I have an Orbi RBR850 Wifi 6 mesh system with 3 satellites using an ethernet wired backhaul. I have netgear GS108 switches on the LAN as well.
Starting a couple of weeks ago, I could no longer connect to the internet - both for wired and wireless devices. Devices would show a 169.254.x.x. IP address. I even did a factory reset of all the units and connected them one at a time. Wroked for a little while. At that time I had some other brand switches, and I changed them to the GS108 which I had read works better with the orbi. Everything seemed to work. I also upgraded the software on all connected devices (including a Sony TV that runs android that seemed to have particular problems). For a few days its working, then again today my wireleless laptop (macbook air) showed a 169.254.x.x ip address. I rebooted the base (did not touch anything else), and everything works now.
I am connected to the WAN through FIOS gigabit.
Any ideas on whats happening? why are the random DHCP issues? Is it better to set the orbi in bridge mode and use a different router for DHCP? Does orbi just suck at DHCP and I should switch over to the new Eero Pro when it comes out?
Thanks for the quesitons. I'll get the data and share it when I get back home after the weekend. The satellites are connected to the orbi directly through ethernet (there are no switches in between). The switches are connected to the satellites.
Another suggestion would be to setup some IP address reservations for the RBS and your devices.
I would also make the default IP address pool smaller as well. I set mine to 192.168.#.100 thru.200. Since I only have about 30 devices. Still leaves plenty of room for more and then you have room for static IPs on either side of this pool.
Any ideas on whats happening? why are the random DHCP issues? Is it better to set the orbi in bridge mode and use a different router for DHCP? Does orbi just suck at DHCP and I should switch over to the new Eero Pro when it comes out?
What you are describing is not normal and does not reflect what most Orbi AX owners have reporting here. I recommend continuing to investigate rather than just give up on Orbi.
Switches, particularly managed or green ones, have caused connectivity problems but you said that your satellites are wired to the base without any intervening switches. You are also having IP address failures for wireless devices (like your TV). If there is no intervening switch, e.g., TV --> Orbi Base or TV --> Orbi Satellite --> Orbi Base, then this erroneous behavior is new and unexplained. Do not confuse your persistent IP address failures with the other "intermittent DNS failure" issue reported in this forum because the latter is very infrequent and doesn't explain large scale IP address / DHCP failures across a variety of devices as you're experiencing.
Is it possible that you are simply having widespread connectivity loss (i.e., not specific to DHCP)? When your laptop or TV cannot get an IP address, are they still able to see the wireless network and connect to it with the SSID password but then fail to get an address via DHCP? If the latter, we can start by giving one of the devices a static IP (taking DHCP out of the picture) and then see if the device has stable wireless connectivity and internet access.
Can you also isolate your problems to wireless vs. wired devices or does this also occur for wired devices? That can help us focus troubleshooting steps, e.g., change wireless channels and set CTS/RTS Threshold to 2347.
Note that many Nest thermostat owners have reported Orbi AX connectivity difficulty so for now leave them out of the analysis. We can start with your Sony TV and Mac laptop.
I have an Orbi RBR850 Wifi 6 mesh system with 3 satellites using an ethernet wired backhaul. I have netgear GS108 switches on the LAN as well.
Starting a couple of weeks ago, I could no longer connect to the internet - both for wired and wireless devices. Devices would show a 169.254.x.x. IP address. For a few days its working, then again today my wireleless laptop (macbook air) showed a 169.254.x.x ip address. I rebooted the base (did not touch anything else), and everything works now.
I am connected to the WAN through FIOS gigabit.
Any ideas on whats happening? why are the random DHCP issues? Is it better to set the orbi in bridge mode and use a different router for DHCP? Does orbi just suck at DHCP and I should switch over to the new Eero Pro when it comes out?
The Orbi AX systems have perfectly stable DHCP systems.
If you're getting a 169.xxx.xxx.xx in your computer, it means your computer more than likely didn’t communicate with your router. reasons:
Cable unplugged or defective cable, IP address not refreshed, Anti-Virus blocking the connectivity, DNS unknown, DNS and/or device network needs resetting.
When I experience this issue, I shut down the device, bring it back up, delete and re-configure the device's network, flush DNS, enable DHCP, make sure proper DNS severs are chosen. This can also happen, if using 3rd party DNS servers. Sometimes because of traffic, they cannot be reached.
I should clarify that the Sony TV has a wired connection (through one of the switches) to the orbi. However both my laptop and the wired devices will sometimes get 169. and its not just one wireless device. Even my nest cams then show they cannot connect to the internet.
Have you set up any IP address reservations for your devices ON the router?
Has a power off for 1 minute then back on been performed since last update? Has a factory reset and setup from scratch been performed since last FW update?
Q: Have you set up any IP address reservations for your devices ON the router?
Yes I have for a few devices like the satellites, hubitat, and a few of the smart devices.
Q: Has a power off for 1 minute then back on been performed since last update?
Yes - multiple times. I have even unplugged all the satellites, powered them up one at a time. Made sure it had a connection with the base then turned on the next one.
Q: Has a factory reset and setup from scratch been performed since last FW update?
Yes I have done this now twice. The issues still happen. Knock on wood, I have been good since about 5 days now since the last reboot.
I am using Verizon's DNS servers, not a third party. I have tried what you suggested, but this happens on multiple devices that range from laptops, phones to TVs - even the PS4 was having issues. My system was working quite stable up until about 2 weeks ago. Nothing changed (no new devices for example) except that my daughter could not connect to the internet on her ipad or iphone, so I rebooted the orbi. After that I was having issues consistently.
Would reserving IP's for my smart devices (using their mac address) help reduce race conditions?
Since you have stated that you have configured some devices to use a static IP address, if you did not reserve them as well, you will have address conflicts, because your DHCP server is still distributing those same IP addrsses to devices coming online.
What I suggest is either use the Address reservation built into the Orbi or reserve a block of IP addresses, by removing them from your DHCP server list, or use the Address Reservation feature. So instead of reserving, as example, 192.168.1.2 to 254, either stop before 254 or start above 2, for how many IP addresses you need for static configuration. This way the DHCP serve will not try to distribute those addresses to a device coming online.
Thanks I tihink I understand and will not give it a try. For what its worth, I was not configuring the static IP on the device - only doing it in the orbi. I did not know you could lets say do DHCP from .100 to .254 and assign static ips from .2 to .99
Possible race condiition when a couple of your devices may have come online at the same time and server didn't hancle the condition right...
I don't believe there are race conditions where DHCP can vend conflicting IP addresses. The usual reason for conflicting IP addresses on a home network are because (1) static IPs are incorrectly setup and overlap, or (2) some devices are still using an old IP address and need to be restarted.
