R8500 Latest Firmware Version V1.0.2.154 Broke DNS!

[michaelkenward]

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@highwayking wrote:

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Last week I dumped all my Netgear equipment (R8500, 2 EX8000 extenders, etc) and replaced it with Asus ZenWifi AX ET8 routers.

What a blast:

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I would hope so too. You have replaced devices that are several generations behind the curve not to mention than five years old, with new kit that not only has wifi 6 but also Mesh.

[highwayking]

Well, I did wait for a long time for Netgear to fix the issues, but I ran out of patience.

And while Netgear calls the EX8000 *mesh* extenders, they really aren’t.

[michaelkenward]

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@highwayking wrote:
Well, I did wait for a long time for Netgear to fix the issues, but I ran out of patience.

And while Netgear calls the EX8000 *mesh* extenders, they really aren’t.

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Is that the thing that had mesh added late in the day?

Hope you don't have problems with the Asus stuff. Here's a quote from its thinly populated equivalent of this place:

"The last ASUS router I had only ever had one firmware update in a few years. Ive since moved on to something more reliable, everything I run is enterprise Netgear."

[FURRYe38]

I got a good friend I game with and he tried Asus's XT8 MESH system out. Says it's trash and does not work right. Same friend also went thru 4 same model GT-AX11000's with ASUS RMA as the 2.5Gb port kept failing. I found a speed issue with my GT-AX11000 and Orbi AX. Finally got FW that fixed it months later for my issue. We both went thru several different support agents for 1 issue over months and month and wondered why we kept getting different ones at each reply and responce. I finally got 1 support agent to handle my issue. ASUS is nothing to boast about. 

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@michaelkenward wrote:

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@highwayking wrote:
Well, I did wait for a long time for Netgear to fix the issues, but I ran out of patience.

And while Netgear calls the EX8000 *mesh* extenders, they really aren’t.

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Is that the thing that had mesh added late in the day?

Hope you don't have problems with the Asus stuff. Here's a quote from its thinly populated equivalent of this place:

"The last ASUS router I had only ever had one firmware update in a few years. Ive since moved on to something more reliable, everything I run is enterprise Netgear."

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[HaaWee]

Well, let me repeat, I've had nothing but trouble with Netgear for the past 2 years, zero support, lots of similar complaints on this forum and they advertise features they don't have.

I've used Netgear for more than 10 years, but apparently they have now reached a level of complexity that they simply do not master.

You can always find negative reviews (especially with generic remarks like "it doesn't work" about any product from any supplier, but so far my 4 node Asus XT8 mesh network far far far exceeds my expectations.

And trust me, I have over 30 years of IT experience, so I'm quite used to bugs and workarounds. But Netgear has definitely lost a customer - first and foremost because they *never* respond to support requests with anything beyond beginner level questions and answers.

[tdebug]

Cannot agree more. Just give up on this ancient model and try something newer. Even w/o bugs, it does underperform, especially if you have faster connection. I once tried to add some addresses to a black list for my smart tv ads and network speeds dropped by 40%! 

Few years back I would recommend netgear as a router, as those from asus or zyxel were just unstable and full of bugs. But things change and netgear is simply ceased to exist:)

[stealth18]

1.0.2.154 has been working great for the past 2 weeks now on both my Macbooks. Noticed less lags/lower latentcies even when it's busy. .144 firmware has been crashing occasionally - 5Ghz signals would disappear from time to time until it gets rebooted. 

Unit is on Access Point mode - and DHCP is running on a separate router/fw.

.144 was really dissapointing. I was going to ditch Netgear for good and go with other brand name. But .154 seems to be running great so far.

[michaelkenward]

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@stealth18 wrote:

1.0.2.154 has been working great for the past 2 weeks now on both my Macbooks. Noticed less lags/lower latentcies even when it's busy. .144 firmware has been crashing occasionally - 5Ghz signals would disappear from time to time until it gets rebooted. 

Good evidence. Nice to have feedback. But, unlike most users, your R8500 router is in AP mode.

Did you see the same problems as everybody else with the earlier firmware in AP mode? If not, then your experience may not apply to those in router mode.

[stealth18]

I haven't been following up much on .144 issues. Could you be give a little more detail(s) on the issues?

[michaelkenward]

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@stealth18 wrote:

I haven't been following up much on .144 issues. Could you be give a little more detail(s) on the issues?

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First read this discussion, now a month old with plenty of details, then try this:

Search - NETGEAR Communities – R8500 Firmware

Or maybe ask about your experience and any problems you have.

[CaledonKen]

Just installed this firmware and unhappy to report I have this same DNS issue. Came looking for answers and found this thread. 

If I read correctly this issue has been ongoing for months. 

I would have hope for better support. 

[michaelkenward]

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@CaledonKen wrote:

Just installed this firmware and unhappy to report I have this same DNS issue. Came looking for answers and found this thread. 

If I read correctly this issue has been ongoing for months. 

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About right.

The release notes say 07/29/2021, which is 29th July in real money.

[weblee]

YES without result!

[Manren8500]

Thanks for posting this! I had the same DNS issue sporadically occur and it was driving me nuts! Rolled back the firmware back to 144. Seems to be working well. I'm very surprised that Netgear hasn't addressed this already. Not impressed. The product has been pretty solid for me until this last firmware. Hopefully it's not downhill from here otherwise I will definitely jump ship.

[weblee]

Does that revision properly log more than dhcp renewals ?

[JFII]

Is the ISP handing off DNS or are you entering it? Try entering just 1 DNS server leave the other blank.

I do remember that I did clear the config and re enter it after the initial update - I'm sorry i do not remember why.

[DirtyWilly]

This is the same behavior I've seen.  144 faster than 154 (though 144 is not as fast as previous firmwares so clearly something was done to DNS)  And on occasion 144 crashes router.

[weblee]

the same results I had ..

...we are behind 2 firmware revisions...I work from home and cant play around.

[plemans]

@weblee do you have IPv6 enabled? try enabling it if not and doing a reboot. 

[weblee]

I have not but I will give that a shot when I have time available to work on the router. 

My latest "UhOH" event - 2 hours with nothing in the log!!!  NOTHING!  On a business day!

Something is seriously wrong.

[_Daniel_]

Hi all,

I upgraded my Netgear firmware of the R8500 also to V1.0.2.154 some weeks ago and noticed the DNS problems of the R8500 not right away, because they are not present on my wireless connected devices and also not on my Windows 7 wired and wirless connected devices. However, on my Windows 10 wired connected devices they are very present (one DNS resolving failure every two minutes surfing) and really annoying.

As all other devices do not have this problem I did not expect a infrastructur problem like from being the router and thought it must be a Win10 problem. Also because of the randomness of the error occurring, I spent hours in searching and even reinstalled Windows on one computer...
Today I spent another couple of hours till I noticed it has to be a router problem and figured out the R8500 firmware is the problem thanks to this thread! So thank you very much for writing this problem in this forum and shame on you, Netgear, that you did not fix this problem in over two months!

As a workaround I now configured on my two Win 10 clients the DNS manually, which solved this problem. However, this is still a workaround. I hope the fix for this problem is comming soon, as I am currently not sure, if my next network devices will be from Netgear, although I bought all network devices in the past 15 years (or even longer) from Netgear and that is a double-digit amount. A bug in a firmware can happen (but should not, as this problem should have been detected if the firmware would have been properly tested before release), but over two months waiting for a bugfix is a really long time.

Also that no official communication form the Mods/Admins of this forum is present in this thread is also not satisfying, despite an ETA of a fw release that fixes this bug.

Kind regards from a guy who wasted about two days in investigation of the error because of this firmware bug,
Daniel

[eddyfrenchy]

I also tried firmware R8500-V1.0.2.156_1.0.105 today (Nov 6 2021). Same issue : (

Rollback to R8500-V1.0.2.144_1.0.99 that was released January 2021.

[CaledonKen]

Thanks for posting results. Save us all a lot of time. 

[CogX]

Oh, just asked on a different thread if R8500-V1.0.2.156_1.0.105 had fixed the DNS bug, but I see not.  Unbelievable.

[FURRYe38]

So roll back then:

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Nighthawk-WiFi-Routers/R8500-Latest-Firmware-Version-V1-0-2-154-Bro...