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Re: RBK735S 3 unit mesh drops WiFi daily for 2-3 minutes - Anyone Experiencing This?

gman88
Tutor

RBK735S 3 unit mesh drops WiFi daily for 2-3 minutes - Anyone Experiencing This?

(reposting to correct forum)

My 3 week old RBK735S 3 unit mesh drops WiFi daily for 2-3 minutes. Is anyone else working from home and noticing this random interruption daily?  For me, I'm on video conferencing all day, plus my 2 kids are remote learning, so when it goes out, it's an impact to everyone in the house.  Is this happening to other users of the 735's?

 

Details:

  • At first, I assumed it was my ISP and my internet failing.  But I have moved my SIP (Obihai) directly to my (ISP) Modem, so I can test Internet during these outages.  The internet works fine during the outages.  I can make and receive calls, while my Mac and my phone cannot ping 8.8.8.8.
  • The Router and Satellite do not display a "ring" light during the outages.  They are not showing any signs of rebooting relating to these outages
  • Using the Orbi App on my phone, once I can get it to reconnect, it shows devices that should be connected as not connected when I click on "Devices" and drill down.  The devices begin to reconnect at various rates after the 2-3 minutes, and I can then see them again. 
  • I am running the latest firmware on the Router and (2) Satellites (V3.2.18.1_1.4.14). 
  • I had opened a case with Netgear 10 days ago, and the only help they could provide was to have me upgrade firmware.

Help:

  • Is this happening to anyone and if so, are there any settings I can make to stop or better manage when these drops occur?
  • Do you think my RBK 735S set is defective and should I return (I have 1 week left to do so)?
  • Is anyone aware of a defect where the mesh periodically drops all devices?  Is this some sort of DHCP lease timeout and if so, how can I change the lease duration?  I can see my Orbi Router has a 7 day DHCP lease from my ISP Modem (Arris) but do not see how to set DHCP lease times that the Orbi is vending.
    • Arris Model: ARRIS DOCSIS 3.0 Touchstone Residential Gateway Model: DG2470A 

Thanks for your assistance.  This one is painful

Message 1 of 22

Accepted Solutions
gman88
Tutor

Re: RBK735S 3 unit mesh drops WiFi daily for 2-3 minutes - Anyone Experiencing This?

All,

Thanks for your suggestions.  As a follow-up to my note of ‎2021-04-22 04:22 PM, I made several changes which seem to have had some positive effects.  

 

Per my other note, per suggestions on Reddit, I:

  1. Turned off Traffic Meter,
  2. Disconnected my one hard wired device from a Satellite
  3. Continued to add devices to Advanced -> Lan Setup -> "Address Reservations"
  4. Changed my NTP server.  NTP was showing Dec, 2020
  5. I renewed my DHCP lease for the Router, to a time of day just before going to bed, with a 7 day renewal duration.
  6. I have also been running a ping command non-stop to 8.8.8.8 and logging the output (2 pings every 5 seconds).

 

That combination of changes has provided some stability over the past week. I suspect the root cause may have been with the Traffic Meter (#1) (many on Reddit seem to think so), but also (#4 and #5) might be better hiding the issue as it may be happening when I sleep now.  I'm not totally convinced of this because while some ping drops occur, I no longer see 2-3 minutes of total network loss between the RBR and the Modem.  There have also been no patches auto downloaded this week, which could also be the root cause for these interruptions.

 

Also worth mentioning, that on item #4, I was not able to provide ntp IP addresses for "Set your preferred NTP server".  Rather I had to specify a A Record, which took me a while to figure out "time.nist.gov" did the trick.

 

I'll let you know if I have anything further to share.

 

 

View solution in original post

Message 20 of 22

All Replies
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: RBK735S 3 unit mesh drops WiFi daily for 2-3 minutes - Anyone Experiencing This?

What mode is your modem working in?Your ISP Modem already has a built in router and wifi. This would be a double NAT (two router) condition which isn't recommended. https://kb.netgear.com/30186/What-is-Double-NAT
https://kb.netgear.com/30187/How-to-fix-issues-with-Double-NAT
Couple of options,
1. Configure the modem for transparent bridge or modem only mode. Then use the Orbi router in router mode. You'll need to contact the ISP for help and information in regards to the modem being bridged correctly.
2. If you can't bridge the modem, disable ALL wifi radios on the modem, configure the modems DMZ/ExposedHost or IP Pass-Through for the IP address the Orbi router gets from the modem. Then you can use the Orbi router in Router mode.
3. Or disable all wifi radios on the modem and connect the Orbi router to the modem, configure AP mode on the Orbi router. https://kb.netgear.com/31218/How-do-I-configure-my-Orbi-router-to-act-as-an-access-point and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7LOcJ8GdDo&app=desktop

 

What is the distance between the router and satellite(s)? 30 feet or more is recommended in between RBR and RBS to begin with depending upon building materials when wirelessly connected.

 

 

Message 2 of 22
gman88
Tutor

Re: RBK735S 3 unit mesh drops WiFi daily for 2-3 minutes - Anyone Experiencing This?

Thanks for your note.

 

Arris ISP Model has always had WiFi disabled, so I don't believe that is an issue.

 

I don't think I should have to go into bridge mode since ORBI works 23 hours and 55 minutes per day.  Something else is going on here.

 

Message 3 of 22
gman88
Tutor

Re: RBK735S 3 unit mesh drops WiFi daily for 2-3 minutes - Anyone Experiencing This?

The issue occurred again this morning.  Here is some additional debugging information:

  1. The Guest Network continued to work fine, and from the same location of my laptop.
    1. I switched my laptop from main network to Guest, and ping worked fine.
    2. I re-switched to the main network and ping failed (again)
    3. I re-switched to guest and ping worked (again)
    4. I re-switched to the main network and ping failed (again)
  2. I tested my phone (connected via ethernet / hardwire) to Arris Modem, worked fine throughout the incident

I am wondering if I have a defective Satellite.  Why would the Guest network continue to work while the main network failed (same Satellite) for 5 straight minutes?

 

Last night I switch my laptop to a static IP address on the ORBI to try to rule out the DHCP lease variable (obviously made no difference).

 

When this occurs again, I will move the laptop to a different part of my house and try to connect to a different Satellite or the Router and see if the same behavior occurs.

Message 4 of 22
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: RBK735S 3 unit mesh drops WiFi daily for 2-3 minutes - Anyone Experiencing This?

What is the size of your home? Sq Ft?
What is the distance between the router and satellite(s)? 30 feet or more is recommended in between RBR and RBS to begin with depending upon building materials when wirelessly connected.
https://kb.netgear.com/31029/Where-should-I-place-my-Orbi-satellite

 

 Try testing with out any RBS online. Then try test with 1 RBS then 2 RBS. Swap locations with the RBS to see if the problem follows. 

 

Auto? Try setting manual channel 1, 6 or 11 on 2.4Ghz and 40 to 48 channel on 5Ghz.
Any Wifi Neighbors near by? If so, how many?

 

Has a factory reset and setup from scratch been performed since last FW update? 
Press the back reset button for 15 seconds then release. 
https://kb.netgear.com/31486/How-do-I-reset-my-Orbi-system-to-factory-default-settings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePZSc7vnRlQ

Message 5 of 22
gman88
Tutor

Re: RBK735S 3 unit mesh drops WiFi daily for 2-3 minutes - Anyone Experiencing This?

And here is some additional information....

So looking in the logs, I can see DHCP requests coming from devices shortly after the incident (because they were dropped from the ORBI satellite). What is really interesting is both ORBI Satellites made DHCP lease requests to the Router which implies that the Satellites themselves are being dropped and forced to re-request IP addresses from the Router.  This explains a lot of what's going on here, I think.

 

I think the fact the guest network continued to work may have been a result of my laptop actually connecting directly to the Router instead of to the Satellite (it is close enough that it could do that) which also explains slower ping times and variability in those ping times.  

 

In any event, this is bad news because I cannot manage DHCP leases in ORBI, other than to uncheck the box that says "Use Router as DHCP Server"

 

If I uncheck that box - what are the implications?  How are devices going to obtain IP addresses and not collide?  I cannot set a static IP address on every device, it's not possible.

 

Message 6 of 22
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: RBK735S 3 unit mesh drops WiFi daily for 2-3 minutes - Anyone Experiencing This?

 Try testing with out any RBS online. Then try test with 1 RBS then 2 RBS. Swap locations with the RBS to see if the problem follows. 

 

Disabling DHCP will cause devices to not get a IP address when they are Dynamic configured for IP addressing. 

Message 7 of 22
gman88
Tutor

Re: RBK735S 3 unit mesh drops WiFi daily for 2-3 minutes - Anyone Experiencing This?

So I have confirmed in the Logs that after each of these incidents, which are now happening several times per day, there are several DHCP requests and so I suspect this is somehow part of the issue. You can see some of the same devices are retrying several times to get a lease.

 

[DHCP IP: (10.0.0.15)] to MAC address 78:4F:43:64:5E:E2, Thursday, Apr 22,2021 16:08:46
[DHCP IP: (10.0.0.9)] to MAC address 14:C1:4E:01:BE:34, Thursday, Apr 22,2021 16:08:44
[DHCP IP: (10.0.0.6)] to MAC address F2:8B:92:56:EA:F0, Thursday, Apr 22,2021 16:08:27
[DHCP IP: (10.0.0.6)] to MAC address F2:8B:92:56:EA:F0, Thursday, Apr 22,2021 16:07:33
[DHCP IP: (10.0.0.9)] to MAC address 14:C1:4E:01:BE:34, Thursday, Apr 22,2021 16:06:51
[DHCP IP: (10.0.0.9)] to MAC address 14:C1:4E:01:BE:34, Thursday, Apr 22,2021 16:04:58
[DHCP IP: (10.0.0.9)] to MAC address 14:C1:4E:01:BE:34, Thursday, Apr 22,2021 16:03:13
[DHCP IP: (192.168.2.9)] to MAC address 3A:E0:AF:F8:AB:DB, Thursday, Apr 22,2021 16:02:25
[DHCP IP: (10.0.0.6)] to MAC address F2:8B:92:56:EA:F0, Thursday, Apr 22,2021 16:01:59
[DHCP IP: (192.168.2.6)] to MAC address 7C:2A:31:6A:A5:54, Thursday, Apr 22,2021 16:01:31
[DHCP IP: (10.0.0.14)] to MAC address 7C:2A:31:6A:A5:54, Thursday, Apr 22,2021 15:53:30
[DHCP IP: (10.0.0.17)] to MAC address DC:FB:48:BE:B4:6E, Thursday, Apr 22,2021 15:44:59
[DHCP IP: (10.0.0.19)] to MAC address DC:71:96:83:45:4B, Thursday, Apr 22,2021 15:21:12
[DHCP IP: (192.168.2.3)] to MAC address 48:43:DD:3E:8F:9A, Thursday, Apr 22,2021 15:17:06
[DHCP IP: (10.0.0.19)] to MAC address DC:71:96:83:45:4B, Thursday, Apr 22,2021 15:15:11
[DHCP IP: (192.168.2.8)] to MAC address 9C:5A:44:C5:4B:64, Thursday, Apr 22,2021 14:47:09
[DHCP IP: (192.168.2.7)] to MAC address DC:71:96:83:45:4B, Thursday, Apr 22,2021 14:25:58
[DHCP IP: (192.168.2.7)] to MAC address DC:71:96:83:45:4B, Thursday, Apr 22,2021 14:23:44
[DHCP IP: (10.0.0.17)] to MAC address DC:FB:48:BE:B4:6E, Thursday, Apr 22,2021 13:56:47
[DHCP IP: (10.0.0.14)] to MAC address 7C:2A:31:6A:A5:54, Thursday, Apr 22,2021 13:52:44
[DHCP IP: (10.0.0.17)] to MAC address DC:FB:48:BE:B4:6E, Thursday, Apr 22,2021 13:36:51
[DHCP IP: (10.0.0.17)] to MAC address DC:FB:48:BE:B4:6E, Thursday, Apr 22,2021 13:29:14
[DHCP IP: (192.168.2.2)] to MAC address F8:54:B8:71:97:94, Thursday, Apr 22,2021 13:26:58
[DHCP IP: (10.0.0.14)] to MAC address 7C:2A:31:6A:A5:54, Thursday, Apr 22,2021 12:57:30
[DHCP IP: (192.168.2.3)] to MAC address 48:43:DD:3E:8F:9A, Thursday, Apr 22,2021 12:50:49
[DHCP IP: (10.0.0.14)] to MAC address 7C:2A:31:6A:A5:54, Thursday, Apr 22,2021 12:46:15

 

On Reddit there were some additional suggestions which I performed ahead of this latest 16:03 outage:

  • Disable Traffic Meter
  • Disconnect any hardwired devices from ethernet ports
  • Reserve IP addresses for both Satellites (attempt to avoid DHCP requests from those devices)
  • Reboot Router, then Satellite #1, then Satellite #2

I have to say, I think I've tried everything at this point and will likely return the Mesh, unless someone can help.  Netgear support is worthless.  Their help was to upgrade the firmware (which I already did).

For $700, you expect this hardware to work out of the box.  This is rediculous.

Message 8 of 22
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: RBK735S 3 unit mesh drops WiFi daily for 2-3 minutes - Anyone Experiencing This?

Please do not include any MAC addresses in public forums. 

 

I see both 10 and 192 addresses being in the mix. I believe this is due to your modem being in router mode. I would be best to bridge this modem if possible. Is the 10 addresses coming from the RBR or from the ISP Modem? I believe they are coming from the RBR since 10 maybe set on the RBR due to the ISP modem using 192.168.1.1 and the RBR avoids this conflict and sets 10. 

 

Yes you can set IP address reservations for the RBS on the RBR. What I do when mines in router mode.

 

Would need to check with the RBS turned OFF if the problem persists with the RBR alone and see. 

 

 

Message 9 of 22
gman88
Tutor

Re: RBK735S 3 unit mesh drops WiFi daily for 2-3 minutes - Anyone Experiencing This?

Address Space:

  • Modem (LAN Side)
    • 192.168.0.1
    • Netmask 255.255.255.0
  • RBR
    • Address on Modem network side: 192.168.0.2
    • RBR Main Network:
      • 10.0.0.0
      • Netmask: 255.255.255.0
      • Given this, I don't see any address overlap and thus no compelling reason to mess with my ISP Modem for bridging.
    • RBR Guest Network
      • 192.168.2.0
      • Netmask: unknown but assuming 255.255.255.0.  Where in the orbilogin.com can I confirm guest network netmask (it is not on LAN Setup, nor Guest Network pages)?

I enabled address reservations for both RBS yesterday, and the issue occurred regardless.  What was different is that neither RBS sent a DHCP request after the incident.  So reservations are working, but whatever the root cause, it's still occurring.

 

I had been hoping the resolution of NTP would address the issue (RBR thought it was Dec, 2020), as whatever magic maintenance is happening with these devices is supposed to occur during the evening or night, where I would not be working (and kids not in remote learning), thus not impacting us.  But as of yesterday with corrrected NTP setting it did not help.

Message 10 of 22
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: RBK735S 3 unit mesh drops WiFi daily for 2-3 minutes - Anyone Experiencing This?

Did you set a 10.0.0.0 addresss on the RBR or did the RBR do this? 

 

Message 11 of 22
gman88
Tutor

Re: RBK735S 3 unit mesh drops WiFi daily for 2-3 minutes - Anyone Experiencing This?

Orbi RBR did this on its own

Message 12 of 22
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: RBK735S 3 unit mesh drops WiFi daily for 2-3 minutes - Anyone Experiencing This?

Odd it would do that if your modem router is on .0.1 on it's LAN side. The RBR should default to .1.1 normally. 

Seems like there maybe some odd issue here with this. You might set the RBR for 192.168.1.1. Then set the IP address pool range for 192.168.1.100 to .200. 

 

Or your may try and configure the RBR for AP mode instead. 

Set manual channels 11 and 40 on the RBR. 

Be sure that no wifi radios on the modem router are enabled. 

 

I would test the RBR with the modem alone. Do not turn ON the RBS for now. See if the problem continues with the RBR, if it does, you may need to contact NG support for additional help and information. 

Message 13 of 22
driph
Tutor

Re: RBK735S 3 unit mesh drops WiFi daily for 2-3 minutes - Anyone Experiencing This?

@gman88, do you have an internal server or similar that you can try reaching via your computer when the outage happens? I've been experiencing the same issue as you, and one thing I've noticed is that while I can't ping the Orbi router directly, I can reach other machines that are plugged into the router, from a machine connected wirelessly to the satellite.

 

 

Message 14 of 22
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: RBK735S 3 unit mesh drops WiFi daily for 2-3 minutes - Anyone Experiencing This?

What Firmware version is currently loaded?
What is the Mfr and model# of the Internet Service Providers modem/ONT the NG router is connected too?

 


@driph wrote:

I've been experiencing the same issue as you, and one thing I've noticed is that while I can't ping the Orbi router directly, I can reach other machines that are plugged into the router, from a machine connected wirelessly to the satellite.

 

 


 

Message 15 of 22
driph
Tutor

Re: RBK735S 3 unit mesh drops WiFi daily for 2-3 minutes - Anyone Experiencing This?


@FURRYe38 wrote:

What Firmware version is currently loaded?
What is the Mfr and model# of the Internet Service Providers modem/ONT the NG router is connected too?

 


@driph wrote:

I've been experiencing the same issue as you, and one thing I've noticed is that while I can't ping the Orbi router directly, I can reach other machines that are plugged into the router, from a machine connected wirelessly to the satellite.

 

 


 


V3.2.18.1_1.4.14

Calix 716GE-I

Message 16 of 22
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: RBK735S 3 unit mesh drops WiFi daily for 2-3 minutes - Anyone Experiencing This?

Does the front of the RBR light up any when this happens? 

Do your wired devices also loose internet or just wifi? 

 

What is the size of your home? Sq Ft?
What is the distance between the router and satellite(s)? 30 feet or more is recommended in between RBR and RBS to begin with depending upon building materials when wirelessly connected. 

 

What channels are you using? Auto? Try setting manual channel 1, 6 or 11 on 2.4Ghz and 40 to 48 channel on 5Ghz.
Any Wifi Neighbors near by? If so, how many?

 

Has a power off for 1 minute then back ON with the ISP modem and Orbi system been performed since last update?

 


@driph wrote:

@FURRYe38 wrote:

What Firmware version is currently loaded?
What is the Mfr and model# of the Internet Service Providers modem/ONT the NG router is connected too?

 


@driph wrote:

I've been experiencing the same issue as you, and one thing I've noticed is that while I can't ping the Orbi router directly, I can reach other machines that are plugged into the router, from a machine connected wirelessly to the satellite.

 

 


 


V3.2.18.1_1.4.14

Calix 716GE-I


 

Message 17 of 22
gman88
Tutor

Re: RBK735S 3 unit mesh drops WiFi daily for 2-3 minutes - Anyone Experiencing This?

@driph not sure.  Most devices are laptops or other end consumer devices.  But I could try to run a ping.  I'll let you know.

Message 18 of 22
gman88
Tutor

Re: RBK735S 3 unit mesh drops WiFi daily for 2-3 minutes - Anyone Experiencing This?

@FURRYe38 To answer your questions ...

 

No lights appear on Satellites nor Router during the incidents

I had one hardwired device (to a Satellite) and have disconnected it as part of debugging.

I estimate 34 feet between Satellite and Router, typical drywall home.  Signal goes through 3 walls to the Router from Satellite.

 

2.4GHz is Auto, 5G is set to 48.

Fair number of wifi neighbors as I live in a city.  Only 1 neighbor seems to have signal strength over -51db.  His mesh looks to be on Channels 1, and 149.

 

I have cold booted.

 

I have a general update which I'll post separately in a minute.

 

Message 19 of 22
gman88
Tutor

Re: RBK735S 3 unit mesh drops WiFi daily for 2-3 minutes - Anyone Experiencing This?

All,

Thanks for your suggestions.  As a follow-up to my note of ‎2021-04-22 04:22 PM, I made several changes which seem to have had some positive effects.  

 

Per my other note, per suggestions on Reddit, I:

  1. Turned off Traffic Meter,
  2. Disconnected my one hard wired device from a Satellite
  3. Continued to add devices to Advanced -> Lan Setup -> "Address Reservations"
  4. Changed my NTP server.  NTP was showing Dec, 2020
  5. I renewed my DHCP lease for the Router, to a time of day just before going to bed, with a 7 day renewal duration.
  6. I have also been running a ping command non-stop to 8.8.8.8 and logging the output (2 pings every 5 seconds).

 

That combination of changes has provided some stability over the past week. I suspect the root cause may have been with the Traffic Meter (#1) (many on Reddit seem to think so), but also (#4 and #5) might be better hiding the issue as it may be happening when I sleep now.  I'm not totally convinced of this because while some ping drops occur, I no longer see 2-3 minutes of total network loss between the RBR and the Modem.  There have also been no patches auto downloaded this week, which could also be the root cause for these interruptions.

 

Also worth mentioning, that on item #4, I was not able to provide ntp IP addresses for "Set your preferred NTP server".  Rather I had to specify a A Record, which took me a while to figure out "time.nist.gov" did the trick.

 

I'll let you know if I have anything further to share.

 

 

Message 20 of 22
SeaRefractor
Apprentice

Re: RBK735S 3 unit mesh drops WiFi daily for 2-3 minutes - Anyone Experiencing This?

Glad those changes brought you stability.     I am also mostly stable in regards to WiFi drops, but it still occurs occasionally.

 

I've done what you have done, but one additional item as well.     I removed my vendors (CentuyLink) router/modem from the mix and have my CenturyLink ONT connected directly to my Orbi RBR750.     I had to configure VLAN 201 to the internet connection and settings, but it's worked very well and provides full benefit of the service (testing from a desktop connected to the RBR750 by ethernet).

 

Even with this setup, I have the occasional WiFi drop (resolves itself).     However it's no longer daily.    Hoping a future firmeware update resolves it entirely, but not yet.

Message 21 of 22
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: RBK735S 3 unit mesh drops WiFi daily for 2-3 minutes - Anyone Experiencing This?


@gman88 wrote:

All,

Thanks for your suggestions.  As a follow-up to my note of ‎2021-04-22 04:22 PM, I made several changes which seem to have had some positive effects.  

 

Per my other note, per suggestions on Reddit, I:

  1. Turned off Traffic Meter, <How was TM configured? 
  2. Disconnected my one hard wired device from a Satellite <What devices did you have connected to the RBS?
  3. Continued to add devices to Advanced -> Lan Setup -> "Address Reservations"
  4. Changed my NTP server.  NTP was showing Dec, 2020 <Usuing NGs time server address did not work? 
  5. I renewed my DHCP lease for the Router, to a time of day just before going to bed, with a 7 day renewal duration. <This from the ISP Modem?
  6. I have also been running a ping command non-stop to 8.8.8.8 and logging the output (2 pings every 5 seconds).

 

That combination of changes has provided some stability over the past week. I suspect the root cause may have been with the Traffic Meter (#1) (many on Reddit seem to think so), but also (#4 and #5) might be better hiding the issue as it may be happening when I sleep now.  I'm not totally convinced of this because while some ping drops occur, I no longer see 2-3 minutes of total network loss between the RBR and the Modem.  There have also been no patches auto downloaded this week, which could also be the root cause for these interruptions.

 

Also worth mentioning, that on item #4, I was not able to provide ntp IP addresses for "Set your preferred NTP server".  Rather I had to specify a A Record, which took me a while to figure out "time.nist.gov" did the trick.

 

I'll let you know if I have anything further to share. <Please Do.

 

 


 

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