Netgear DG834 emailing with wrong month! - take 2.

[Homerz]

This is a followup to the old (closed) thread here:

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1260072

Well it's that time of year again folks. Each July, we Netgear DG834 owners "celebrate" our b0rken routers with syslogs emailed with corrupt date headers.

As predicted, mine re-started this behaviour on the first of July:

"Date: Sun,1 (null) 2007 03:00:00 -0000"

I'm going to take up the cause yet again with Netgear, and hound them until I get a resolution.

Updates and relevant info will be posted to this thread, and mirrored on the Netgear forums.

 

[BionicJohn]

I never got anywhere with Netgear support, though I did update the Firmware to Ver3.01.31.

I gave up on the date thing.
And it always shows the attached devices - my PC, a LaserJet printer and Linksys WAP - as "UNKNOWN"

1 192.168.0.2 UNKNOWN 00:18:39:1ABE
2 192.168.0.3 UNKNOWN 00;1A;70;4B;D7;8A
3 192.168.0.6 UNKNOWN 00:01:E6:6B:87:3B

The router works fine otherwise.

Liverpool: Capital of Culture 2008
Anfield: Capital of Football since 1892
Iechyd da! John
Glannau Mersi, Lloegr.

 

[BionicJohn]

Under "Schedule", I set the router to check the time from 131.107.1.10 and it seems to be correct.

I'll look into it and let you know.

Liverpool: Capital of Culture 2008
Anfield: Capital of Football since 1892
Iechyd da! John
Glannau Mersi, Lloegr.

 

[BionicJohn]

I e-mailed myself the log after a reboot:

Sun, 2002-09-08 13:00:33 - Initialize LCP.
Sun, 2002-09-08 13:00:33 - LCP is allowed to come up.
Sun, 2002-09-08 13:00:41 - CHAP authentication success
Sun, 2002-09-08 13:00:46 - Send out NTP request to 131.107.1.10
Wed, 2007-07-25 01:50:58 - Receive NTP Reply from 131.107.1.10
Wed, 2007-07-25 01:58:20 - Administrator login successful - IP:192.168.0.3

So far so good!

Liverpool: Capital of Culture 2008
Anfield: Capital of Football since 1892
Iechyd da! John
Glannau Mersi, Lloegr.

 

[Homerz]

131.107.1.10 is the Microsoft Time Server.

Bizarre that this should work where others do not!

I have heard (although I can't remember the details) something about Microsoft using a non-standard NTP protocol on their servers. Could it be that this router uses those same (wrong) standards, and so doesn't work correctly unless syncing from an MS NTP server?

Well I'll know for sure at 03:00 o' clock (that's when my log is Emailed automatically). IIRC manual Emails don't suffer from the problem anyway. Why? I have absolutely no idea

Good tip Big John (fingers crossed).

 

[Homerz]

Oh well - it didn't work.

In fact not only does it send the email with the date one month in the future, but now it sends it twice!

 

[BionicJohn]

Which firmware version are you using?

Liverpool: Capital of Culture 2008
Anfield: Capital of Football since 1892
Iechyd da! John
Glannau Mersi, Lloegr.

 

[Homerz]

V1.02.09 (DG834GT), which was released earlier this month.

 

[BionicJohn]

I think I must have a different box from you. I'm on Ver 3.01.31. ???



Liverpool: Capital of Culture 2008
Anfield: Capital of Football since 1892
Iechyd da! John
Glannau Mersi, Lloegr.

 

[Homerz]

Yeah, mine's the "GT" model, with 108Mb/s WiFi, Router, and 4 port wired switch, all in one.

AFAIK that is the latest firmware.

<sigh>

Oh well, time to turn off Email notification for another six months, I s'pose.

 

[BionicJohn]

mine's the "GT" model, with 108Mb/s WiFi,

Ah! I have the wired model, with a LinkSys WAP54G attached for wireless networking.

Liverpool: Capital of Culture 2008
Anfield: Capital of Football since 1892
Iechyd da! John
Glannau Mersi, Lloegr.

 

[BionicJohn]

Something's happened - it's regressed!!!

From: john**@*.co.uk
Subject: NETGEAR Security Log [ad:da:23]
Date: Tue,31 Aug 2007 06:00:01 -0000 (GMT Daylight Time)
To: john*@*.co.uk


Tue, 2007-07-31 06:00:03 - Send E-mail Success!

Liverpool: Capital of Culture 2008
Anfield: Capital of Football since 1892
Iechyd da! John
Glannau Mersi, Lloegr.

 

[stduc]

I gave up and switched to using a syslog server. Netgear are patently not interested and as soon as I can find the time I shall research a new router that almost certainly won't be a netgear.

[navy]When I married "Miss Right" I didn't realise her first name was 'always'. LOL[/navy]

 

[QuiltedCamel]

I had different issues with my Netgear DG834Gv2 which resulted in it being returned from whence it came.

Basically it wouldn't allow SWMBO's laptop to associate with the WLAN element reliably. Netgear's response (after 53 days of daily contact) was to replace the laptop.....

Replaced with a Speedtouch 585v6, got higher DSL sync, better noise margin, more stability and SWMBO's laptop to connect reliably. Oh and it was less expensive than the Netgear.

 

[BionicJohn]

Netgear are patently not interested … … I shall research a new router that almost certainly won't be a netgear.

I go along with that.

A few years ago I installed a Safecom SBRU-10100 (for cable) which cost about £13 from e-Buyer. It's been the best buy ever!


Liverpool: Capital of Culture 2008
Anfield: Capital of Football since 1892
Iechyd da! John
Glannau Mersi, Lloegr.

 

[Homerz]

It's fixed!!!

Incredible!

Modifications and Bug Fixes

Version 1.02.13

5. Fixed an issue where Log Emails were sent with the wrong date.

http://kbserver.netgear.com/release_notes/D103204.asp

Wow, it only took them ... what ... three years.

 

[Homerz]

I also discovered that Netgear apparently now provide the source code to their routers (in compliance with the GPL) here:

http://kbserver.netgear.com/kb_web_files/n101238.asp

Should be easy enough to "diff" the sources to find exactly what they changed to fix this issue, for those interested.

I assume that other DG834 models also have updated firmware that fix this same issue.

/me sighs with relief.

 

[stduc]

Homerz (Programmer)
I assume that other DG834 models also have updated firmware that fix this same issue.

Unfortunately the older models have been ignored. DG834 and DG834G Wireless ADSL Modem Router
Software Version 3.01.25 Published: Oct. 27, 2005





[navy]When I married "Miss Right" I didn't realise her first name was 'always'. LOL[/navy]

 

[BionicJohn]

Wow! <faints>

Thanks for letting us know, Homerz.

I also see that several DG834s are now declared obsolete.

EOL Status of NETGEAR Products
Updated on 07/09/2007

DG814 has been discontinued, no updates planned
DG824M has been discontinued, no updates planned
DG834v1 and v2 have been discontinued, no updates planned
DG834Bv1 and v2 have been discontinued, no updates planned
DG834Gv1 and v2 have been discontinued, no updates planned
DG834GBv1 and v2 have been discontinued, no updates planned

Liverpool: Capital of Culture 2008
Anfield: Capital of Football since 1892
Iechyd da! John
Glannau Mersi, Lloegr.