DNS timeout issues with Disney Circle on Netgear R8000

[mgbnet]

Since the weekend I've been having constant DNS timeout issues on my clients. I have Circle enabled on my Netgear R8000. Any devices with a profile of adult or lower have regular DNS timeouts and cannot access many internet resources. The only workaround seems to be to move devices to "unmanaged" in the Circle app. That's not a great solution.

I had a look online and found a fairly unhelpful post on meetcircle.com. Anyone experienced this and have a better workaround?

Known Issue: NETGEAR R7900P/R8000P

The Circle team is currently investigating an issue with the NETGEAR X6S AC3000 R7900P and AC4000 R8000P router. Devices connected to this router that are assigned to a profile of Adult or below will not be able to reach the Internet at this time. Our team is working to resolve this issue. If you are currently experiencing an issue with the router and Circle please use the buttons at the bottom of this page to contact our support team.

(https://support.meetcircle.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003204072-Known-Issue-NETGEAR-R7900P-R8000P)

[mgbnet]

Some added info. I reached out to Netgear and Circle on Twitter and this was Circle's response:

We're currently waiting on an update from @netgear at this time, and don't have any further workarounds unfortunately. The resolution does require a firmware update for the router. Email us for other questions or updates! Help@meetCircle.com

[mgbnet]

Finally got an answer from @netgearhelp on Twitter:

        There is no current update that we can provide. If you wish to speak to the support team, please contact our Support team

That sucks. No ETA. No apology. The only support option is for me to pay, as they only offer 90 days free support.

So many of my colleagues in the IT industry have abandoned Netgear products. If they don't fix this soon, I'll be doing the same.

[DexterJB]

Hi @mgbnet,

I have sent you a message. Please check your inbox.

Regards,

Dexter
Community Team

[mgbnet]

New update: As Netgear Support did actually reach out to me to help solve this (without me paying to open a support case!) I moved a couple of my devices back to managed profiles in Circle this morning and they do not seem to be experiencing the timeout issue any more.

A Netgear Support Rep (Matt) called me this afternoon and I explained that the issue seemed to have cleared up and he told me that Netgear were not tracking this as an issue with Circle on the R8000 (just the R8000P). He said he was still going to go ahead and set up Circle on an R8000 at their end and see if he could repro the issue, but we think it must have been a transitory issue with Circle's service that has now cleared up.

Thank you to Netgear Support for actually following up.

Fingers crossed the issues gone away!

[rapress]

Hi

I'm relieved I found this thread.

I recently bought a Orbi RBR50 and acitivated Disney Circle. All was going well until the last couple of firmware updates. Now I have the same problem. If the user profile is assigned to anything other than unmanaged many sites or apps won't load or work, they just time out. It might be my kids school portal or snapchat. This means I've lost most of the functionality I bought the router and service for.

Can you please share the solution? I am on the verge of canceling the subscription and waiting for a fix or looking for an alternative.

Thank you