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So having spent several days on this problem I've got further forward with this problem.
I dug out my ISP router and my old ASUS router and connected them up. 100% connectivity works fine i.e. no DNS hangs or error messages from devices saying no internet. The only problem is both units the wifi isn't great hence the purchase of the Orbi system.
I reconnected the Netgear Orbi unit and the two satellite units and lo and behold the DNS issue came came even after a full factory reset.
I've managed to setup PI-hole and use that as a DNS server bypassing the Orbi as a DNS server. Eveything on the network is working flawlessly no more DNS hangs and in fact webpages loads very quickly.
The issue I now face is:
(a) Do I keep the setup as it even though I spend hundreds on the Orbi and using pi-hole for DNS which the Orbi should hve ben doing in the first place or
(b) Dump the Orbi kit and get a full refund as its not performing as it should and use back my ASUS router and get another Wireless mesh system such at the BT system which works with any router.
Having setup PI-hole, I like the system and it handles DNS very well. nice to surf the internet without the endless ads' Example IGN website runs a lot cleaner!!!
The Orbi wifi is one of the best system I've used. I have no dead spots around the house, garden etc and can pick up my wifi down the road. WIFI is very fast. I was initialy concerned connecting up my Xbox X via wifi (due to constriants of where the nearest ethernet port is in the house) but the Xbox downloads are at full speed and the laterncy is very low. Only issues I've had with the xbox was the DNS problem and the system coming up no internet available.
I guess for now I'll keep the current setup going and make a decision in a week or two.
In the meantime I have a support ticket with Netgear to see what they say.
1. By any chance would this DNS issue cause a modem to reboot randomly? With my issue, I swapped out my modem with the Netgear CM1000 but then noticed it was flaky, so I went to a new modem from Xfinity (using in bridge mode).
It's possible depending on how the router is configured to detect and/or recover from errors. I haven't dug into the Orbi's code enough to know whether it does this, though.
2. @SW_ I like your idea of separating the firewall from Orbi. Not sure I want to spin-up my own pfSense setup, but do you think I could accomplish the same decoupling of wifi and firewall with an old Asus RT-AC66U router?
I'm not @SW_ but they give good advice! I had no problems for a while putting my older Netgear R8500 upstream of the Orbi to handle all the DHCP and DNS, and just put the Orbi in access point mode. This is generally the best approach right now. Unfortunately for me, this was not a long term sustainable solution because I desire some site blocking for kids in my house. But I have now installed a pfSense router/firewall upstream to handle all the load and gained a whole lot more benefits... wish I had done this sooner!
I've managed to setup PI-hole and use that as a DNS server bypassing the Orbi as a DNS server. Eveything on the network is working flawlessly no more DNS hangs and in fact webpages loads very quickly.
This is honestly no surprise. The problem we're experiencing with the Orbi is that we're making it "do it all". It's a firewall. It's a DHCP server/DNS server. It does parental controls (which forces more DNS load on the system than normal). And oh, by the way, it's a mesh router system.
Anything that tries to do everything is not going to do it well.
The Orbi's mesh routing is fantastic and the best whole-house high speed internet system I've ever found. I love it. And now that that's all my Orbi is doing, it's awesome. As is my pfSense firewall doing the firewall things without having to deal with wifi mesh routing tech.
My situation is that I have the RB50 kit and all was fine for a year. Then I moved the main router unit, added satellites, then I started having drop outs which I have identified as DNS issue despite pointing DNS to 8.8.8.8.
The issue it seems is Circle. Circle sux. Deco's system, from which I came, has a much better parent management system and it is free! ... I wonder if I can add Deco as the router and shut off its wifi and use its parent app. Hmmm. something to try.
Anyway, I am almost in day 2 of stable wifi since I shut off Circle. I had previously removed my added satellites, so next test will be to add those back.
I concur that the wifi is the best I have used. I do wonder if the M9 would have been a better replacement to the Deco M5. It too uses triband and frankly has a better interface.
My situation is that I have the RB50 kit and all was fine for a year. Then I moved the main router unit, added satellites, then I started having drop outs which I have identified as DNS issue despite pointing DNS to 8.8.8.8.
The issue it seems is Circle. Circle sux. Deco's system, from which I came, has a much better parent management system and it is free! ... I wonder if I can add Deco as the router and shut off its wifi and use its parent app. Hmmm. something to try.
Anyway, I am almost in day 2 of stable wifi since I shut off Circle. I had previously removed my added satellites, so next test will be to add those back.
I concur that the wifi is the best I have used. I do wonder if the M9 would have been a better replacement to the Deco M5. It too uses triband and frankly has a better interface.
I've managed to setup PI-hole and use that as a DNS server bypassing the Orbi as a DNS server. Eveything on the network is working flawlessly no more DNS hangs and in fact webpages loads very quickly.
This is honestly no surprise. The problem we're experiencing with the Orbi is that we're making it "do it all". It's a firewall. It's a DHCP server/DNS server. It does parental controls (which forces more DNS load on the system than normal). And oh, by the way, it's a mesh router system.
Anything that tries to do everything is not going to do it well.
The Orbi's mesh routing is fantastic and the best whole-house high speed internet system I've ever found. I love it. And now that that's all my Orbi is doing, it's awesome. As is my pfSense firewall doing the firewall things without having to deal with wifi mesh routing tech.
It's lightning fast to spin-up pfSense in such a short time!
Just wait for a couple days for pfSense to populate its DNS cache, you'll realize the difference for your daily web surfing. Have fun with "Snort" and "pfBlockerNG-Devel".
The issue it seems is Circle. Circle sux. Deco's system, from which I came, has a much better parent management system and it is free! ... I wonder if I can add Deco as the router and shut off its wifi and use its parent app. Hmmm. something to try.
It's worth a try until the Circle + DNS fix is available unless you can live without Circle.
I have the same issue. I upgraded my firmware to V2.3.5.30 and still no luck.
If you're comfortable with telnet cmd, try the workaround suggested by @dbwiddis :
...
Eventually I found that using the GUI to "release" and "renew" DHCP solved the problem without a reboot, and after a bit more research, traced the problem to the "dnsmasq" service running on the router as part of Circle. I was (and am) able to recover the DNS by telnetting into the router and executing "/etc/init.d/dnsmasq restart".
...
Some users have also been successful working around DNS issue with factory reset, daily reboots, or disabling Circle. YMMV.
Here is something interesting that isn’t making a lot of sense to me. I disabled circle via the admin console. However, I didn’t reboot the router. So circle still seems to be active because I added a computer and the app on my phone notified me plus it’s blocking YouTube on my kids machines etc. and I’m able to add/remove things to profiles.
However, I’m at like day 5 or so without any outages. So I’m not sure what to think about that one. Maybe the problem had been fixed or there is some glitch that was fixed when I “disabled” circle. I’m hesitant to reboot my router but figured I’d throw this out there. It seems circle related but not sure how yet.
What happens if you power OFF the RBR for 10 seconds then back ON?
@kgividen wrote: Here is something interesting that isn’t making a lot of sense to me. I disabled circle via the admin console. However, I didn’t reboot the router. So circle still seems to be active because I added a computer and the app on my phone notified me plus it’s blocking YouTube on my kids machines etc. and I’m able to add/remove things to profiles.
However, I’m at like day 5 or so without any outages. So I’m not sure what to think about that one. Maybe the problem had been fixed or there is some glitch that was fixed when I “disabled” circle. I’m hesitant to reboot my router but figured I’d throw this out there. It seems circle related but not sure how yet.
So I'm starting to have the same issues again with the new router. I made sure not to enable Circle when I got the new router, so not sure why it's acting up again. Will open a new support case with Netgear and also try the dnsmasq option.
So I'm not sure what is happening but the DNS issue popped up again even with circle disengaged. The issue happened hours after I set the DNS back to isp after it was on 8.8.8.8. I did this because 8.8 for whatever reason was loading up my Gmail slow. It would try to resolve, then hang.
Anyway, I set the DNS to 1.1.1.1 and reset. Frankly, it feels faster but we'll see. Kids go to online classroom format starting today and there is a mild anxiety about the internet going down.
So I'm starting to have the same issues again with the new router. I made sure not to enable Circle when I got the new router, so not sure why it's acting up again. Will open a new support case with Netgear and also try the dnsmasq option.
Power OFF and back on won't change anything. Just to see if the Circle status changes.
Actually it will. Rebooting (or hard rebooting with a power cycle) overwrites any customizations/scripts/etc. I'm sure there's some file somewhere with default configurations that it copies over to the boot directory on startup (or it's all running on a RAM disk or something like that).
Power OFF and back on won't change anything. Just to see if the Circle status changes.
Actually it will. Rebooting (or hard rebooting with a power cycle) overwrites any customizations/scripts/etc. I'm sure there's some file somewhere with default configurations that it copies over to the boot directory on startup (or it's all running on a RAM disk or something like that).
Ok. Well I presume that just rebooting wouldn't cause a problem though.
Generally true and a good troubleshooting step. The point I was making was that the system was "broken" but behaving in a desired manner (circle disabled but still functioning and no crashes). Thus my comment to avoid rebooting and messing up the delicate balance of bug/feature behavior 🙂
Ok. Well I presume that just rebooting wouldn't cause a problem though.
Generally true and a good troubleshooting step. The point I was making was that the system was "broken" but behaving in a desired manner (circle disabled but still functioning and no crashes). Thus my comment to avoid rebooting and messing up the delicate balance of bug/feature behavior 🙂
I've opened Case #42518133 for reference, so far no help other than the basic troubleshooting steps. If anyone has opened a case with Netgear, pls share the case #.
Just called Netgear support and got 1st level support again. They had me update router firmware again to the same version it was on and then do a factory reset of the router. Now, I have to wait and call them back if I have issues!!! Ridiculous support, I explained to the tech that other people with different router models were having the same issue ... didn't help, per policy, they have to go through these steps before they can escalate to Level 2.
Most of the DNS issues were resolved by disabling Circle. Also others have mentioned doing a reset and setup from scratch has helped for other issues as well. I'm not seeing any DNS issues, however I don't use Circle or Armor.
If anything you can try Voxels FW if you want too:
Just called Netgear support and got 1st level support again. They had me update router firmware again to the same version it was on and then do a factory reset of the router. Now, I have to wait and call them back if I have issues!!! Ridiculous support, I explained to the tech that other people with different router models were having the same issue ... didn't help, per policy, they have to go through these steps before they can escalate to Level 2.
