Every few days the box requires a reboot because all traffic forwarding stops and the webUI is inaccessible. I already received an exchange of the hardware and conducted upgrades of the firmware over time but the issue remains. I now configured the system to write it's logs to an external syslog server. After the latest freeze I found the following entries -about an hour before the box went offline.
a) The WAN ports are configured for fail-over with WAN1 being the primary WAN 1: Fritzbox 6490 Cable Router, fixed IP WAN 2: TP-Link TL-MR6400 Wireless N 4G LTE Router LAN 1: 1GB switch with the internal network behind it including a Netgear R8500 in access point mode LAN 2: Burglar alarm system LAN 3: Door IP communication system
b) Actually I am dealing with that issue right from the start (purchased the FVS less than a year ago) and hoped to get this fixed with fw updates and lately the exchange of the hw
c) Firmware Version: 4.3.5-3
d) When I received the new box I loaded the previous configuration from file. I never reconfigured the system manually because of the sensitive nature of the systems attached - e.g. burglar alarm system - and I could not allow to let these systems go offline for a longer period of time.
Since the FVS336Gv3 you have is already a replacement unit from NETGEAR and still the same problem occurs, I suggest you to try to reset the FVS336Gv3 back to factory defaults then reconfigure it from scratch in order to isolate the problem. Its because, it is possible that the configuration file that was uploaded might be the problem. You may want to get screenshots of the settings of the FVS336Gv3 before doing a factory reset so that you could use it as reference when you reconfigure it from scratch.
I have also similar problems with my FVS336GV3, occasionally freezing. No throughput and no response of the LAN side web interface. A manually power cycle is required to resolv the situation. Firmware Version: 4.3.5-3
However my syslog looks a bit different. Before the last incident, this appeares several times:
Oct 13 15:02:51 FVS336GV3 KERNEL [Kernel] linkStatusDetec invoked oom-killer: gfp_mask=0x201d0, order=0, oomkilladj=0 Oct 13 15:02:51 FVS336GV3 KERNEL [Kernel] Call Trace: Oct 13 15:02:51 FVS336GV3 KERNEL [Kernel] [<ffffffff811207a0>] dump_stack+0x8/0x48 Oct 13 15:02:51 FVS336GV3 KERNEL [Kernel] [<ffffffff81177ea8>] out_of_memory+0x258/0x2b0 Oct 13 15:02:51 FVS336GV3 KERNEL [Kernel] [<ffffffff81179e0c>] __alloc_pages+0x2dc/0x360 Oct 13 15:02:51 FVS336GV3 KERNEL [Kernel] [<ffffffff81176420>] read_cache_page+0xb8/0x238 Oct 13 15:02:51 FVS336GV3 KERNEL [Kernel] [<ffffffff81227d14>] cramfs_read+0x284/0x3b0 Oct 13 15:02:51 FVS336GV3 KERNEL [Kernel] [<ffffffff81228a30>] cramfs_readpage+0x2a0/0x2e8 Oct 13 15:02:51 FVS336GV3 KERNEL [Kernel] [<ffffffff8117cb04>] __do_page_cache_readahead+0x214/0x2d8 Oct 13 15:02:51 FVS336GV3 KERNEL [Kernel] [<ffffffff811769cc>] filemap_nopage+0x15c/0x4b0 Oct 13 15:02:51 FVS336GV3 KERNEL [Kernel] [<ffffffff81187700>] __handle_mm_fault+0x468/0xf90 Oct 13 15:02:51 FVS336GV3 KERNEL [Kernel] [<ffffffff81130258>] do_page_fault+0x1f8/0x440 Oct 13 15:02:51 FVS336GV3 KERNEL [Kernel] [<ffffffff81119ea0>] ret_from_exception+0x0/0xc Oct 13 15:02:51 FVS336GV3 KERNEL [Kernel] [<ffffffff8113cde4>] do_dsemulret+0x34/0xc0 Oct 13 15:02:51 FVS336GV3 KERNEL [Kernel] [<ffffffff811300a0>] do_page_fault+0x40/0x440 Oct 13 15:02:51 FVS336GV3 KERNEL [Kernel] [<ffffffff81119ea0>] ret_from_exception+0x0/0xc Oct 13 15:02:51 FVS336GV3 KERNEL [Kernel] Mem-info: Oct 13 15:02:51 FVS336GV3 KERNEL [Kernel] DMA per-cpu: Oct 13 15:02:51 FVS336GV3 KERNEL [Kernel] CPU 0: Hot: hi: 42, btch: 7 usd: 5 Cold: hi: 14, btch: 3 usd: 2 Oct 13 15:02:51 FVS336GV3 KERNEL [Kernel] Active:5605 inactive:14116 dirty:0 writeback:0 unstable:0 Oct 13 15:02:51 FVS336GV3 KERNEL [Kernel] free:336 slab:4385 mapped:36 pagetables:258 bounce:0 Oct 13 15:02:51 FVS336GV3 KERNEL [Kernel] DMA free:1344kB min:1344kB low:1680kB high:2016kB active:22420kB inactive:56464kB present:112924kB pages_scanned:207361 all_unreclaimable? yes Oct 13 15:02:51 FVS336GV3 KERNEL [Kernel] lowmem_reserve[]: 0 0 Oct 13 15:02:51 FVS336GV3 KERNEL [Kernel] DMA: 0*4kB 0*8kB 4*16kB 0*32kB 2*64kB 1*128kB 0*256kB 0*512kB 1*1024kB 0*2048kB 0*4096kB = 1344kB Oct 13 15:02:51 FVS336GV3 KERNEL [Kernel] Swap cache: add 0, delete 0, find 0/0, race 0+0 Oct 13 15:02:51 FVS336GV3 KERNEL [Kernel] Free swap = 0kB Oct 13 15:02:51 FVS336GV3 KERNEL [Kernel] Total swap = 0kB Oct 13 15:02:51 FVS336GV3 KERNEL [Kernel] Free swap: 0kB Oct 13 15:02:51 FVS336GV3 KERNEL [Kernel] 32256 pages of RAM Oct 13 15:02:51 FVS336GV3 KERNEL [Kernel] 0 pages of HIGHMEM Oct 13 15:02:51 FVS336GV3 KERNEL [Kernel] 6777 reserved pages Oct 13 15:02:51 FVS336GV3 KERNEL [Kernel] 151 pages shared Oct 13 15:02:51 FVS336GV3 KERNEL [Kernel] 0 pages swap cached
Model: FVS336Gv3|ProSafe dual WAN gigabit firewall with SSL and IPSec VPN
If reconfiguring from scratch doesn't solve the issue, I would try other versions of firmware (even older ones). There are bugs in almost all firmware releases that show at some point or another to break the box, but different firmwares break in different places. Perhaps a different firmware version will provide longer uptimes.
Reboots are a necessity at some point (6mo/1 yr) unless you want to move into enterprise level equipment (much more $$$$).
Thank you for your response. However, I think I will not follow your advice. It feels too much of a rather desperate hip shoot to me. The firewall is almost new so I could not really see the point of resetting it to the factory settings again and re-enter all configuration. And it would not be possible to validate if it did any good or not. Even if it will not freeze again for a few days, as suggested as a validation criterion, it will prove absolutely nothing. So I will still be in the same uncertainty...
@SamirD: You obviously do not have the same high demand on reliability of equipment as I do. And I hope you are wrong. So far, I have only good experience of Netgear equipment. I have, and have had, several wireless access-points/routers, switches and NAS devices, operating for years without any need of regular reboots. I expect no less of this firewall. And really, it was not _that_ cheap.
Anyway, I have done some cleanup of the configuration e.g. reduced the logging to a minimum. And will keep on observing it for some time...
If the problem remains, I will have to replace it with something else.
I have the same freezes problems (no trafic forwardind, no response to ping from lan and no access to the webUi).
First I though the problem was coming from the router so I asked Netgear to send me a new one.
I have installed the new one, uploaded the latest firmware (4.3.5-3) and configured it from scratch.
It didn't solve anything...
In the logs everytime the router freezes there is the same message:
Thu Nov 23 16:34:03 2017((GMT+0100)) [FVS336GV3][Kernel][KERNEL] nf_ct_q931: decoding error: out of bound Thu Nov 23 16:33:37 2017((GMT+0100)) [FVS336GV3][Kernel][KERNEL] nf_ct_q931: decoding error: out of bound Thu Nov 23 16:32:12 2017((GMT+0100)) [FVS336GV3][Kernel][KERNEL] nf_ct_q931: decoding error: out of bound Thu Nov 23 16:24:56 2017((GMT+0100)) [FVS336GV3][Kernel][KERNEL] nf_ct_q931: decoding error: out of bound Thu Nov 23 16:22:57 2017((GMT+0100)) [FVS336GV3][Kernel][KERNEL] nf_ct_q931: decoding error: out of bound
Is there any solution to this problem?
Model: FVS336Gv3|ProSafe dual WAN gigabit firewall with SSL and IPSec VPN
1. Disconnect the FVS336Gv3 from the existing network.
2. Connect a PC to a LAN port. Just the FVS336Gv3 and the PC connected to each other.
3. Check if you are able to access the web-GUI of the FVS336Gv3. Also, check if you can get replies if you ping the IP Address of the FVS336Gv3 using the command prompt.
4. If ever you are not able to access the web-GUI nor able to get replies, reset the FVS336Gv3 to factory defaults.
5. Repeat steps 1 -3.
If ever still the same problem, I advise you to contact NETGEAR Support and let them know the status of the replacement you got.
I actually have a very high standard for all of my equipment (owning almost a dozen routers scattered throughout various states). The problem is the price/performance ratio. Today's 'cheap' (<$200) vpn routers do what $10,000+ equipment was doing just a decade ago (and do it better I might add). But it's not realistic to expect the same type of support for something that costs $200 as something that costs $10k--it's just not going to happen. So while these units work very, very well when they do (as do all brands of smb routers in this price range), there are inherit bugs or issues that simply will not get resolved, even if technically they can be. And this is just the nature of the beast. The easiest solution is to simply try a different version of firmware hoping that the feature you want to use operates bug-free, and if you've exhausted all of those, then another brand's similarly priced product will probably solve the issue, albeit it may introduce other issues that will need similar workarounds.
The only way to avoid all of these issues is to jump into the foray of enterprise networking products. We have one site where we do have such a piece of equipment and I have phone support for an issue if it arises, as well as stellar product performance. But this unit retails for almost 10x the price of an smb router while only having some small additional features (out-of-the-box) as well as greater top speed (1gb wan-to-lan). It's the old adage 'you get what you pay for', and unfortunately the market and the manufactuers have spoken on this segment of the router market, and I don't really expect it to drastically change anytime soon.
since our first conversation I tried this approach with no effect - the freeze still appears. Changing to another firmware version also is no option because of the security fixes implemented in teh recent version besides the fact that the previous firmware had exactly teh same issue.
I solved the problem for me by introducing a timer-controlled power plug that breaks the power circuit evey week for a couple of seconds. Sad - but effective.
I think I found the reason why the router was freezing. The Default Outbound Policy of the Firewall was set to "Block always".
Only some connection were configured in the outbound setting. But it seems that the router was not able to manage all the outbound request with this settings.
So I changed the Default Outbound Policy of the Firewall to "Allow always" and add a rule at the end of the list of the outbound settings to block everything.
The result is the same: only allowed connections set in the list can go throught the firewall. But with this configuration I don't have anymore freezes.
Thank you for the update as well. I'm glad to know that from the configuration you did, the FVS336Gv3 does not freeze anymore. Thanks for sharing here the solution you did. 🙂
