In about the last month and a half, I have started noticing two things:
* pings spike every 5 minutes, from about 8-9ms, to over 1000ms, for 5-10 seconds (this messes up Remote Desktop)
* DNS_PROBE_POSSIBLE errors when initially hitting websites. This even when the website is cached, which I don't get
I have isolated it to the R8000. I connected directly to the modem. Problems goes away. And now, I have reverted to an ancient WRT54G running DD-WRT. These problems go away entirely and in fact, the whole network seems faster, although we'll need a couple days to really see if it keeps up. That's embarassing, the WRT54G is more than a decade older!
Anyway, I thought I'd ask if there's any possible solution. I haven't seen DNS_PROBE_POSSIBLE anywhere on the site, so I doubt it.
Likely, my way forward will be to see if I can put DD-WRT on the nighthawk and see if that's useful. Normally I wouldn't take that risk, but given that the thing is useless to me in its current state, I just might.
Recently updated router to the latest Firmware Version: V1.0.4.74_10.1.80 and no I'm getting DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN errors. Is there a way to role back to the previous firmware? If not, what's the solution?
This is probably a moot point, as I've installed FreshTomato and will be trying that out.
The modem is a "Smart/RG VDSL2 Modem". Not really relevant since it is the router that is the issue. I know this because:
When I connect directly to the modem, there is no problem
When I use a different router, there is no problem
I tried 3 different DNS providers and got the DNS problem when using all of them; OpenDNS, ISP, 9.9.9.9.
It is weird. It started doing this about a month ago.
Anyway, reverted back to a 2006 Linksys WRT54G running DD-WRT...which is working MUCH BETTER than the NetGear even before this problem. That's embarassing.
I have gotten FreshTomato installed (risked bricking!) and will give that a try. I have high hopes, but wouldn't have tried this unless I felt the router was otherwise a lost cause.
if you ever come back to this thread, please give your thoughts on freshtomato. i have years of experience with DD-WRT, but got sick of the bugs in it. so i switched to NETGEAR. It is been rock solid until this last firmware release and the DNS issues. I am thinking about running 3rd party FW again.
Certainly! I'll preface this that I'm hardly a router or networking expert. I'm a long time telecommuter who needs to balance the network; my son has been home the last year doing grad school and an internship, plus there's many other devices, roku's using netflix, etc. Probably like everyone else these days. I use remote desktop a lot, and it has to work well. Zoom and teams calls need to work well also.
Oh and a key piece: I'm fairly rural, so I have 10mpbs up and 1 mpbs down. But when it's working, believe it or not, it works well. I have urban coworkers who brag about their gigabit connection, but who seem to also have frequent problems. That speed doesn't always mean good latency. But it sells well!
We've only used FreshTomato for a day, but so far it looks really stellar. The UI seems really tight, I am not seeing anything buggy. The breadth of features is amazing. I am really stunned at how much the hardware is capable of that is hidden in the stock firmware.
I am particularly intrigured by the QOS and bandwidth limiting features, and also the monitoring features. There are beautiful pie charts that you can use to drill in to what device is hogging bandwidth. I'm just starting to experiment with different priorities...although to be honest, things are working great so far, so it's probably best if I just leave it alone...I just can't help myself, it's a new toy!
I think I said in a prior post, I had used DD-WRT on an old Linksys WRT54G. And I was amazed that it seemed to work really well for us. But it's interface is not nearly as pretty; it's harder for someone like me to really understand all the tweaks. FreshTomato spoon feeds it quite nicely.
But I am confident that, in the future, when I'm doing something and think "why is this so damn slow", I'll have a lot more capability of finding the offender pretty easily.
Another problem I've had in the past is that when I do uploads, it seems to gum up the whole network. I'm talking about like uploading photo's, doing a backup. I'll be curious to see if those problems go away as well.
Oh and, my ping spike and DNS Probe issues seem to have gone away entirely. So as far as I can tell, those were both related to the stock firmware.
I will make a point to come back to this thread and comment in a month or so after I give it a more thorough test.
The FreshTomato firmware is awesome. It allows me to watch network traffic and drill in to where problems are so much better than any router firmware I've ever used before. Beautiful pie charts showing what IP address is using what.
I am still working my way in to the QOS. It is definitely an art and a "little bit at a time" kind of thing. But I've been able to set priorities for different things, usually by port. I've identified ports for MS Teams, Zoom, and Google Meetings. Identifying the Roku traffic is easy--its the whole device, so nope, sorry, you can have bandwidth when its available, but you're not a priority when I'm in a meeting.
I'm finding I turn QOS on, and when my son is in a meeting, I watch the traffic to try to make sure he's getting priority....and wait for him to squawk if there's a problem. At this point I'm kind of on stand by to make sure I can turn it off quickly if it has issues.
I've also been able to identify some things that can get a lower priority, like uploads and such. They can trickle out, it doesn't need to be right now.
So there's still some watching, learning, figuring out, but I feel like this is going to be fantastic. My audio and video in meetings seems to be pretty good, without disrupting other network users too much. Depending on what other network users are doing, disruption is appropriate.
As far as the NetGear stock firmware. I kind of get why they don't want to expose a lot of this functionality. If they did, they would get so many calls from people who are having all sorts of connection problems. I knew and accepted the risks. Great thing is, you can turn QOS off without losing your settings. But it must be frustrating to the hardware engineers who create this stuff when their features are hidden.
In a nutshell, I think I can say, if you don't have a problem to fix, you probably don't want to do this. From what I read, it's not that hard to brick your router. But if you have problems and want to try something different, are a bit technically savvy and willing to spend some time getting it right, it might be interesting to try.
I am also experiencing the same issue, I will get the "DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN" error over and over again intermittently. I have never experienced dns issues until these recent firmware updates: 1.0.4.74, and the most recent version 1.0.4.76. Sometimes the website will never load causing some chaos with my online college classes.
I will roll back to firmware 1.0.4.68 and see if that helps. My only concern are these vulnerabilities that have been recently exposed on older firmware. This is the whole reason I updated in the first place. See this article for an example of what made me update….
Is there a way to get this info directly to the dev team? This is a huge issue that needs to be fixed immediately. I know I am not the only person experiencing these issues, other forum users have expressed their concerns as well. From a security standpoint we can’t update our routers to old much more vulnerable software versions. This is completely unacceptable.
Note: Facebook and Instagram are both down right now due to other DNS issues?? What is going on?
Model: R8000P|Nighthawk X6S AC4000 Tri Band WiFi Router
I have the same issue with you and try everything I though. It's 100% R8000 router's problem when I go directly connect ISP.
After I change other Router, the problem is gone. No matter what I change R8000's DNS to any Publics/Reset/Reflash Firmware(NEW& OLD)/Clean all set, but the issue still there.
More interesting is when I put "the same" DNS sever name in Windows IPV4 by "Manual", the problem is solved.
It is highly recommended that Netgear can face up to and solve this problem.
Another vote for the firmware being the problem causing the DNS resolve errors. Switch to different DNS servers didn't work. A factory reset didn't work. I rolled back from 76 to 68 and the problems went away.
I too am having this issue and it's frustrating to do anything when you have to refresh your web pages or applications most of the time, Especially now that I and many others work remote from home. I know a lot more people must be getting this issue but won't know the root of the issue since everything online points people to just release, refresh and renew DNS. The common user usually does not know toubleshooting with process of elimination to pinpoint it to the router.
Is there anyone from the customer support or dev team seeing this?
I just hate having to get a new router and to review Netgear routers badly becasue of something simple as a firmware issue.
I too am having this issue and it's frustrating to do anything when you have to refresh your web pages or applications most of the time, Especially now that I and many others work remote from home. I know a lot more people must be getting this issue but won't know the root of the issue since everything online points people to just release, refresh and renew DNS. The common user usually does not know toubleshooting with process of elimination to pinpoint it to the router.
Is there anyone from the customer support or dev team seeing this?
I just hate having to get a new router and to review Netgear routers badly becasue of something simple as a firmware issue.
I agree, it seems not okay that this is still an issue after all this time. FreshTomato is working well for me, but it's not trivial and the product should work without having to do that. I will caution that FreshTomato once rebooted and reverted back to factory settings. Should you go that route, back up your config, particularly if you use QOS. Which, btw, QOS is awesome, but takes some tweaking. Very useful.
The DNS problem with R8000 is known over 6 months ago starting with firmware R8000-V1.0.4.74_10.1.80 . In fact there are many models (eg. R6*** and R7*** models) affected with the DNS problems. There is a zillion threads on this forum regarding the DNS problems. Many users including myself have reported the problem to Netgear to no avail. Netgear did not even have the courtesy of formally acknowledging the provblem on their web site and leave many users with automatic update in a bad spot.
The biggest irony is update and you are screwed. If you don't update you are potentially left with security vulnerabilities.I don't think Netgear cares about support at all. All I am saying is don't hold your breath with Netgear. If you can, time to move on with another brand. It is a shame that Netgear used to be a great company with good support but probably lost that some years ago.
The DNS problem with R8000 is known over 6 months ago starting with firmware R8000-V1.0.4.74_10.1.80 . In fact there are many models (eg. R6*** and R7*** models) affected with the DNS problems. There is a zillion threads on this forum regarding the DNS problems. Many users including myself have reported the problem to Netgear to no avail. Netgear did not even have the courtesy of formally acknowledging the provblem on their web site and leave many users with automatic update in a bad spot.
The biggest irony is update and you are screwed. If you don't update you are potentially left with security vulnerabilities.I don't think Netgear cares about support at all. All I am saying is don't hold your breath with Netgear. If you can, time to move on with another brand. It is a shame that Netgear used to be a great company with good support but probably lost that some years ago.
The DNS problem on R8000 is known for over 6 months ago since version R8000-V1.0.4.74_10.1.80. Many users have reported the problem to Netgear and nothing has happened. The same DNS problem is also happening to many R7*** and R6*** model routers. The problem has left many users with auto update in a bad spot. The real irony is upgrade and you are screwed. If you do not update you are left with potential security flaws.
I would not hold my breath on gettting support from Netgear. If I were you, perhaps it is time to consider moving on. Netgear is not the same company that it once was 4 - 5 years ago. The firmware and product support is simply terrible.
NETGEAR Engineering released a beta fix for the DNS issue in late sept. I used it on my R8300 for a few months. Problem was they never released it in the later production FW releases. Kinda sucks knowing that they know to fix it, They just wont. Let that sink in.
I have since taken router function away from the R8300 and moved it to a PFSense server. The 8300 only handles the wifi.
I really feel for the hardware engineers on this. The hardware is really good, best as I can tell! And I kind of get that they want simple firmware. Giving all of us a complex QOS, for example, could generate a ton of support calls. But it would be kind of offensive to build this great hardware, then have it fall on its face due to the firmware. And I *know* the firmware is the problem here, because I moved to FreshTomato and the thing is working great. But consumers should not have to do that, that's just wrong.
Based on what I'm hearing on this thread, I doubt I'd ever buy NetGear again, which again, is kind of sad, because they're so close!
The only other possible alternative to rolling back the firmware would be to set up and alternate dns server on the computers you use. Setting the alternative dns server to Google DNS servers seemed to get rid of the problem for me. Kinda weird.
Or using an alternative firmware like fresh tomato. As other users have suggested. Changing the alternate dns server to your default gateway and Google DNS servers seemed to get rid of the problem for me.
Tomato on works on certain models. It does not work on mine. Changing DNS servers on 40 or more clients is not a strategy. Most dont even have a way to change the DNS.
