For a while this thread had not been very useful beyond the typical "use another router and set Orbi AX as AP mode only". However, the recent notice into NTP and DST may have been the fix I needed.
After reading about the NTP and DST settings, I had also found that DST was not set and the time on the Orbi was off by an hour. I decided to also change from the Netgear NTP server (perhaps it's oversubscribed with all the Netgear customers) and use an NTP pool set from pool.ntp.org.
Since I'm in North America, I used
0.north-america.pool.ntp.org
Now my time has been spot on perfect since that setting. Also it's been several days, as I wanted to see if it had any other impact and I don't see DNS issues during that time. Hopefully others find this also helps.
See https://www.ntppool.org/en/ for more details on the NTP Pools server project if you are considering using those time servers.
I don't use TM and saw 3 DNS issues earlier this week after a power bump. I saw that my DST was disabled, suspectedtly I might have forgot to enable that as I normally keep that enabled. SInce re-enabling DST, TM not used, DNS issues have not re-appeared since.
For me "Automatically adjust for daylight savings time" is not turned on. I have not manually enabled or disabled this functionality in the past. am also not using "Traffic Meter". This feature is disabled.
I am not sure what both of these features has got to do with the problem that were are having with dnsmasq (DNS server/proxy).
I'm happy to report that Orbi Pro has been solid for a few days with zero DNS issues using IPv4 and exceptional performance. (Also no DST related problems)
Same DNS servers specified. Same modem/router used. All settings identical.
Many sources say the internal hardware of the Orbi Pro and the AX series discussed here are essentially the same. But the firmware is different which has more features on the Pro and they updated code to address DNS problems the pro used to have, but haven't fixed it in the residential AX series.
Nice, yeah that is as expected. Netgear fixed the DNS server issue last year for the Orbi Pro. This also reconfirms that Netgear should fix the same DNS server issue for the Orbi AX. They really don't seem to care for its regular customers.
Problem solved.....sort of. I disabled DST and Internet has been stable the last 4-5 days. I guess my router being an hour off really doesn't matter so this works for me.
Never underestimate the issues that can arise with Network Time being out of sync between network devices. It's a fundamental requirement for error free networking and can manifest in all kinds of problems. Things you'd never think would be impacted can be. It's even possible these DNS issues have some underlying relationship with network time if this has been an undiscovered issue previously.
I hope your issue is minimized, but it's not really resolved until Netgear fixes it.
Yeah indeed. Problem with time settings could cause some serious issues in systems. However, unfortunately for me with now DTS enabled I am still experiencing the same DNS issues.
I feel it is a bit strange that no Netgear employee ever responded in this thread.
After these posts, I went back in to see if I had DST checked and I did not. I could have sworn that I had it enabled during my initial set up, but maybe a firmware update reset it for some reason. I checked it and power cycled the router/modem set up and since then I have had no DNS errors that I can tell. I've gone this long (5 days now I think) without error in the past with a simple power cycle, but it's rare. I will let you know if that good luck continues. I'm still not sure I understand how that simple issue could cause DNS issues, but won't complain if it finally corrects this issue!
Same thing happend on mine last week. I thought I had DST enabled, it wasn't and after we had a power bump here, I started seeing these DNS issues. After enabling DST, ZERO DNS problems.
Someone over in the Orbi AC forum mentioned that NG told them that Traffic Meter and DST were hosing up DHCP and DNS. NG recommended to not use TM and they are working on a fix for that platform. I hope same will be put forth to the Orbi AX platform as well.
Network time is a component of all communcations on a network, not just assigning time through DHCP or pulling it from a NTP server. You might not notice the issues, all I'm saying is it can manifest in all kinds of ways.
The Asus AX system I tested 2 months ago had a major NTP bug that dropped my entire network 20 times per day.
Just as power issues can manifest in virtually any error or symptom imaginable on a PC, network time errors can manifest in virtually any network error you can imagine.
It's also worth considering causes outside the RBK850 router or possible interaction issues between it and specific modems and / or ISPs. The reason I say this is that I'm doing "all the wrong things": using the Traffic Meter, DST enabled, using the Netgear Time Server. And I have never seen any DNS issues with any firmware or any settings. If it were simply a problem with Orbi and not some other interaction, it seems like the problem would be more pervasive.
I changed my time to DST and I'm still getting the DNS errors. Frustrating that this issue hasn't been fixed. I "upgraded" from Google WiFi for this, and I'm starting to regret it. Zero issues with the Google WiFi.
I changed my time to DST and I'm still getting the DNS errors. Frustrating that this issue hasn't been fixed. I "upgraded" from Google WiFi for this, and I'm starting to regret it. Zero issues with the Google WiFi.
