Orbi WiFi 7 RBE973
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Re: Circle Kills All Internet

tcomp
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Circle Kills All Internet

Hi everyone!

 

I've beeen using the RBR20 and Circle for a long time.  It's been working great.  I recently upgraded to V2.6.2.104 firmware maybe about 2 weeks ago.  Things were working normally.

 

 

All of a sudden this morning all internet to everything in the house stops working.  After investigating, I find out actual internet pings are OK, but all DNS is failing to resolve.  After mucking about for a while, I determine that if I disable Circle, everything works normally.  Turning Circle on, kills all DNS in the house.

 

When circle is on, I can't even connect to it using the Circle app on my phone (that's the parent/manager account).  Circle app just spins for a while and then says it can't find a circle.

 

Not really sure what I should do here?  I can't even get into the circle management, so unclear what the best next steps are.  I've attempted rebooting everything, which does not solve the issue.

 

Any insight/help is appreciated!

Model: RBR20|Orbi AC2200 Tri-band WiFi Router
Message 1 of 23
tcomp
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Re: Circle Kills All Internet

This seems to be a lot like this previous thread:

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Circle-Smart-Parental-Controls/Circle-seems-to-be-randomly-killing-...

 

However, that one seems to be solved by a firmware update, so maybe in the last release it was broken somehow?  The previous problem was fixed later last year...

Message 2 of 23
npadley
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Re: Circle Kills All Internet

Sending a quick reply to confirm that I'm another RBR20 user that is having the exact same problem. While I don't have any solutions, I figured I'd confirm that you are not the only one.

Model: RBR20|Orbi AC2200 Tri-band WiFi Router
Message 3 of 23
Christian_R
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: Circle Kills All Internet

Hello tcomp & npadley,

 

May you revert to the previous firmware version and let me know if your issue persists. 

 

https://kb.netgear.com/000062432/RBR20-Firmware-Version-2-6-1-36

 

Christian 

Message 4 of 23
tcomp
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Re: Circle Kills All Internet

Yep - I will try that today and see what happens.

 

@Christian_R - what about the satellites?  I only see the RBR firmware there in the link you gave me.  Can I leave the satellites on the newer firmware or should I adjust somehow?

Message 5 of 23
Christian_R
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: Circle Kills All Internet

Hi tcomp,

 

Good question! Here's the link for the previous firmware version for the satellite.

 

https://kb.netgear.com/000062433/RBS20-Firmware-Version-2-6-1-38

 

Christian 

Message 6 of 23
Henrytnguyen
Aspirant

Re: Circle Kills All Internet

I got the same problem this morning too.
So, how do you disable the circle app?
Message 7 of 23
tcomp
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Re: Circle Kills All Internet

@Henrytnguyen 


@Henrytnguyen wrote:
I got the same problem this morning too.
So, how do you disable the circle app?

It's in Advanced>Security>Parental Controls

Message 8 of 23
Henrytnguyen
Aspirant

Re: Circle Kills All Internet

Thanks, will do
Message 9 of 23
Rob111
Aspirant

Re: Circle Kills All Internet

I am having same issue when I enable parental controls. No idea how to fix this

Message 10 of 23
tcomp
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Re: Circle Kills All Internet


@Rob111 wrote:

I am having same issue when I enable parental controls. No idea how to fix this


Do you mean when you disable it?  So far, from others, it seems that turning off parental controls/circle at least gets your internet going again.

Message 11 of 23
Rob111
Aspirant

Re: Circle Kills All Internet

Did the old firmware fix parental controls? 

Message 12 of 23
tcomp
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Re: Circle Kills All Internet

I can confirm that I did the suggested downgrade that @Christian_R mentioned, and I am up and running again, with Circle/Parental Controls turned back on, and it's working.  Seems like something in the most recent update is probably not playing well with Circle.

Message 13 of 23
Rob111
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Re: Circle Kills All Internet

When I disable the parental controls internet works, no issue there, I need my parental controls back on

Message 14 of 23
tcomp
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Re: Circle Kills All Internet


@Rob111 wrote:

When I disable the parental controls internet works, no issue there, I need my parental controls back on


Yeah me as well - I just finished downgrading the satellites and the router, and it's working agian.

Message 15 of 23
Rob111
Aspirant

Re: Circle Kills All Internet

So how do I downgrade? The router and satellites? 

Message 16 of 23
tcomp
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Re: Circle Kills All Internet


@Rob111 wrote:

So how do I downgrade? The router and satellites? 


Here's the steps that I did:

  1. Download the Satellite Firmware here: https://kb.netgear.com/000062433/RBS20-Firmware-Version-2-6-1-38
  2. Download the Router Firmware here: https://kb.netgear.com/000062432/RBR20-Firmware-Version-2-6-1-36
  3. Extract both to their respective folders from the ZIP files (RBR is the router one, RBS is the satellite ones).
  4. Go to your Orbi homepage, click on "Attached Devices", find the satellites you have.  It should show the IP's of them in the "IP Address" column.
  5. For each satellite IP address, paste it in your browser and connect directly to the satellite. Username is admin, password is same as your router.
  6. Click on "Firmware Update".  Browse to the RBS firmware folder and select the file ending in img.  Click yes and begin the updates.
  7. Once you are done on each of your satellites, give it a few minutes, let them reboot and connect.
  8. Login to your orbi router main page again.
  9. Go to Advanced>Administration>Firmware Update.
  10. Select the Manual Update tab.
  11. Click Browse.  Browse to the RBR firmware folder and select the file ending in img.  Click yes through the prompts.

 

Your router sould reboot and the satellites will reconnect and you are now downgraded to the old version.  Once that's all running, go back and turn on parental controls - should be working as per normal and you should be able to connect in the circle app.

Message 17 of 23
Rob111
Aspirant

Re: Circle Kills All Internet

Will try that, hoping not to mess it up lol

 

appreciate the help, hopefully they fix this issue for the new firmware; a lot of trouble to get my parental controls back.

Message 18 of 23
tcomp
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Re: Circle Kills All Internet


@Rob111 wrote:

Will try that, hoping not to mess it up lol

 

appreciate the help, hopefully they fix this issue for the new firmware; a lot of trouble to get my parental controls back.


Agreed - there are apparently security fixes in the most recent fimrware, so never good to be far behind.  I would prefer to update as well, but obviously use the Circle feature and don't want to live without that.

Message 19 of 23
baunderhill
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Re: Circle Kills All Internet

Anyone know when they will fix this?  I had to disable both Circle and Traffic Meter to get everything working and online again.  

Model: RBR20|Orbi AC2200 Tri-band WiFi Router
Message 20 of 23
tcomp
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Re: Circle Kills All Internet

 


@baunderhill wrote:

Anyone know when they will fix this?  I had to disable both Circle and Traffic Meter to get everything working and online again.  


No info on my side in terms of when they might fix it, but If you do the downgrade instructions above you can at least get the features you want working again for the time being.  I've confirmed for me this is a temporary work-around that fixes the features that are broken in this new update.

Message 21 of 23
baunderhill
Aspirant

Re: Circle Kills All Internet

Thanks tcomp.  I can certainly downgrade the router and satellites, but won't they just auto update again?

Message 22 of 23
tcomp
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Re: Circle Kills All Internet


@baunderhill wrote:

Thanks tcomp.  I can certainly downgrade the router and satellites, but won't they just auto update again?


Mine shows an update as available, but it doesn't auto-update, so it stays on the version I've downgraded to.

Message 23 of 23
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