgear1. 1.27 doesn't work for me. 1.26 does. I believe that to be a better approach to come to the deeper underlying issue. Otherwise, we are just shooting in the dark for the root cause. The ball is your corner now.

OptimusPrime wrote:
@dsnpevl would you also use Logitech/UE media server?

No, don't have Logitech/UE media Server (using Plex).

I would look in the direction of IP problems. During research the ISP helpdesk made me set the router to factory settings. That cleared all the fixed IPs I had configured and at next reboot the RN got a different IP from DHCP. Seems to me, from that point on the BOND on eth0 and eth1 on RN didn't play well with the newly assigned IP address. The RN kept complaining about "Cannot connect discovery server" on the front display. Not sure what the discovery server is or why RN should contact it. But it might kick off the problem. Read in some other thread that the connman config got messed up, but not sure if that is related.

Common things I would look for first, based on the testing sofar:
- Is there a BOND set between eth0 and eth1 on RN?
- Is the router configured to always assign same IP to RN?
- Is NAT and/or port forwarding applied on the router towards RN?

Don't think that the installed apps are at the hart of the problem, but to rule things out, these are my installed apps.

OptimusPrime wrote:
Another common item I think I see is updating from RC3 to final.

no, my RN312 was not on the beta. I updated from 6.2.0 to 6.2.1 (then down to 6.2.1 RC3).

One thing which might be in common is the usage of IPv4 and IPv6 in parallel.

No, only upgraded from 6.2.0 (final) to 6.2.1 (final).

_frantic_ wrote:
One thing which might be in common is the usage of IPv4 and IPv6 in parallel.

Good point. I have that too, as we discussed earlier. But then, my friend with RN312 is with the same ISP and also using IPv4 and IPv6, I suspect. He had no issues during upgrade a few days earlier then me.