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Re: Orbi (RBR50) DNS keeps failing.

Ngearvictim
Guide

Orbi (RBR50) DNS keeps failing.

Hi,
I'm have an RBR50 running Firmware V2.7.2.104 that has been working fine for a couple years now.  Very recently, devices connected to the Orbi have started getting failed DNS queries, causing them to claim they're offline. When this happens, I can check the router, and it says it's online, can perform speed-checks, etc.  Devices are actually online as well, and can ping/traceroute load pages via direct connection to IP address.  If I manually set the clients to point to my ISP (or Google, etc.) DNS servers, they work fine as well.  

 

Running manual nslookup and dig requests to the Orbi gateway address (the one it sets as DNS server, the one that the router uses as DNS cache/pass-through) the lookups always fail.

 

The problem is 100% with whatever DNS app the router is using.  Does anyone have a fix?

 

Thanks


PS If any Netgear folks read this, please just give us a way to have the Orbi DHCP Server pass the ISP provided DNS instead of defaulting/forcing clients to use the router's IP!   This is a bad oversight.

Message 1 of 43

Accepted Solutions
MickShritin
Initiate

Re: Orbi (RBR50) DNS keeps failing.

Ran into this issue as well.    This Reddit thread has the best workaround I've found for the bug(s) that Netgear pushed out with its most recent release for this model.    

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/orbi/comments/m5l3vk/orbi_dropping_dns/

 

There are several options.    I think the best one is to use the debug.htm page to enable telnet, log in, and modify the DHCP settings to tell clients to contact  external DNS servers directly thus bypassing the failing proxy on the router.   This change sticks until the router is rebooted which is rare for me.  All devices will renew theri DHCP lease within 24 hours (or less) to get the new setting.    I recommend forcing devices to renew their DHCP lease to get the new settings sooner.   You can unplug the LAN connection, toggle wifi on/off, reboot a device, or issue the command to renew specific to your device/OS.    However if you have one computer plugged directly into a LAN port, one simpler way to reset all the wifi attached device's DNS config is to change the wifi name configured on the Orbi,  wait a few minutes, and then change it back.   I judged "a few minutes" by monitoring my phone to see when it decided the wifi connection was lost.   Once back to the original name, my (Android) phone took a couple of minutes to accept the wifi was stable.  

 

There are also reports that the bug is an interaction issue between the DNS process (dnsmasq) and the traffic measuring/metering feature, and that disabling the traffic measuring feature will avoid the bug.   Since I don't *need* the measuring feature, I disabled it just in case a thunderstorm glitches the power, there's a chance the Orbi will remain reliable afterwards without the effort/distraction of the reconfiguration workaround.

 

 

View solution in original post

Message 6 of 43

All Replies
Jpedicini
Tutor

Re: Orbi (RBR50) DNS keeps failing.

Thought I was going crazy. Same exact thing this is annoying. Setting DNS to static fixes for a while. Then setting to Dynamic fixes for a while.

Model: RBR50|Orbi AC3000 Tri-band WiFi Router
Message 2 of 43
Ngearvictim
Guide

Re: Orbi (RBR50) DNS keeps failing.

So I've put a work-around in place using the steps at this Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/orbi/comments/dzc90v/how_to_push_a_custom_dns_server_ip_to_your_devices/

 

To force the DHCP server on the Orbi to pass along the real DNS addreses, rather than the Orbi-hosted DNS (dnsmasq) process.  

To reiterate for any Netgear folks that may be monitoring this thread (ha!), it would be great if you would set this as an option for the router.

 

 

Message 3 of 43
Jpedicini
Tutor

Re: Orbi (RBR50) DNS keeps failing.

Realized I have an RBR40 but the same issue. Rolled back the firmware.

Model: RBS40|Orbi AC2200 Tri-band WiFi Add-on Satellite
Message 4 of 43
antinode
Guru

Re: Orbi (RBR50) DNS keeps failing.

> [...] This is a bad oversight.

 

   That "bad oversight" is why "routerlogin" names work.  Netgear might
be doing what it does for a good reason.

Message 5 of 43
MickShritin
Initiate

Re: Orbi (RBR50) DNS keeps failing.

Ran into this issue as well.    This Reddit thread has the best workaround I've found for the bug(s) that Netgear pushed out with its most recent release for this model.    

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/orbi/comments/m5l3vk/orbi_dropping_dns/

 

There are several options.    I think the best one is to use the debug.htm page to enable telnet, log in, and modify the DHCP settings to tell clients to contact  external DNS servers directly thus bypassing the failing proxy on the router.   This change sticks until the router is rebooted which is rare for me.  All devices will renew theri DHCP lease within 24 hours (or less) to get the new setting.    I recommend forcing devices to renew their DHCP lease to get the new settings sooner.   You can unplug the LAN connection, toggle wifi on/off, reboot a device, or issue the command to renew specific to your device/OS.    However if you have one computer plugged directly into a LAN port, one simpler way to reset all the wifi attached device's DNS config is to change the wifi name configured on the Orbi,  wait a few minutes, and then change it back.   I judged "a few minutes" by monitoring my phone to see when it decided the wifi connection was lost.   Once back to the original name, my (Android) phone took a couple of minutes to accept the wifi was stable.  

 

There are also reports that the bug is an interaction issue between the DNS process (dnsmasq) and the traffic measuring/metering feature, and that disabling the traffic measuring feature will avoid the bug.   Since I don't *need* the measuring feature, I disabled it just in case a thunderstorm glitches the power, there's a chance the Orbi will remain reliable afterwards without the effort/distraction of the reconfiguration workaround.

 

 

Message 6 of 43
WillRXR
Star

Re: Orbi (RBR50) DNS keeps failing.

I'm having the same issues.  Every day thereabouts for a week or so my RBR50 has been disconnecting from the Internet with a DNS server error.  I've tried contacting Netgear, but, of course, I do not have pay for support service and so no dice.  Strikes me that this is their issue to fix since everything was working fine until a week ago. I am the user of their product, not their technician nor someone who desires to be.  From my perspective they produce the product, and it should work reliably as advertised.

 

Since I use this router to service multiple computers and NAS drives, I cannot have it malfunctioning with this frequency, in fact, not at all.  If I cannot find a solution soon, I will have to find another router system to cover.  Given the Netgear response to this problem, I will likely find another piece of equipment, one with a more user-friendly service policy.

 

In the meantime, if anyone knows of a fix for this issue, please let me know.  

 

Thanks,

 

Wil

Message 7 of 43
Jpedicini
Tutor

Re: Orbi (RBR50) DNS keeps failing.

simplest solution i think is to download the previous release of firmware for now. that seems to work for me. sure - not the best idea long-term as the previous release probably lacks some bug fixes and security updates - but at least for now it seems to keep things working - so i'll keep an eye out and try the next firmware release once this issue is resolved.

Message 8 of 43
WillRXR
Star

Re: Orbi (RBR50) DNS keeps failing.

Thanks for the suggestion. I will give it a try and see how it goes.

One might think that Netgear would be a little more responsive, but hey, it's the 21st century.

 

Wil

Model: RBR50|Orbi AC3000 Tri-band WiFi Router
Message 9 of 43
randomousity
Luminary

Re: Orbi (RBR50) DNS keeps failing.

I had this identical problem recently, also on the 2.7.2.104 firmware, multiple times per day, for about the last week or so, which seems to have been resolved since yesterday by doing a factory reset and reconfiguration. To add to what you've observed, the problem seems specific to DNS queries passing through an Orbi satellite (RBS50). Unplugging the satellite appeared to solve the issue for as long as the satellite remained unplugged (all devices then being forced to connect directly to the router), though, admittedly, I never left it unplugged longer than a few hours to see for sure whether it truly addressed the problem.

 

It may be that merely doing a factory reset on the satellite is sufficient to fix it. But doing a full factory reset on the router (RBR50) appears to have fixed it for me for going on 24 hours now, though it's a much bigger pain, and, unfortunately, I'd already done a full factory reset on the router before it occured to me to just try it on the satellite. So I don't know that only factory resetting the satellite will work, but it's low-cost and high-reward, so I'd give it a shot before factory resetting the router.

 

As an aside, the Orbi configuring connected devices to use it as the DNS server, rather than passing on the configured DNS servers, serves multiple purposes. One is it allows orbilogin.com to work for accessing the router's web interface, as someone else pointed out. Another is that it allows DNS recursion, which generally improves performance. If multiple users/devices on your network want to use the same services (FB, YouTube, Netflix, whatever), instead of each device independently querying your DNS server (say, Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1), the first one queries the Orbi, the Orbi queries Clouflare, gets the response, passes it back to the requesting device, and, this is the important part, stores the result in the cache, so when another device makes the same request, instead of it going all the way to Cloudflare a second time, the Orbi already has the answer in the cache, and just immediately responds to the DNS request without needing to query outside your own LAN. In addition to resolving the DNS request to an IP address sooner for subsequent queries for your devices, it also reduces traffic to and queries of the DNS server, improving performance for everyone else. This is also what your DNS server (whether you use your ISP's, or Google's, Cloudflare's, etc.) does, caching results for faster turnaround, rather than having to pass each request up the chain to an authoritative DNS server.

 

Message 10 of 43
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: Orbi (RBR50) DNS keeps failing.

NG reported that Traffic Meter was the cluprit in recent FW that is causing some users to see problems. They recommend disabling this if it's enabled.

 

Others have reported factory resetting the RBR and setting up from scratch. Power cycle the ISP modem OFF for 1 minute then back ON as well. 

Message 11 of 43
Ngearvictim
Guide

Re: Orbi (RBR50) DNS keeps failing.

There is next to zero benefit from running your own local DNS caching server.  Your ISPs caching name server speeds are sufficiently fast, as are any of the major player's caching resolvers.  Additionally, you're not relying on a device that isn't as well maintained as the major player's resolvers.  If your Orbi is compromised, your local cache could be poisened by an attacker, opening up all kinds of security issues.

 

It's fine if  you don't know, or simply don't mind using the local resolver, but I prefer systems that at least give me the option to fully configure my local services.

 

As for using "orbilogin.com" to logon, I've never done that, nor was I even aware it was an option.  Simply browsing to the gateway address and/or using the ORBI app is typically how I access the router.

 

I had tried a factory reset already, and the problem reoccured not long after.  (Same or the next day, if I recall.)

 

For what it's worth, since I have manually set the DNS servers in the udhcp settings, I have had no issues on the network. I'll deal with re-configuring it should the Orbi ever need to be reset.

Message 12 of 43
WillRXR
Star

Re: Orbi (RBR50) DNS keeps failing.

Thanks.  I actually rolled back the firmware on the router, not the satellites, yesterday.  The problem hasn't recurred, but if it does, I will try your suggestion.  I'm not clear, however, how to find an external DNS server directly.  Where does one find these?

 

Thanks again for you clear advice and solution,

 

Wil

Model: RBR50|Orbi AC3000 Tri-band WiFi Router
Message 13 of 43
Ha_Ku_Na
Luminary

Re: Orbi (RBR50) DNS keeps failing.

Message 14 of 43
randomousity
Luminary

Re: Orbi (RBR50) DNS keeps failing.

Your local cache could be poisoned, yes. But the cache automatically clears itself, either by regarding old entries as stale, and/or by newer cache entries pushing the oldest ones out. You should probably run your own DNS service locally, point the Orbi to it, and have it use DoT/DoH (neither of which the Orbi currently supports) to resolve queries securely from only authoritative DNS resolvers. This is the logical endpoint of your concern about DNS poisoning.

 

And I discovered after posting my previous reply that the issue was with the traffic meter and daylight saving time settings. The factory reset disabled the traffic meter, which I hadn't gotten around to re-enabling. Subsequently, I restored my saved configuration, disabled DST, changed time zones so the displayed time would be correct, and enabled the traffic meter, and no problems since.

 

Message 15 of 43
NightStorm
Guide

Re: Orbi (RBR50) DNS keeps failing.

I've this problem as well, have downgraded to 2.6.1.40

 

 

Message 16 of 43
ewmgomes
Tutor

Re: Orbi (RBR50) DNS keeps failing.

I do not understand why this post was tagged as solved... the proposal of downgrading or turning off the NPT or the traffic meter, access by telnet and reboot the DHCP and the DNS service, define the router as AP, and soo on, is not a solution.

 

The real solution is to having Netgear releasing a new firmware with a final solution for the DNS issue.

There a lot of people with the same issue on different Orbi models (example: https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi-AX/Intermittent-DNS-Errors-and-WiFi-Issues/td-p/1950768/ - more than 450 replies and no final solution).

 

I really want to see Netgear working on this issue, not only the users of the forum.

Model: RBR50|Orbi AC3000 Tri-band WiFi Router
Message 17 of 43
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: Orbi (RBR50) DNS keeps failing.

Smething to open a support ticket with NG support if your having problems. 

https://www.netgear.com/support/#

 

Good Luck. 

Message 18 of 43
bwkeyboardman
Initiate

Re: Orbi (RBR50) DNS keeps failing.

I completely agree with this.  Disabling features in a router is not "solving" the problem.

Model: RBR50|Orbi AC3000 Tri-band WiFi Router
Message 19 of 43
CrimpOn
Guru

Re: Orbi (RBR50) DNS keeps failing.


@ewmgomes wrote:

I do not understand why this post was tagged as solved... the proposal of downgrading or turning off the NPT or the traffic meter, access by telnet and reboot the DHCP and the DNS service, define the router as AP, and so on, is not a solution.


This appears to be a philosophical issue.  Orbi users were frantically dealing with their network use being interrupted every couple of hours and the only thing they could do was reboot the router.  The solutions of disabling automatic Daylight Saving Time or disabling Traffic Meter made the problem stop. (Certainly did for me.)  We no longer experience the problem.  That seems to be the definition of a "solved."

 

As for getting Netgear to focus attention on the underlying issue, keeping a post "unsolved" on the community forum is not likely to have any effect. My guess is that letters to Netgear's President or Board of Directors would do more to "goose" people into action.  Outraged comments on Amazon or wherever the product was purchased, etc.

Message 20 of 43
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: Orbi (RBR50) DNS keeps failing.

Also NG offered up a beta for those of you who want to try it out. Contact Blanca_O via PM.

I don't use TM and DST is enabled for my RBK50 system on v104 and beta. 

Message 21 of 43
vajim
Master

Re: Orbi (RBR50) DNS keeps failing.


@FURRYe38 wrote:

Also NG offered up a beta for those of you who want to try it out. Contact Blanca_O via PM.

I don't use TM and DST is enabled for my RBK50 system on v104 and beta. 


more wisdom from the Netgear staff

Message 22 of 43
ewmgomes
Tutor

Re: Orbi (RBR50) DNS keeps failing.


@FURRYe38 wrote:

Smething to open a support ticket with NG support if your having problems. 

https://www.netgear.com/support/#

 

Good Luck. 


Unfortunately it is not an option. I bought this router a couple of years ago and the Netgear only gives me the option to use the forum to have support.

=(

Model: RBR50|Orbi AC3000 Tri-band WiFi Router
Message 23 of 43
ewmgomes
Tutor

Re: Orbi (RBR50) DNS keeps failing.


@FURRYe38 wrote:

Also NG offered up a beta for those of you who want to try it out. Contact Blanca_O via PM.

I don't use TM and DST is enabled for my RBK50 system on v104 and beta. 


Thank you for the suggestion. I'll try.

Model: RBR50|Orbi AC3000 Tri-band WiFi Router
Message 24 of 43
FURRYe38
Guru

Re: Orbi (RBR50) DNS keeps failing.

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Daylight-Savings-Time-NTP-DNS-Issues/m-p/2080475/highlight/tru...


@ewmgomes wrote:

@FURRYe38 wrote:

Smething to open a support ticket with NG support if your having problems. 

https://www.netgear.com/support/#

 

Good Luck. 


Unfortunately it is not an option. I bought this router a couple of years ago and the Netgear only gives me the option to use the forum to have support.

=(


 

Message 25 of 43
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