Bugged Out XR1000V2

[Rx39141]

Hello, 

I am trying to fix an internet connectivity issue that has been occurring over the past month, and while doing so I noticed that my nighthawk router had an available update showing in the topright corner of the web interface. Not paying attention, I pushed the update through thinking it was the cause of my issues. Though, once my router rebooted, the firmware version changed from 1.1.0.22 to an older version 1.1.0.16. The update button still shows an available update, but for 1.1.0.16_2. Thinking this was a mistake, I went to download and install the .zip file for 1.1.0.22, but when I try to download the firmware zip, I get a permission denied error. Is this to be expected? 

Furthermore, I am not sure if my router is the source of this issue, as I have no tangible evidence to prove that. Though, I have an Xfinity modem that I have setup into bridged mode that connects to my Nighthawk router. If I take the Nighthawk offline, and set the Xfinity modem back to router mode, the internet connectivity issues stop occurring. This behavior is being seen on all of my devices connected to my network. Any recommendations on what else to try to fix this would be appreciated. Otherwise, I might be out $100 if I am forced to use my Xfinity modem for routing. 😕 

Please let me know if there is any additional info would be helpful with this thread. 

[Netduma Fraser]

You have to unzip it and extract the .chk file then upload that to the router. It won't be the cause of an issue though.

What is the internet connectivity issue exactly?

[Rx39141]

I can't get the router firmware .zip from https://www.netgear.com/support/download/?model=XR1000v2. Im getting an XML page that shows access denied when I click the firmware version. I didn't think this was the cause of the issue, but was not sure why my router pushed me to an old version and the download page wasn't working. 

The connectivity issue is odd. It happens at least once an hour for all devices at the same time on both wireless signals and over ethernet. BUT when the internet drops, if I am gaming online (iRacing), the connection doesn't drop. The connection doesn't drop if I am making a VOIP call either, but I can't receive VOIP calls when the internet is dropped. To be clear, I am unable to load webpages or open apps that require an internet connection even though my active online games and calls continue to work. My wife says that streaming doesn't work when this happens. I also setup a continuous ping to 1.1.1.1 (which is what my DNS is set to) and didn't experience any packet loss when the connectivity issue occurs. 

When the issue does happen, webpages fail to load and the browser shows DNS_PROBE_STARTED then eventually switch to a no internet error. After 1 minute or so webpages will start to load again.

I have tried a reset on my xfinity modem and nighthawk, but the issues persist. I have been keeping an eye on the system logs in the nighthawk, but all I see are frequent DHCP lease assignments, time sync info, admin logins (only mine). The show statistics section show the Up Time as if there are no internet disconnects. For example, the current Up Time is 01:03:34 (I rebooted the router an hour ago), but I have experienced the internet connection drop twice within that time. 

Any thoughts?


btw here is a screenshot of the download page for the most recent firmware.
 

[Rx39141]

FYI, I posted a long response, but it needs to be approved by a mod since I included a screenshot. 

 

[Netduma Fraser]

I'm getting the same actually, weird, I'll have to mention it to them. It's just a security fix so nothing that would fix any kind of issues you're having. 

In LAN Settings, set the DHCP range to start at .50, then assign reserved IP addresses to devices between .2 & .49 so they're out of the DHCP range, apply, reboot from the interface, wait 4 minutes and see if that stops the disconnects.

[Rx39141]

I have setup the reservations and moved the DHCP range, and have not had any issues so far. Fingers crossed! 

So, is there something up with the way the router DHCP server works that would cause this issue? Are devices in the > .50 range going to experience this problem? Anything settings or configurations that could be toggled to prevent this from happening?

I have a device that could be setup as a DHCP server if you think it would be better to keep the router DHCP server completely disabled. 

Appreciate any info you have. 

[Rx39141]

Unfortunately the problem has occurred again. Anything else I can try? 

 

[Netduma Fraser]

Yes I think now would be best to try it with DHCP disabled and see if it continues please, you don't need to set anything else up to use DHCP yet. As you've done the reserved IPs they should all be able to connect just fine. 

[Rx39141]

Well I tried posting the following comment yesterday, but my internet must have cut out when I submit the reply because it never posted and was stored in the comment box as a draft...

I tried some other suggestions from other tickets such as disabling adblocker and configuring QoS to 70% up and down. No fix. 

I also disabled the DHCP server on the router this morning, applied, and restarted. About 30 minutes later, internet dropped again.

I am going to try to get my network traffic mirrored onto a device running wireshark to see if I can dissect packets to see what is going on here. Anything else worth trying at this point? 

[Netduma Fraser]

If you could grab the logs from when it happens while DHCP is disabled that may help narrow down the issue more

[Rx39141]

Here are some logs. The internet disconnect at 11:13 is when I restarted the router after disabling the DHCP server. 

In other news, I monitored packets from my pc over the past two hours and noticed a pattern. Anytime the internet connection goes out, I see a large number of TCP retransmissions, duplicates, and out of order packets. These also coincide with a large number of DNS queries failing to find the domain of the website that fails to load. I also noticed that the CPU usage widget in the admin page shows max usage when all of this occurs. Once CPU usage returns to normal, the internet connects again. This could mean a few things, but I am going to disconnect a handful of devices from the network to see if they are overwhelming the router, but do you have any other suggestions with this in mind? Any common culprits for eating up CPU resources on these routers?   

[Rx39141]

Disconnected all IoT devices. Internet crashed out with the same TCP, DNS, and Router CPU usage symptoms. Going to go barebones with only my main PC connected to the network to see if the issue persists. 

 

[Netduma Fraser]

With the XR range these disconnections are something we've reported to NG for years, at this point I don't believe it's our side of things and usually relates to DHCP. I have noticed you've changed your LAN IP, could you change that back to the default and see if it still occurs?