Re: DHCP Address Reservations not Working

Squeaky369 · ‎2018-06-14

Hello all...

My setup:

AT&T GigaPower Fiber (1000/1000) with 5 Public Static IP Addresses

The RBR50 is hooked into the modem and is assigned one of those PUBLIC STATIC IPs, and bypasses the modem's firewall - in this mode the router is hooked directly to the Internet.

I have 1 satellite - RBS50 (not using Ethernet backhaul cause it's broken, Thanks Netgear! A+ job there).

Both the Router and the satellite is running 2.1.4.16.

Now my issue. Let me set the scene:

Sunday morning I woke up, was surfin the interwebs and everything came to a hault. Waited about 10 minutes, tried again, nothing. Went down to check the router, no status lights, green light for power though. I power cycled both the router and satelite. Normal lights, still nothing. Couldn't get to the setup page for either router / satellite. I isolated the router and used my quarantine laptop (yes, I have a laptop that is only used for network testing - that's how many issues I have with this wonderful product), and it wouldn't get an IP. Manually set a static to match the router, and still could not get to the configuration.

I factory reset the modem, waited about 10 minutes. Nothing still. Factory reset it again, waited 10 minutes... Nothing... I did this 3 more times, and finally, on the 5 attempt, I got an IP and was able to login and start setting up from scratch. Once I got everything configured, and hooked the router back into my switch, it went down again. Isolated, Factory reset a 6th time - set it all back up, plugged the switch in and it worked.

Now; I have a SmartThings hub and a few devices on the network that require that they keep the same IP address. These devices don't have the option to set a static, so I've always used the DHCP Address Reservation, which to my surprise has actually worked. However, now it's not.

I log into the router, go to Advanced -> Setup -> LAN Setup. Click ADD at the bottom, I set the IP and pick the device from the list (and yes, I've confirmed the MAC matches the device) and I set it. Usually, power cycling the device will cause it to get a new IP since it will reach out and ask DHCP what it should use, but its not. DHCP reservations are set to 24 hours, but they aren't expiring. I've turned off DHCP and turned it back on, I've deleted the entries and recreated, power cycled, the works (other than a 7th factory reset).

On Tuesday, after my ST Hub has not worked for almost 3 days, I unplugged the ST Hub and I set my laptop to the same IP address that the Orbi was assigning to the ST Hub (192.168.1.111 - It should be 244). Plugged the ST Hub back in, and the 'Attached Devices' screen still shows my laptop having the old IP it had before I set the static, and the Hub still having 111. I logged into the Hub, and it has the IP of 135 though, so not only is the reservation not working, but the attached device screen is not updating either.

So what am I doing wrong here? Should I just go ahead and disable DHCP on the Orbi and use my server for DHCP because asking the Orbi to do a simple function is too much? Is it too stressful for it to ask for it to do what it was designed to do? I tried calling support, but sat waiting for 45 minutes for someone, and they're just going to tell me to factory reset it again, which is a completely unacceptable thing to tell someone to do. Did I find yet another bug that Netgear won't acknowledge?

tl:dr - Router is a POS, factory reset it 6 times and now DHCP reservations won't work and Attached Devices list won't update.

FURRYe38 · ‎2018-06-14

What is the Mfr and model# of the ISP modem? built in router here by chance?

What browser are you using to managed the Orbi router and set reservations?

How many reservations are you setting? How many devices?

How do you know the wired back haul isn't working on the RBS50?

Any network switches in between the router and satellite? If so, Mfr and mode#? Manage or non managed switch by chance?

How are you setting up wired backhaul? Needs to be set up wireless first then connect the wired cable between the satellite and router. 5 minutes needed to let the system configure it.

I would do this, disconnect ALL devices from the Orbi router accept for one wired PC.

Use IE11 or FF browser and re-load v.16 fw again on to the router. After it loads use the ERASE funtion in the routers web page and reset back to factory then set up from scratch. Set up one reservation for the wired PC. Save changes.

Then begin to turn on one device at a time and start adding reservations and saving.

This result in any better behavior?

Squeaky369 · ‎2018-06-14

It doesn't matter what the modem is, it could be a magical unicorn that shoots fiber out its rear end... It has one cable that comes in from the NID and one going to the Orbi with a PUBLIC STATIC IP ADDRESS set, not a private static, a PUBLIC STATIC. I have to stress that because people don't understand when PUBLIC I mean PUBLIC. I pay for PUBLIC STATIC IPs so that I can host services without using a DynamicDNS service. The modem does not exist in the eyes of the Orbi, nor does it hand out DHCP to any of the clients. It on a different subnet altogether and just sits there doing its thing without saying a peep.

I have 6 reservations; none of them are working.

I have 30 devices. None of them are updating.

The wired back back haul isn't working because when I plug a cable into the satellite, it pukes all over itself and crashes, devices that are hard wired lose connection and wireless devices connected will drop. As soon as I unplug it, it's all sunshine and rainbows.

I've used Safari / Chrome on Mac and IE / Edge and Chrome on Windows, the results are all the same. This has nothing to do with my OS, laptop cables, switches, modem, or other networking equipment. This issue has been traced down squarely to the Orbi. If I remove that from the network, everything works fine. As soon as I put that back into play and configure it, or even if I don't, that's when everything starts going haywire.

But I'm go ahead and factory reset it again, and I'll reload the firmware and reset it again, and put all my port forwarding's back in again. I'll report back when it (eventually) doesn't work.

FURRYe38 · ‎2018-06-14

Try changing the IP address to 192.168.1.100 to .200 on the router.

Squeaky369 · ‎2018-06-14

It's actually set to 192.168.1.1...

But it didn't work anyway.

I did what you said: reset the router, reinstalled the firmware on both the router and the satelite. I even factory reset the unicorn for funzies.

I had my MAC addresses written down ahead of time, created the reservations and then started plugging devices in. One-by-one they received the wrong IPs. I turned DHCP off on the Orbi, created a scope on my Win 2016 Datacenter Server, set my reservations and activated it and long behold, every device received their reservation almost instantly...

I plugged in the back haul on the satelite, cause you seemed surprised that I reported that it didn't work. I got about 5 feet away when I got an alert that my internet was down, and (surprise) the Orbi was offline. No lights, couldn't PING it, couldn't get to the config page. Just, down... I went back, turned off the satelite and router came back up about 30 seconds later. I plugged the satelite back in, and it went back down...

I factory reset everything, isolated just the router, satelite and my laptop (no unicorn or other devices). Did not set any options, left everything default, then plugged a CAT6 cable into the router and the satelite... And it went down, almost instantly (had a PING -T going). There's obviously still an issue with the Ethernet Back Haul that Netgear is not reporting, or I have a defective unit (and support is usless, I've been on hold for 2 hours now waiting for someone).

At this point, I'm over it. I'm going to find a new system and send this one back to the depths from which it came (most likely with a 20 lbs sledge).

Unless someone has another suggestion other than blaming it on another piece of equipment I have (which everything else is working just fine).

FURRYe38 · ‎2018-06-15

Do you have any network switches in between the satellite and router or on your network?

I would probably return the unit or ask for an RMA. Something about DHCP services on this isn't working. Seems odd that your only experiencing this. Maybe others are and just haven't reported it. One users mentioned the other day that changing IP address pool to something smaller helped him as he seem to be seeing odd DHCP behaviors similar to what your seeing. Reason why I mentioned it.

Ethernet back haul is working for others so you may have just a bad package, I would see if NG would RMA it or go find something else.

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Orbi-firmware-update-v2-1-4-16-availability/m-p/1591225/highli...

junktrunk · ‎2018-12-10

I came across this page while searching for a solution to a problem I was having with my Orbi (RBR20 with 2 RBS20 sats) and their lack of honoring DHCP reservations. Given the lack of SNMP support in this router (unless I'm mistaken?) it was unnecessarily difficult to diagnose, but I found through using Wireshark that I was indeed correct that the router was making incorrect DHCP assignments. It turns out that my issue was resolved by changing the router's "Starting IP Address" and "Ending IP Address" range (within the "Use Router as a DHCP Server" setting under Advanced->Setup->LAN Setup) such that that range *includes* the IP addresses that I'm using in the reservation. When I had my range set to .100-254 and had a reservation set for .60, the router ignored that reservation and gave my device an address witin 100-254. When I opened the range to 60-254 and rebooted the device, the router gave it the correct .60.

This is not normally how DHCP reservations are implemented in other routers -- typically you can set the reservations to whatever address you want, and the range is only used to designate the pool to use for non-reservations. I'm a little worried that it'll end up assigning the same IP twice now (which is one reason to set the pool to avoid any conflicts) but I will hope for the best. I hope this solution works for someone else too who was confused and struggling to find an answer.

FURRYe38 · ‎2018-12-11

Have you done a factory reset and set up the router from scratch and then set a IP address range .100 to .200?

If this still fails, you might try a manual re-load of the FW file on the router, factory reset after the FW load and try again to set a IP address range of .100 to .200 and test.

If the router doesn't honor the new IP address range and keeps giving out IPs outside of this range, I recommend that you get ahold of NG support and have them RMA the router.

@junktrunk wrote:

I came across this page while searching for a solution to a problem I was having with my Orbi (RBR20 with 2 RBS20 sats) and their lack of honoring DHCP reservations. Given the lack of SNMP support in this router (unless I'm mistaken?) it was unnecessarily difficult to diagnose, but I found through using Wireshark that I was indeed correct that the router was making incorrect DHCP assignments. It turns out that my issue was resolved by changing the router's "Starting IP Address" and "Ending IP Address" range (within the "Use Router as a DHCP Server" setting under Advanced->Setup->LAN Setup) such that that range *includes* the IP addresses that I'm using in the reservation. When I had my range set to .100-254 and had a reservation set for .60, the router ignored that reservation and gave my device an address witin 100-254. When I opened the range to 60-254 and rebooted the device, the router gave it the correct .60.

This is not normally how DHCP reservations are implemented in other routers -- typically you can set the reservations to whatever address you want, and the range is only used to designate the pool to use for non-reservations. I'm a little worried that it'll end up assigning the same IP twice now (which is one reason to set the pool to avoid any conflicts) but I will hope for the best. I hope this solution works for someone else too who was confused and struggling to find an answer.

junktrunk · ‎2018-12-11

Thanks for the follow up. Just in case my previous post wasn't clear, it's not that the router was giving addresses outside of the start-end range. It was that if a reservation was created for an address that was outside that range, the router chose to ignore the reservation completely and instead give an address within the range. When I adjusted the range to be wide enough to include the reservation addresses, it correctly assigned those addresses to those devices. I don't see other routers interpret the range so strictly. At a minimum I think the user should receive a warning if the range and reservations are in conflict and will generate unexpected problems.

FURRYe38 · ‎2018-12-11

Just to be clear, IP address reservations need to be given while Inside the IP address range, not out side of it. Any IP addresses out side of the IP address range are meant for Static IP addressing that are set ON the connected devices only.

@junktrunk wrote:
Thanks for the follow up. Just in case my previous post wasn't clear, it's not that the router was giving addresses outside of the start-end range. It was that if a reservation was created for an address that was outside that range, the router chose to ignore the reservation completely and instead give an address within the range. When I adjusted the range to be wide enough to include the reservation addresses, it correctly assigned those addresses to those devices. I don't see other routers interpret the range so strictly. At a minimum I think the user should receive a warning if the range and reservations are in conflict and will generate unexpected problems.

junktrunk · ‎2019-04-03

Yeah I got that. My point was that there's no reason for such a limitation to exist. I should be able to say I want dynamic IP assignments to be from a certain pool of addresses, but I want certain devices to be able to be assigned whatever address I set, whether inside the dynamic range or not. There's no technical reason why that shouldn't be possible, as I did it all the time before on D-Link equipment.

Also at the very least the Orbi should make more clear that that's not supported.

FURRYe38 · ‎2019-04-03

Well since Orbi is a home class router, not much call for advanced DHCP addressing. I think most averages users just want simple addressing where needed. Anything beyond that is not useful for most and thus probably why NG isn't supporting anything advanced DHCP features like other mfrs. NG chooses to run there systems they way they see fit. DHCP Addresss Reservations IS working on Orbi. The behavior of DHCP and reservations is for only inside a pool range. Anything outside is not supported for reservations. Anything outside a pool range is meant for static IP addresses which are set ON devices. Not on a router. This is normal networking standards btw.

Good Luck.