Picked up a Netgear R7000 Nighthawk. Now having DNS Server errors.

Hello, as the title states, I got a new Nighthawk R7000 router and been having intermittent DNS server errors across all wireless devices. My laptop when connected to router via Ethernet it works fine. But when on WiFi it intermittently loses internet access while still connected to router. Windows Network Diagnostics show DNS Server error or something to that effect. Sometimes it happens to all devices and sometimes its only a few wireless devices that it effects. I have connected my computer straight to modem and it works fine with no problems. I have tried to flush DNS command, and use google servers and nothing helps.

Right at this moment my laptop is working, my wife's is not. He laptop is showing Windows can't communicate with the device or resource (primary DNS server)

Nothing I have looked up online to figure this out has helped.

I also contacted Net gear to get their support but figured to see if there is anything I can get help from here.

All of my wireless issues and several other issues with my R7000 went away when I flashed to DD-WRT. At one point, my router refused to do anything more than 1mb upload speeds when I was paying for 20mb upload. This issue also went away with the new firmware. Netgear's hardware kicks ass, their software sucks balls.

At the minimum, flash the latest netgear firmware. Make sure and do a reset after you flash by holding in the reset button.

If you are interested in going the DD-WRT route, head here and do some research.

CaptNumbNutz said:

All of my wireless issues and several other issues with my R7000 went away when I flashed to DD-WRT. At one point, my router refused to do anything more than 1mb upload speeds when I was paying for 20mb upload. This issue also went away with the new firmware. Netgear's hardware kicks ass, their software sucks balls.

At the minimum, flash the latest netgear firmware. Make sure and do a reset after you flash by holding in the reset button.

If you are interested in going the DD-WRT route, head here and do some research.

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Thanks for the quick reply Capt. I made sure I do have the latest firmware. I have thought about going the DD-WRT route, but haven't really researched it yet.

RyanGSams said:

Thanks for the quick reply Capt. I made sure I do have the latest firmware. I have thought about going the DD-WRT route, but haven't really researched it yet.

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I will be honest with you. I have zero idea what is causing your original issue. It is one of the most odd things I've seen.

Hopefully someone else here knows. I only know that DD-WRT is a possible solution.

If you do decide on going DD-WRT follow these steps:
1. Get a copy of the latest Netgear firmware and save it to your computer as a backup in case you need to flash back.
2. Determine if you have the original R7000 (rated for AC1900 speeds) or the newer R7000P which is AC2300 and has the new MU-MIMO tech.
3. Register an account on myopenrouter.com . Download the appropriate firmware for your router save it to your computer. R7000 here .... R7000P here.
4. Login to your router admin page. Reset to factory defaults if there is a button to do so. You can also hold down the reset button on the router itself for about 30 seconds. Or...you could do both, it won't hurt.
5. Reboot the router, go to the admin page. Do the upgrade firmware option and select the DD-WRT file on your computer's drive. Let it finish flashing.
6. Once it is done flashing, it should reboot on its own and bring up DD-WRT.
7. Reset to factory defaults again by holding down the reset button or do the "30-30-30 Hard Reset".
***Please Note: 30-30-30 Reset is sometimes considered overkill and done for peace of mind. It also is done to completely clear any NVRAM memory or any possible residuals. Some people swear by it, some people think its a placebo. It won't harm anything.***

Once done, you create a new user and password for the router and set it up. The QoS options are several times better than anything Netgear provides.

What do you currently have configured as your DNS server? If you have DHCP configured on the Nighthawk to use the Nighthawk for DNS, switch it to use Google DNS (8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4). It's possible the DNS proxying on the Netgear is flaky.

I had issues with my R7000 and using Google DNS solved them. After flashing to the latest firmware the problems went away.

This isn't much help other than "it's probably the software."

A shame, too. I like the software, nice GUI and easy enough for dummies like me. Keep us posted.

Cmustang87 said:

What do you currently have configured as your DNS server? If you have DHCP configured on the Nighthawk to use the Nighthawk for DNS, switch it to use Google DNS (8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4). It's possible the DNS proxying on the Netgear is flaky.

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I have tried both DNS servers. Its doing it for both. I will try to restore it to factory settings and not change anything and leave it completely factory and see if it gives me problems.

ZeqOBpf6 said:

I had issues with my R7000 and using Google DNS solved them. After flashing to the latest firmware the problems went away.

This isn't much help other than "it's probably the software."

A shame, too. I like the software, nice GUI and easy enough for dummies like me. Keep us posted.

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I feel like it is most likely software related. When its working I get my advertised speeds from my ISP so i don't think its anything hardware. But i don't have a clue.

Well - if it's DNS related, it won't really affect speedtests so I wouldn't waste your time going down that avenue. DNS issues are typically binary problems, either it works or it doesn't.

When you say you are trying both DNS servers, do you mean you are configuring DNS on your endpoints, or you have the internal DNS changing on the Nighthawk? I'm just trying to make sure you are NOT using the Nighthawk for a DNS server and you aren't just changing the internal DNS on the router. Because I have a strong conviction the DNS proxying is FUBAR on this thing.

Cmustang87 said:

Well - if it's DNS related, it won't really affect speedtests so I wouldn't waste your time going down that avenue. DNS issues are typically binary problems, either it works or it doesn't.

When you say you are trying both DNS servers, do you mean you are configuring DNS on your endpoints, or you have the internal DNS changing on the Nighthawk? I'm just trying to make sure you are NOT using the Nighthawk for a DNS server and you aren't just changing the internal DNS on the router. Because I have a strong conviction the DNS proxying is FUBAR on this thing.

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I am going into the router settings below and getting DNS from ISP and using google servers. Where it both works intermittently.



EDIT:

UPDATE: Netgear got back and told me to update firmware. It was already up to date. So they were no help. So i restored router to factory defaults with factory ssid and passwords the not changing. So far the router is working with all devices. One thing I do remember having to do is changing IP addresses from factory since my IP cameras are 192.168.0.1 and the router from factory is 192.168.1.0

No...

This is what I'm trying to tell you -

On your DHCP settings, don't configure the DNS to point to the Nighthawk. Configure your home computers/devices to use a public DNS server like Google. The issue you are having is because your devices are sending DNS requests to the Nighthawk and the Nighthawk is proxying the DNS. You need to have your devices send DNS to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 directly.

Static the DNS on your problematic devices and see if it resolves it. Or better yet, change your DHCP settings (assuming the Nighthawk is your DHCP server) accordingly.

EDIT: Wow - I'm reading about the Nighthawk and it appears it doesn't allow you to change the DNS server in your DHCP settings. That is atrocious. If your firmware doesn't allow this, then I would suggest either using another DHCP server or static the DNS on your devices to use something else.

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Ni...-by-the-DHCP-server-on-the-R7000/td-p/1063387

Looks like they force this for access to http://routerlogin.net to always resolve.... yikes.

Can you still ping the router when the issue occurs?
Can you ping 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4 when the issue occurs?

After rebooting yesterday it was fine until this morning.

The wifes computer seems to always have the problem the most. I pinged 8.8.8.8 and got Reply from 192.168.0.1: Destination net unreachable. That showed four times then the stats are 4 packets sent, 4 received.

Did it from my laptop which both aren't connecting now. And I got ping transmit failed. general failure. Same time the wife's computer is getting the other message.

Could you provide a copy-pasta of an 'ipconfig /all' from your wife's computer?

Also - you may want to scrub the picture you posted above of your public IP.

Cmustang87 said:

Could you provide a copy-pasta of an 'ipconfig /all' from your wife's computer?

Also - you may want to scrub the picture you posted above of your public IP.

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Thanks for that tip about IP. I didn't think of that.

The internet is working again. I have a router in bridge mode and when I went to login to my Nighthawk router with the IP address 192.168.0.1 it brought up that bridged router instead. So I think maybe conflict between the two routers were happening. But i changed the IP address on the bridged router and internet came right back.

Does that make sense at all? I didn't think a bridged router had an IP and never had a problem before.

Bridged modems/routers have an internal IP address still for management. This will mess your network up if it has the same IP address as your internal network.

Internet -> Modem (IP: 192.168.0.1/24) -> (<WAN Public IP>) Nighthawk (Inside LAN IP: 192.168.0.1/24)

As you can see, you have two layer 3 devices connected to each other directly attached to the same subnet. This messes up routing, big time.

Cmustang87 said:

Bridged modems/routers have an internal IP address still for management. This will mess your network up if it has the same IP address as your internal network.

Internet -> Modem (IP: 192.168.0.1/24) -> (<WAN Public IP>) Nighthawk (Inside LAN IP: 192.168.0.1/24)

As you can see, you have two layer 3 devices connected to each other directly attached to the same subnet. This messes up routing, big time.

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Ok thanks. Not sure why I didn't see the one before. But I changed the IP address for the bridged router and still working fine.