Home Wifi solution

[Marcus Fenix]

Both are too costly.
I had also purchased a Netgear R6350 some months back but didn't find time to install it. Now as my TP-Link router needed frequent restarts, so planned to use the R6350 instead. But I was surprised to see its not working well. My ISP has allocated a static IP to me. But after configuring it, many sites (like speedtest.net) are not accessible and many others (like flipkart, amazon, etc) wont render properly.
Went through all troubleshooting steps as asked by netgear support, but nothing helped. Finally they replaced the device with a new R6350 as well, but even the new one has the same issue.
But using the details provided by my ISP, my existing TP-Link router works perfectly. My ISP bought a tenda router, even that one worked fine. So, they are suggesting me to go with Tenda.
I am not sure what's the issue with Netgear. Now their L2 Support is looking into this and have asked me to wait for sometime.

Theres a problem with recent Netgear firmwares I have seen where the router tries to act as a DNS server instead of forwarding it to the configured DNS server e.g. 8.8.8.8 or ISP DNS server.

Try to see if this issue occurs by checking as follows-
1) While connected to Netgear SSID/LAN with a Windows machine try nslookup www.nvidia.com or any other site on command line.

2)If you see that the address of the Server(i.e. DNS server) is sent out as 192.168.1.1 instead of your configured DNS then your firmware has the same issue which bugged me a lot on newer firmwares.

3) Solution would be to downgrade to a working firmware version(Check Netgear forums for people who have found out the working version via trial and error)
or throw away Netgear firmware and go with DD-WRT.

Netgear is kinda like Asus motherboards these days. Superb hardware but crappy software.

 

[saswat23]

Theres a problem with recent Netgear firmwares I have seen where the router tries to act as a DNS server instead of forwarding it to the configured DNS server e.g. 8.8.8.8 or ISP DNS server.

Try to see if this issue occurs by checking as follows-
1) While connected to Netgear SSID/LAN with a Windows machine try nslookup www.nvidia.com or any other site on command line.

2)If you see that the address of the Server(i.e. DNS server) is sent out as 192.168.1.1 instead of your configured DNS then your firmware has the same issue which bugged me a lot on newer firmwares.

3) Solution would be to downgrade to a working firmware version(Check Netgear forums for people who have found out the working version via trial and error)
or throw away Netgear firmware and go with DD-WRT.

Netgear is kinda like Asus motherboards these days. Superb hardware but crappy software.

You are absolutely correct. The issue is with the router's DNS only.
After trying a lot of troubleshooting steps, I manually added DNS inside IPv4 settings and all of the sites loaded fine. Also everything seems to be working fine on mobile phones, even desktop sites load fine on mobiles, but not on laptop/desktops.
Currently the only way to make this work is by manually configuring the DNS value inside IPv4 settings or if I use a VPN (chrome extension).

I will try the nslookup thing once I get back home.
Regarding the firmware, I have already downgraded the version to initial release, as well as upgraded to the latest version, nothing helped.
I am afraid I might brick the router with DD-WRT. Not sure if there is DD-WRT support for R6350.

 

[Marcus Fenix]

You are absolutely correct. The issue is with the router's DNS only.
After trying a lot of troubleshooting steps, I manually added DNS inside IPv4 settings and all of the sites loaded fine. Also everything seems to be working fine on mobile phones, even desktop sites load fine on mobiles, but not on laptop/desktops.
Currently the only way to make this work is by manually configuring the DNS value inside IPv4 settings or if I use a VPN (chrome extension).

I will try the nslookup thing once I get back home.
Regarding the firmware, I have already downgraded the version to initial release, as well as upgraded to the latest version, nothing helped.
I am afraid I might brick the router with DD-WRT. Not sure if there is DD-WRT support for R6350.

I checked it and unfortunately R6350 is not on DD-WRT supported devices list .

Supported Devices - DD-WRT Wiki

wiki.dd-wrt.com

If you are hell bent on getting this router to work you can get a Raspberry Pi Zero W and set it up to handle your DNS requests via PiHole.

Added advantage would be that you won't see any ads on apps/webpages on any device connected to the router.

DietPi Community Forum

Welcome to the DietPi OS Community Forum

dietpi.com

 

[saswat23]

I checked it and unfortunately R6350 is not on DD-WRT supported devices list .

Supported Devices - DD-WRT Wiki

wiki.dd-wrt.com

If you are hell bent on getting this router to work you can get a Raspberry Pi Zero W and set it up to handle your DNS requests via PiHole.

Added advantage would be that you won't see any ads on apps/webpages on any device connected to the router.

DietPi Community Forum

Welcome to the DietPi OS Community Forum

dietpi.com

Wow! That's definitely worth trying.
But I doubt if it work as issue is with router's DNS config. Even if I setup Raspberry Pi as DNS server to handle DNS requests, it wont get past my router as my router would be blocking it perhaps.

 

[alekhkhanna]

Both are too costly.
I had also purchased a Netgear R6350 some months back but didn't find time to install it. Now as my TP-Link router needed frequent restarts, so planned to use the R6350 instead. But I was surprised to see its not working well. My ISP has allocated a static IP to me. But after configuring it, many sites (like speedtest.net) are not accessible and many others (like flipkart, amazon, etc) wont render properly.
Went through all troubleshooting steps as asked by netgear support, but nothing helped. Finally they replaced the device with a new R6350 as well, but even the new one has the same issue.
But using the details provided by my ISP, my existing TP-Link router works perfectly. My ISP brought a tenda router to check, even that one worked fine. So, they suggested me to go with Tenda.
I am not sure what's the issue with Netgear. Now their L2 Support is looking into this and have asked me to wait for sometime.

Well, the "costly" part comes up after spending too much time and money over shittier stuff, and finally wanting something which just works.
I like Orbi as it's a mature system, and multiple people have acted as beta testers for a year after launch. It works beautifully, great range even for Indian houses. On my 500 mbps connection, i easily hit 400+ in all my rooms, and about 70 mbps outside my house (about 2000 sqft).
The only pittance is the max throughput is 866 mbps via wifi (2*2 MIMO). The dedicated backhaul of 1733 is more than enough to stream multiple 4k streams, skype calls, gaming etc simultaneously.

 

[superczar]

Well, the "costly" part comes up after spending too much time and money over shittier stuff, and finally wanting something which just works.
I like Orbi as it's a mature system, and multiple people have acted as beta testers for a year after launch. It works beautifully, great range even for Indian houses. On my 500 mbps connection, i easily hit 400+ in all my rooms, and about 70 mbps outside my house (about 2000 sqft).
The only pittance is the max throughput is 866 mbps via wifi (2*2 MIMO). The dedicated backhaul of 1733 is more than enough to stream multiple 4k streams, skype calls, gaming etc simultaneously.

Second that.. i have lost count of the cheaper Tenda, Belkin and even asus and netgear devices I have brought trying to piece together a working system.
With the Orbi RBK 50 (and an additional 20 satellite), i finally have something that works stable and hasslefree in the background
I have over 60 devices on the network and each one works without glitches with months between restarts for almost 2 years now..

i even have my NAS and other servers on a non wired backhaul and it’s as good as wired with perhaps just 1-2 ms of latency over wired

 

[saswat23]

Theres a problem with recent Netgear firmwares I have seen where the router tries to act as a DNS server instead of forwarding it to the configured DNS server e.g. 8.8.8.8 or ISP DNS server.

Try to see if this issue occurs by checking as follows-
1) While connected to Netgear SSID/LAN with a Windows machine try nslookup www.nvidia.com or any other site on command line.

2)If you see that the address of the Server(i.e. DNS server) is sent out as 192.168.1.1 instead of your configured DNS then your firmware has the same issue which bugged me a lot on newer firmwares.

3) Solution would be to downgrade to a working firmware version(Check Netgear forums for people who have found out the working version via trial and error)
or throw away Netgear firmware and go with DD-WRT.

Netgear is kinda like Asus motherboards these days. Superb hardware but crappy software.

I checked with nslookup, its similar on both netgear and tplink. Both are showing router's gateway as DNS server.

But all websites load absolutely fine on TP-Link.

If I configure DNS inside IPv4 settings, then it shows the actual DNS:

 

[vishalrao]

@superczar @alekhkhanna

Is the Orbi RBK50 a good solution if the 5 ghz wifi range is lacking with my existing Netgear R8000 router?

I mean to say, I live in a house (bungalow) with ground floor and first floor. My Netgear R8000 router is on the top corner first floor and on the ground floor only the 2.4 ghz signal is strong while the 5 ghz signal is nearly non-existent.

So if the R8000 5 ghz signal is not reaching then does that mean the Orbi satellite will struggle to connect to the main device via its backhaul 5 ghz link?

 

[superczar]

@superczar @alekhkhanna

Is the Orbi RBK50 a good solution if the 5 ghz wifi range is lacking with my existing Netgear R8000 router?

I mean to say, I live in a house (bungalow) with ground floor and first floor. My Netgear R8000 router is on the top corner first floor and on the ground floor only the 2.4 ghz signal is strong while the 5 ghz signal is nearly non-existent.

So if the R8000 5 ghz signal is not reaching then does that mean the Orbi satellite will struggle to connect to the main device via its backhaul 5 ghz link?

The 5ghz reach for me improved significantly (and i mean really significantly) compared to my old r7000 - not sure how the r8000 is in comparison
I have 3 of these now, 1 RBK50 on ground floor, RBS50 on 1st floor and RBS20 for the yard - I get 5ghz pretty much everywhere

 

[alekhkhanna]

@superczar @alekhkhanna

Is the Orbi RBK50 a good solution if the 5 ghz wifi range is lacking with my existing Netgear R8000 router?

I mean to say, I live in a house (bungalow) with ground floor and first floor. My Netgear R8000 router is on the top corner first floor and on the ground floor only the 2.4 ghz signal is strong while the 5 ghz signal is nearly non-existent.

So if the R8000 5 ghz signal is not reaching then does that mean the Orbi satellite will struggle to connect to the main device via its backhaul 5 ghz link?

Yeah. Place the router and satellite one above/below the other (router on 1 floor, satellite on another directly above/below).