RBR50 'losing' PPP device

[smcgivern]

I've had my RBR50 for about a year and it's been working great. Yesterday, I started losing my internet connection (I am not sure why but this is not my top priority right now), and was unable to reconnect without rebooting the router. I am using firmware version 2.7.3.22.

I was able to telnet in. When everything is working, I see the ppp0 device in the ifconfig output:

ppp0 Link encap:Point-to-Point Protocol
inet addr:XXX P-t-P:XXX Mask:255.255.255.255
inet6 addr: XXX/64 Scope:Global
inet6 addr: XXX/10 Scope:Link
UP POINTOPOINT RUNNING NOARP MULTICAST MTU:1492 Metric:1
RX packets:626901 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:338160 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:3
RX bytes:811351697 (773.7 MiB) TX bytes:170210860 (162.3 MiB)

After I lose the connection, the device disappears entirely!

ifconfig: ppp0: error fetching interface information: Device not found

lspci doesn't seem to help:

00:00.0 Class 0604: 17cb:1001
01:00.0 Class 0280: 168c:0046

How can I fix this, or get more information? For now I have put my RBR50 in AP mode and repurposed an old Archer C7 as a pure router and DHCP server (using the Orbi for wifi), but that's not ideal.

[FURRYe38]

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

Check the ISP services to make sure nothing is wrong there. 

Be sure your using good quality LAN cable between the ISP modem and RBR. CAT6 is recommended. 

Has a power off for 1 minute then back ON with the ISP modem and router been performed since last update?
Be sure to restart your network in this sequence:
Turn off and unplug modem.
Turn off router and computers.
Plug in and turn on modem. Wait 2 minutes for it to connect.
Turn on the router and wait 2 minutes for it to connect.
Turn on computers and rest of network.

[smcgivern]

Thanks for the response. To clarify, this seems to be working with the Archer C7 as the router and the Orbi in AP mode. While I cannot reproduce consistently, I think this should rule out network cable and client device issues.

I will see if I can find the ONT's make and model and try power cycling that in the order you suggested with the router.

[FURRYe38]

Well if the Orbi in the AP mode then there shouldn't be any issues no the RBR as any PPP would be handled by the upstream router or ONT. Any internet traffic in AP mode on the RBR is just passing thru on the RBR in AP mode. 

Be sure the RBR is connected on its WAN port to the host router on it's LAN port there. 

I would set a static IP address for AP mode ON the RBR that's outside of the host routers default IP address pool. 

[smcgivern]

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@FURRYe38 wrote:

Well if the Orbi in the AP mode then there shouldn't be any issues no the RBR as any PPP would be handled by the upstream router or ONT. Any internet traffic in AP mode on the RBR is just passing thru on the RBR in AP mode. 

Be sure the RBR is connected on its WAN port to the host router on it's LAN port there. 

I would set a static IP address for AP mode ON the RBR that's outside of the host routers default IP address pool. 

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Yes, this is what I am saying - the Orbi in router mode loses the connection and cannot reconnect without a reboot. An alternative router I have does not do this. I would like to just use the Orbi in router mode, though. I understand how to configure the Orbi in AP mode, that is not the question I am asking 🙂

[FURRYe38]

Does the RBR show a top PINK LED when this happens if it's connected to the ONT in router mode? 

If it does, would be contention on handshaking and maintaining connection between the ONT and the RBR. Possible lease time failure to reacquire the connection between the ONT and RBR if something is happening here. Would be something particular between the RBR nad your ONT. Haven't seen much if any other users posting with this behavior. @CrimpOn runs a 50 series and would have said something about it. However I don't believe he uses ONT for ISP services. 

Let us know the brand and model of this ONT...

[CrimpOn]

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@FURRYe38 wrote:

 @CrimpOn runs a 50 series and would have said something about it. However I don't believe he uses ONT for ISP services. 

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Alas, my RBR50 is connected to Spectrum Cable which is an Ethernet DHCP link.

brwan     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr A0:04:60:1C:xx:xx
          inet addr:172.249.112.xxx  Bcast:255.255.255.255  Mask:255.255.240.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::a204:xxxx:fe1c:23a/64 Scope:Link
          inet6 addr: 2605:e000:3fc0:3e:d2:xxxx:3c1a:e199/128 Scope:Global
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:126116452 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:38601926 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:77188048459 (71.8 GiB)  TX bytes:10573044234 (9.8 GiB)

If the PPPoE connection has been working for a year and suddenly fails, my guess is that the ISP has changed something (perhaps not even realizing that they have).  Firmware V2.7.4.24 has been working fine for me (since Netgear auto-updated it one night).  I have not done a Factory Reset, but the router has rebooted a number of times due to Edison power outages.

I really doubt that Netgear would have made any change to the ISP connection with this firmware .  My guess is that unless the ISP has a response, then sticking with the TP-Link router is the only practical solution.

[smcgivern]

Thank you both, that is very helpful. It does show a pink LED when this happens. If it comes to it, I'm OK with using two devices, it's just a bit annoying - as you say, nothing changed from my perspective.

My ONT is the Nokia GPON one here, I think: https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2021/07/openreach-in-first-uk-trial-of-nokia-25gbps-fttp-broad...

Is there any monitoring / logging I can enable from the Orbi side? It would be useful if I could see when it disconnected and why, and some debug logging from the connection attempt. I see that I can enable debug logging at debug.htm, but I'm not sure it's a good idea to enable that just in case this happens at some point? (It can take several hours.)