Re: RBR50 intermittent DNS lookup issues

DavidDaly · ‎2021-03-18

I'm willing! I sent a private message.

FURRYe38 · ‎2021-03-18

What happens if the DST is enabled? Does the problem re-appear?

@alokeprasad wrote:
Does it matter that my Orbi is 1 hr behind?
It is not set to adjust for DST automatically and did not. It has been working fine.

Brentx · ‎2021-03-18

Sure... but should I have done that prior to calling support? Is that the new standard... Hunt and peck around for their issues they introduce? Imagine all the old folks getting fleeced by them because of people who call in first..

vajim · ‎2021-03-18

@Brentx wrote:
Sure... but should I have done that prior to calling support? Is that the new standard... Hunt and peck around for their issues they introduce? Imagine all the old folks getting fleeced by them because of people who call in first..

help is here

@ChristineT

alokeprasad · ‎2021-03-18

@FURRYe38 wrote:
What happens if the DST is enabled? Does the problem re-appear?
@alokeprasad wrote:
Does it matter that my Orbi is 1 hr behind?
It is not set to adjust for DST automatically and did not. It has been working fine.

I never had any problems w DNS so I am reluctant to change any settings. I need my network for work and Netflix!!

I really don't care if the Orbi's clock is off by 1 hr.as long as all my devices are able to resolve names.

kevindubs · ‎2021-03-18

I've had DST enabled after factory reset.

It's been about 23 hours now, with no issue.

vajim · ‎2021-03-18

@kevindubs wrote:
I've had DST enabled after factory reset.
It's been about 23 hours now, with no issue.

nice....good luck

archp · ‎2021-03-18

No factory reset here. This is what I did so far, around 4pm Yesterday, I did the following:

Turn off dst, (live in Cali, so changed time zone to Alaska), pointed ntp server to pool.ntp.org.

So far no disconnections, will update if it goes a full 24 hours.

I also emailed the engineering team all my details as well. Will keep you all posted when I hear back.

FURRYe38 · ‎2021-03-18

Sounds good, keep it going for now.

Mines enabled and set to actual time zome. No issues thus far.

@alokeprasad wrote:
@FURRYe38 wrote:
What happens if the DST is enabled? Does the problem re-appear?
@alokeprasad wrote:
Does it matter that my Orbi is 1 hr behind?
It is not set to adjust for DST automatically and did not. It has been working fine.

I never had any problems w DNS so I am reluctant to change any settings. I need my network for work and Netflix!!
I really don't care if the Orbi's clock is off by 1 hr.as long as all my devices are able to resolve names.

vajim · ‎2021-03-18

@FURRYe38 wrote:
Sounds good, keep it going for now.
Mines enabled and set to actual time zome. No issues thus far.

but yours was never broken

AnOrbiUser · ‎2021-03-18

Same issue here -- the following has been happening for a few days now:

1) At least once every 24 hour period all of my 56+ devices (smart house) are no longer able to find internet -- note the wifi signal is fine and my LAN works great

2) Manually configuring a device with DNS works around the issue entirely, but practically I can't configure DNS for all of my smart devices

3) Resetting the RBR50 or even just pressing the "Test" button in the Internet Setup page in the Admin interface resolves the issue for another ~24 hours

I updated the firmware yesterday to V2.7.2.104, but no change in behavior. I would very much like to avoid a factory reset, so I am trying the NTP server change and disabling DST as suggested by others here.

riegelj · ‎2021-03-18

I was abble to reproduce the problem with debug enabled. Log files have been set to the engineers.

vajim · ‎2021-03-18

@riegelj wrote:
I was abble to reproduce the problem with debug enabled. Log files have been set to the engineers.

thanks...that would be like the 'firmware' engineers.

mwhold11 · ‎2021-03-18

I have been experiencing internet connectivity issues and initially thought it was my DSL. After troubleshooting and researching online I used telnet to connect to my Orbi and discovered that dnsmasq was not running which explained why DNS lookups were not running on my system.

As a workaround I created a cron task to run a bash script which uses the ps command to check whether dnsmasq is running and forces a restart if it is not running.

The steps I performed are outlined below:

1. Enable telnet mode using http://X.X.X.X/debug.htm where X.X.X.X is the IP address of the Orbi router.

2. Telnet into the Orbi router.

3. Create the bash script using the following command:

echo 'DNSSTAT=`ps|grep -c dnsmasq`' >/tmp/dnsmasq-test.sh
echo 'if [ $DNSSTAT == 1 ]' >>/tmp/dnsmasq-test.sh
echo 'then' >>/tmp/dnsmasq-test.sh
echo '/etc/init.d/dnsmasq restart' >>/tmp/dnsmasq-test.sh
echo 'fi' >>/tmp/dnsmasq-test.sh

4. Make the bash script executable using the following command:
chmod +x /tmp/dnsmasq-test.sh

5. Create a cron job to run the batch file ever minute using the following command:
echo '* * * * * /tmp/dnsmasq-test.sh' >>/tmp/etc/crontabs/root

The above steps should force the dmsmasq process to reload and should keep DNS outages down to a couple of minutes until a better or permanent fix becomes available.

Please note that changes to the configuration or reboots of the router will require reapplication of the workaround.

FURRYe38 · ‎2021-03-18

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Alternative-ways-to-troubleshoot-instead-of-just-downgrade-FW-...

@AnOrbiUser wrote:
Same issue here -- the following has been happening for a few days now:

1) At least once every 24 hour period all of my 56+ devices (smart house) are no longer able to find internet -- note the wifi signal is fine and my LAN works great
2) Manually configuring a device with DNS works around the issue entirely, but practically I can't configure DNS for all of my smart devices
3) Resetting the RBR50 or even just pressing the "Test" button in the Internet Setup page in the Admin interface resolves the issue for another ~24 hours

I updated the firmware yesterday to V2.7.2.104, but no change in behavior. I would very much like to avoid a factory reset, so I am trying the NTP server change and disabling DST as suggested by others here.

chozian · ‎2021-03-18

Model: RBK50v2
Firmware: 2.7.2.104

I've been experiencing the same issue as OP starting immediately after the recent time change. Adding a root cronjob that restarts the dnsmasq service every hour has significantly reduced the occurrence of the symptom. I just got done bumping the cron job up to run every 30 minutes. The NTP config change sounds appealing and easy to apply and revert. I will likely give that a shot if the symptom appears again. I reached out to a Netgear admin and moderator via DM to provide my assistance in troubleshooting if necessary. My hope is that they can develop a fix and release a firmware update soon. My next fallback is Voxel's custom RBK50 firmware since the issue has not been reported using it. If all else fails, I'll return my RBK50 to Costco thanks to their liberal return policy.

As previously linked, I found the information available at https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Orbi-DNS-and-DHCP-and-NTP-Broken-Short-Term-Fix-Options/m-p/20... the most helpful.

mwhold11 · ‎2021-03-18

there was an issue with the first version of the workaround that I posted. An updated version is shown below.

Enable telnet mode using http://X.X.X.X/debug.htm where X.X.X.X is the IP address of the Orbi router.

2. Telnet into the Orbi router.

3. Create the bash script using the following command:

echo 'DNSSTAT=`ps|grep -c dnsmasq`' >/tmp/dns-test.sh
echo 'if [ "$DNSSTAT" == "1" ]' >>/tmp/dns-test.sh
echo 'then' >>/tmp/dns-test.sh
echo '/etc/init.d/dnsmasq restart' >>/tmp/dns-test.sh
echo 'fi' >>/tmp/dns-test.sh

4. Make the bash script executable using the following command:
chmod +x /tmp/dns-test.sh

5. Create a cron job to run the batch file ever minute using the following command:
echo '* * * * * /tmp/dns-test.sh' >>/tmp/etc/crontabs/root

SirVilhelm · ‎2021-03-18

This is what I did as well, no disconnects so far. Think it's obvious that this is connected to the time change.

Edit: what I did was change the time service to pool.ntb.org and disabled auto daylight saving adjustment.

Coffeecup · ‎2021-03-18

RBR50v2

Unsure FW but issues occurred around DST and FW upgrade

Mac Os 10.13.6 High Sierra

xfinity internet

archp · ‎2021-03-18

Ok so this seems to be working, 24 hrs and no disconnect.

Glad I didn't waste hours doing a factory reset and spend time reconfiguring.

If a factory reset worked for others, great, if you want an alternative, try the below.

Also that is literally the only thing I did, didn't mess with DNS or anything else.

This did the trick. For those looking

@archp wrote:
No factory reset here. This is what I did so far, around 4pm Yesterday, I did the following:

Turn off dst, (live in Cali, so changed time zone to Alaska), pointed ntp server to pool.ntp.org.

So far no disconnections, will update if it goes a full 24 hours.

I also emailed the engineering team all my details as well. Will keep you all posted when I hear back.

tak1313 · ‎2021-03-19

Could the DNS problem be related to this, considering it's not affecting all units?

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3603929/flaws-in-widely-used-dnsmasq-software-leave-millions-of-li...

I also have an Asus router and noticed their most recent update specifically mentions it fixes the above situation - unlike Netgear that never states what their updates are doing.

tak1313 · ‎2021-03-19

This article also includes OpenWRT as specifically vulnerable (the other article mentions Netgear as a manufacturer. I believe Netgear routers (among many) is based on OpenWRT?

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/01/19/dnsmasq-vulnerabilities/

Note- I don't know if this is THE issue, especially since Netgear has the annoying habit of NOT stating what their updates address. I'm just stating a possible source of the issue.

FURRYe38 · ‎2021-03-19

Anything is possible. However since some users have disabled DST or made a change in NTP, possible that these two could be related. Seems that for the most part the problem appears to be over after these changes, until the next time we have the time change.

Yes Orbi is based off a build of WRT. If you look at the telnet window when you log in, it gives this information.

@tak1313 wrote:
This article also includes OpenWRT as specifically vulnerable (the other article mentions Netgear as a manufacturer. I believe Netgear routers (among many) is based on OpenWRT?

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/01/19/dnsmasq-vulnerabilities/

Note- I don't know if this is THE issue, especially since Netgear has the annoying habit of NOT stating what their updates address. I'm just stating a possible source of the issue.

vajim · ‎2021-03-19

@tak1313 wrote:
Could the DNS problem be related to this, considering it's not affecting all units?

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3603929/flaws-in-widely-used-dnsmasq-software-leave-millions-of-li...

I also have an Asus router and noticed their most recent update specifically mentions it fixes the above situation - unlike Netgear that never states what their updates are doing.

and of course there are generic release notes

archp · ‎2021-03-19

This is what the netgear engineer said:

We have identified that the traffic meter will cause problem while auto daylight saving time enabled. Since you turn off auto daylight saving time, the issue should be go away. Turn off traffic meter would also avoid the issue. We are working on a trial fix firmware. Will provide to you once it’s ready. Thanks.