RBK53S - Armor is randomly blocking connections to Synology NAS

[dbrewood]

Since upgrading the operating system (DSM) on my Synology NAS from v6 to v7 Armor is randomly blocking outgoing / incoming connections to the NAS which means I can't access any systems hosted on the NAS. The 'blocks' appear to vary in length between 20 minutes and an hour and then connectivity is restored.
The issue vanishes completely if I turn of Armor.

Any thoughts on how I can whitelist the NAS to prevent these issues?

[plemans]

You could try going on and seeing if its blocking a certain site thats causing the issue. 

https://kb.netgear.com/000061032/NETGEAR-Armor-is-blocking-URLs-that-I-want-to-access-what-do-I-do

[dbrewood]

Alas no it's not - when the issue occurs it blocks all traffic internet from / to the NAS; http, https, VPN, remote connectivity, Maria DB, Apache, everything.

And before anyone asks all the corect port forwarding is in place. I've been running the Orbi / NAS pefectly for 8 months with no problems until I uplifted the NAS OS to the latest verison and then Armor decided to randomly block access.

[dbrewood]

Anyone any further thoughts?

[plemans]

What firmware version are you on? 

What modem/gateway are you connecting to?

[dbrewood]

Latest firmware 2.7.3.22, the Orbi is connecting to Draytek Vigopr 130 modem. The NAS is wired to the ORbi.

Network setup / Topology is ISP -> [Draytek 130 modem] --(Hard-wired)--> [Orbi RKB53S] <--(Hard-wired) --[NAS].

It is worth mentioning this all worked perfectly until I did the NAS OS upgrade from v6 to v7.

[plemans]

Using IPv4 or ipv6?

[dbrewood]

IPv4 - with static IP addresses.

[plemans]

Does it work if you switch to IPv6? 

[dbrewood]

That's not an option as IPv4 is needed for hosting my forum which sits on the NAS.

[plemans]

Its for testing. If it fixes the issue, it tends to indicate that something in the synology changed for ipv4/6 handling.

[dbrewood]

I'd be too nervous about changing it as if I turned off IPv4 I'd lose acess to the NAS web interface.

[dbrewood]

Just checked it is actually turned off which Synology recommended I do while they try and work through the issues.

[Boatman566]

I have MS63 system and have the EXACT issues 3-10 times per day.  ONLY when Armor is on.

Love to see the fix!!!

[dbrewood]

Indeed, raise a ticket with Netgear Suport and tell them it is the same as my issue, ticket 45188388

[Boatman566]

Ok mine seems to have started to behave appropriately.

I converted all DNS settings in the router and the NAS to OpenDNS.

Rebooted the router.

Turned off Armor for 36hrs

Turned Armor back on, everything has been happy now for 4 days.

Keeping fingers crossed this fix lasts.

Good luck.

[dbrewood]

I'm not sure if you saw my post(s) on Synoforum but I've been workig closely with Netgear for the last few weeks. I've been sending over time grouped debug logs from the Orbi every time I've had a disconnection issue. The ticket has been moved through levell 1 support to level 2 and then escallated to the developers. 

Since it hit level 2 the recurrence level dropped and it's now at the stage that the Orbi has been online with Armor turned on for 5 days 8 hours without any loss of connection. 

To me this ha to be down to two possibilities; either the Armor AI has learned from its mistakes and self-corrected or more likely the reports I've been submitting have identiied something that the developers have put a fix in for.

Strangely enough only a few minutes before your post was made I added to the ticket asking for an update on the situation. I was wondering whether a fix had been put in place for my specific Orbi or a wider one affecting everyone. It now looks like it is the latter if you are seeing an improvement as well.

I'm still using the IP DNS settings.

I'll feed back what Netgear come back with. If they have put a fix in place I've got to hand it to them both for taking ownership of the issue and fixing it! I hope they do come back and say what the issue is / was so I can close it out with Synology too!

Keep me posted!

[roeiegans]

Any updates on this? Same issue, when Armor is activated I loose connection several times. It worked flawless before activating Armor. Turing it off and back on it is fine again untill next occasion. Ipv6 was suggested testwise by Netgear support, however I don't have an Ipv6 address. Even more and to be completely honost, I also lack the technical knowledge and therfore skills to implement ipv6 on my entire LAN I guess. It's quite a different perspective on networking and the security that comes along with it as with ipv4.

[dbrewood]

I'm still fighting though it with Netgear and Bitdefender. Netgear tell me it will be fixed in a forthcoming Orbi firmware update (no ETA). I've asked them to advise the internal ticket they have with Bitdefender so I can chase it through with them (they are awaiting permission to pass this on).

In the meantine I've had other probles with Armor (armor page shows subscription expiration warning when I've over 12 months of subscription left), if I remove a device from Armor (e.g. the NAS) it is not re-added.

Bitdefender asked me to factory reset the Orbi to resolve the latter issue - needless to say it didn't make any difference. So I've got additional tickets open asking them to reset Armor for me. I'm getting less and less impressed with every day. 5 months I've been fighting this now.

[Cylex31]

Same problem here.

Synology DS214+ with Netgear RAX120 and activated Armor.  

The blocking issue already appeared under Synology OS (DSM) 6.x . After upgrading the Syno to DSM 7.x  the same blocking issue. 

So, no fault at Synology.,

I´m not sure but I mean the issue exists since upgrading the firmware from my Netgear RAX120 to the latest FW 1.2.3.28. 

Already bought the RAX in 2020. Due that, i cant open a support ticket to Netgear 

[plemans]

Maybe @Blanca_O or @DarrenM can help more on the armor side. 

[dbrewood]

I'm in discusions with Synology, Bitefender and Netgear as well as a number of Synology NAS users. All the NAS users who have contacted me have stated they didn't have the problem until upgrading from DSM6 to DSM7. I have downgraded the Orbi formwares back through three revisions and the problem was still there.

Netgear say they have identified the problem and it will be fixed with a firmware update (when Bitdefender release it to them). Bitdefender are still investigating.

Netgear will not provide me with thier internal ticket with the Bitdefender developers so I'm unable to get the people I'm talking to at Bitdefender to cross reference things.

Both sets of developers have been copied with my Orbi debug logs showing when the issues occured.

Synology have asked me if the latest DSM7 update has fixed the issue, thereby (IMHO) admitting they may be responcible. I confirmed it made no diference.

I have asked both Synology & Netgear if there is a developer address I can get from each so I can get them talking directly - alas they won't provide anything.

If @Blanca_O or @DarrenM can help on the armor side it'll be a miracle (IMHO) as so far there are a lot of promises but no real data being provided. 

I will continue to fight this issue.

[Boatman566]

I have also sent Netgear files.  I have a Nighthawk MR63.

In my case it appears to truly be a Armour issue.  I do not have the issue with Armour offf - Obviously since its Armour that is performing the functionality here.  My NAS was already on DSM 7 before we moved and I got the mesh router for our new house.  

Additionally, I get almost the same number of STOPs when using my Lenovo Laptop indicating it has block a malicious site, everytime I log into the NAS.

Very much hoping for an update SOON!!

Doug

[dbrewood]

Good luck to us all, I've been fighting this since last August! I'm not convinced Netgear are bothered at all about fixing it.

[roeiegans]

I gave up. Tried with Netgear support, but the suggestions that came from them all were related to Synology settings. However it IS Armor that's blocking it. With Armor off, no problems with connectivity. Even after pointing Netgear Support to this Thread, still only focus on the Synology. Normally I had this several times a day. I must say it does happen a lot less now, so maybe the AI did learn? 

BTW: I have only used Armor with DSM7. My Synology was upgraded (long) before Armor activation