Re: Can I see lease info on RBR850?

donawalt · ‎2022-06-14

I was wondering if there is a way I can see the lease info (length, expiration) of my RBR850 router for the IP addresses it receives from my ISP (not my devices on the network)? I would assume leases are different IPv4 vs. IPv6, so interested in both. Is that possible? Thanks!

TC_in_Montana · ‎2022-06-14

@donawalt

You should be able to see that information by logging into the webUI (192.168.1.1 usually) and clicking on the Advanced Tab, and look for the box labeled "Internet Port". Click on "Connection Status" and it should tell you the length of your lease and how long before it expires.

donawalt · ‎2022-06-14

Thank you for the reply @TC_in_Montana . I checked that, it shows the IPv4 IP address and lease info, but nothing for IPv6. I think those leases are or could be different? Is there a way to see IPv6?

TC_in_Montana · ‎2022-06-14

@donawalt

I don't use IPv6 here so not versed in it, but I found this on the "help section" on the IPv6 settings page (by the way - the help/info section can be pulled but by going to that page in the WebUI - and clicking on the UP arrow on the bottom line on that screen).

It says" Click Status Refresh to update the page and see the information about the current IPv6 connection." - Maybe the lPv6 lease info is provided there (Sorry - since I've never used it, just guessing).

Hopefully someone more versed on IPv6 settings can provide you that information if it exists.....

donawalt · ‎2022-06-14

@TC_in_Montana I found what that is referring to, that's the page where you can see the IPv6 IP address of the router, etc. But no lease info here. You can choose DHCP the dropdown on the upper right, and it will show everything unpopulated, then just click cancel or click to another page when you are done. But as you can see, no lease info here.

As an aside, in a moment of insanity I turned on IPv6 again this morning - it was working great. I returned to me desk about 2 hours later, and my iPhone and iPad could not pull up a page. I disabled IPv6 (it is the default protocol), and it worked like a champ - so that quickly I lost IPv6. This is severely broken, why won't Netgear address this for us, its users (although I did see on DSL reports this comment in one of their Comcast-Netgear IPv6 broken threads, from a guy supposedly testing beta firmware:

“I just received notification that the corrected firmware for my router should be released in September. Hopefully all routers that still receive updates will also be patched. ”

Here is the status page you were referring to:

TC_in_Montana · ‎2022-06-14

@donawalt I wish I could have been more help on IPv6 lease info... still hoping someone that uses it can chime in and point you to where that information is present - IF it is presented at all.

As to the firmware issues and your question as to why Netgear isn't fixing this - I can only say "I feel your pain". The people who help on the forums (even the SuperUsers/Gurus) are users just as everyone else and we are plagued with the same issues.

I'm a retired IT guy (45 years worth) - so I get frustrated pretty quickly when hit with issues like these and don't seem to be getting fixed.

But I also know that tracking down those issues, fixing them, and not breaking something else when putting in the fix, sometimes takes a long time - and are never quick enough when people pay out lots of money for devices that aren't doing what they are supposed to be doing.

CrimpOn · ‎2022-06-14

There is some 'odd' information on the Orbi 'debug' page: http://orbilogin.net/debug.htm

I have seen comments that the debug page on the newer Orbi systems is different from the page on my ancient RBR50.

Could you confirm whether IPv6 information shows up on your debug page?

CrimpOn · ‎2022-06-14

@donawalt wrote:

I was wondering if there is a way I can see the lease info (length, expiration) of my RBR850 router for the IP addresses it receives from my ISP (not my devices on the network)? I would assume leases are different IPv4 vs. IPv6, so interested in both. Is that possible? Thanks!

There is always a (slim) chance that the ISP tech support line would disclose the information.

In my own case, Spectrum provides:

IPv4 lease of one day (86,400 seconds)
IPv6 lease of one week (604,800 seconds)

This was verified by tapping the modem-router Ethernet link and capturing the actual DHCP packets between my router and Spectrum modem using Wireshark. (A capture filter of port 67 or port 68 or port 546 or port 547 will ignore everything but the actual DHCP exchange.)

My guess is that DHCP leases will vary from ISP to ISP, and even from time-to-time for the same ISP. In my previous job, when we were about to make a change in our IP address scheme - such as when opening a new building - we would temporarily lower the DHCP lease to a very short value so that when we made the cutover, all devices would get new IPs during the night and the network would be stable by the time people arrived for work the next day. Then, we would set the DHCP lease back to one day.)

donawalt · ‎2022-06-14

@CrimpOn thanks for the reply, nothing there about any lease info, IP addresses, etc....seems to be just version numbers etc.

donawalt · ‎2022-06-14

I want to see the lease info real time, as I am interested in seeing when I lose my IPv6 connection with what appears to be a valid IP address reported on the Orbi router page, if that corresponds to when the lease expired. So calling won't help that much, but thanks for the idea!

donawalt · ‎2022-06-14

@TC_in_Montana I was in the IT business too! While I agree with all the realities you conveyed, the one thing I would add is if they just *told* us they are aware of the issue, it's important to fix it, they are investigating it actively, and as soon as they have some results they will let us know. Done! I can be patient, what makes this maddening is that I don't even know if they are spending any time on it. That's bad service imho.

I had a boss who once said, and I always remembered, this..."Don't judge a company by the problems they have, judge them by what they do to fix them."

CrimpOn · ‎2022-06-14

Thanks for looking at the debug page. The only way to see 'real time' information about DHCP would be to monitor the actual ISP packets, and for most people the results probably would not be worth the effort.

donawalt · ‎2022-06-14

@CrimpOn sure. I was hoping there was something similar to seeing the DHCP info from a Windows pc when you do "Ipconfig /all", where you get lease obtained and expires time stamps.

CrimpOn · ‎2022-06-14

@donawalt wrote:

@CrimpOn sure. I was hoping there was something similar to seeing the DHCP info from a Windows pc when you do "Ipconfig /all", where you get lease obtained and expires time stamps.

I agree. That would be useful information. I have a suspicion that Netgear does not record the IPv6 lease information. I just now dumped the configuration file on my RBR50. There are a lot of parameters labelled "ipv6..." but there is nothing resembling a lease time (while the IPv4 lease information is obviously there).