Frequent DHCP service crashes

[Saberous]

A while back I created this thread for an issue I was having. https://forum.netduma.com/topic/35158-lf-help-on-connection-issues/?tab=comments#comment-293626 . In the end I RMA’d the R2.

The replacement R2 worked fine for a while, but then in mid-September 2021 it started acting up. I started experiencing DHCP service drops. DHCP Lease time was set to max 168 hours. As time progress the issue has gotten worse and more frequent. Most times requiring me to do a factory reset just to be able to get back into the router.

As I work remote this is an issue, so I had to remove the R2 from my network and use my Asus RT-AC88U. Good sold gaming router, it just can’t Geo-Filter and any setting change requires the device to reboot.

The reason for my R2 purchase was to see if it would fix my issue with COD lobbies. I usually get COD servers filled with EU French and German players and have an average ping of 160-220ms when playing solo. IP tracing shows that I’m in those countries. The R2 fixed that issue and COD gaming was great! Having a 30-75ms ping is great. Before the R2, I had to join on a friend and we could get into USA lobbies/servers when he queued up. If that friend would join on me and I launch into a queue I would find either an EU French or German server. Not sure why or how. All info searches on my IP show correct info and location. So, I’m thinking it has something to do with my COD profile. As my wife’s PC, has no issue finding USA servers on the same network. Same with my brother’s PC and two friends.

Note: If I log onto their PCs with my Blizzard account info. All I find is EU servers. So, derp to that.

Frustrated with my issues. I checked the NETDUMA forums and saw that a new firmware was available with a fix for •    Fixed issue with DHCP service crashing • https://forum.netduma.com/topic/38047-new-r2-firmware-30394/ . A factory reset was done to the R2. Once I logged into the device, I updated the firmware from 3.0.205 to 3.0.394.

That day I still had a DHCP drop. Power cycled network and the issue didn’t happen for about a week and a half. When the issue happened again LAN DHCP was still going but WIFI dropped. A power cycle fixed the issue. After that power cycle I started to have an issue with Discord. I started getting RTC Connecting, or No Route. All Discord server channels are set to Central US Region. RT DUMAOS Geo-Filter dashboard was showing that Discord was trying to establish connections to either Belgium or France. I would have to disable the geo filter and I would then be able to connect to the discord voice channel. I then would enable Geo-Filter again and had no issue with Discord connection. Sadly, this would be my work around to connect to my server and COD clan server. I would have to do two to three power cycles a day to resolve the WIFI drop issues. At one point I turned off the R2 WIFI and did a WAP for WIFI. This is working great.

At the end of November, my R2 started resetting settings on me daily. It started turning on the R2 WIFI again. It wouldn’t hold DHCP reservations for network devices. DHCP service drops began to happen again. This caused issues with my WAP. Or being able to get back into the device. (FYI for security and work reasons I do not use IP 192… prefix. I tested two times the R2’s default IP prefix, and the same issue happened. GEO-Filter location would default to EU. Polygon Mode, would vanish/delete. Traffic control, Port Forwarding would lose settings. QOS would reset. By the Sunday Nov 28^th, 2021 I went back to Asus RT-AC88U for its reliability. That and I had to work Monday and didn’t want network issues.

 A few questions:

1.       Is there a basic interface page for the R2? I feel these Rapp’s UI causes some issues. As the Rapp progress spins for a bit and then error’s out. See attached image. Most times this happens during a setting change and it will not save.

          a.       If so, how do I access it? 

2.       Where on the R2 do I go to disable NAT on this device?

 

3.       Where on the R2 do I go for Dynamic IP settings?

 

4.       Is there a way to by-pass the R2’s DHCP service?

 

 5.       Is it possible to use GEO-Filter if the R2 is connect to the Asus RT-AC88U via LAN-to-LAN or LAN-to-WAN?

 

Thanks for your time in this regard. 

 

[Netduma Fraser]

Sorry to hear you're still having this issue and thank you for the detailed post. Before I answer your questions, you mentioned you did a factory reset and then the update, this should actually be the other way around as you then clear out any old low level code from the previous firmware and start fresh on the new version so if you haven't done a factory reset since upgrading please do that to see if it helps the issues.

Regarding the Discord issue you had, if you add those servers to the allow list you'll be able to connect to it without having to disable/re-enable the Geo-Filter all the time.

In regards to losing settings a lot are you unplugging/turning off the power to the R2 frequently? If so that's probably why it is happening. If you reboot from the interface, that will act as a hard save and shouldn't lose settings when power is lost after that.

1. No there isn't a basic interface, what you see is what you have to work with. After a reboot you should always aim to wait 2 minutes before accessing the interface to allow the Rapps to load properly. If you don't and you try accessing a Rapp and it's functionality before it has properly loaded that's where issues can come in.
2. As I can see your connection uses IPv6, you can disable UPnP, Port Forwarding/Triggering/Static Routes and DMZ and you will avoid NAT and should still be able to get an Open NAT reading.
3. Are you referring to the router assigning IPs to devices manually? If so DHCP handles that.
4. You can disable DHCP entirely but you will then need to assign devices static/reserved IPs or they will not be able to access the router/internet.
5. As long as the device is connected to the R2 directly then you can use the Geo-Filter.