Netgear DG834 emailing with wrong month! - take 3. 1

[Hameau]

As an addition to thread585-1388102 and its predecessor.

Following the recent (last week or so) tardiness of the Netgear ntp servers, whereby the router would spend a day or two with the default date-time following reset, I dug further.

I have an Ubuntu machine on the LAN already running ntpd for its own time sync, so it was easy to set it also as a ntp server. Pointing the DG834G to the local machine for its time sync solved the e-mail date problem.

There has also been a recent thread in the netgear.com forum, regarding the poor performance of time-*.netgear.com, where someone mentioned using time.nist.gov at 192.43.244.18 instead of the default Netgear server. I tried setting this IP in the router and it, too, solves the e-mail date problem.

So, quite what's going wrong with time-*.netgear.com I don't know, but it seems that we've been looking in the wrong direction for the last few years!

Perhaps someone else could give it a try, just in case I've missed something? Ta!

--
Nick.

 

[Hameau]

Sorry to auto-reply, but it seems that I can't edit.

Edit above post to add:

This is a DG834G v2 with firmware v3.01.38.
The e-mail dates remain correct after a week, with several manual reboots, so it seems to be robust. (Earlier thread posts suggested that it didn't work for repeated time syncs.)

 

[stduc]

Doesn't fix the date issues on a DG834 (v1) - But thanks for the tip on the time server. At least it gets the time quickly now!

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

 

[BionicJohn]

I've been using 62.31.160.115 (can't remember which one it is) as the NTP Server, and that seems to solve the problem.

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

 

[Hameau]

With some embarrassment, I come back to correct my story.

In fact, it's firmware v3.01.38 (for v1 & v2 hardware) that corrects the date error. The fix is undocumented in the release notes, but comes around the same time as fixes for the later versions of the hardware. Unfortunately, .38 is too unstable and on reverting to .31 the e-mail date error was back.

So, apologies for making two changes at the same time and posting complete twaddle!

 

[stduc]

I'm on V3.01.25.

In what way is V3.01.38 unstable? Would you be so kind as to post the details as to why you reverted to V3.01.31 (which is not available for the v1 router anyway!

I ask because I would like to know whether I should try V3.01.38 or not?

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

 

[BionicJohn]

FWIW, my DG834 is on V3.01.31(UK)

There seems to be little benefit in upgrading to v 3.01.38.

http://kbserver.netgear.com/release_notes/D103284.asp

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

 

[stduc]

There seems to be little benefit in upgrading to v 3.01.38.

http://kbserver.netgear.com/release_notes/D103284.asp

Well if it fixes the date issue then yes, it would be nice to upgrade to 3.01.38, but not if there is a significant stability issue. Which is why I would appreciate knowing some details about why Hameau ditched it and reverted.

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

 

[Hameau]

stduc: Hardware v1 and v2 use the same firmware -- .38 is available to you.

Problems have been occasional (about once a week, average), with complete loss of service -- Internet, LAN, Wireless. Unable to reach 192.168.0.1 by browser, so unable to reset from within the LAN, which is a showstopper in this case. Cycling the power reset everything okay at first. Other measures (hard reset, re-enter settings manually, etc.) made no improvement. Last time, the power reset didn't restore operation, so I dropped back to the previous firmware (.31) and found the date error was back ...

Others are reporting this on the netgear.com forum, too, so I'm hopeful for a better solution soon. Well, 'soon' in Netgear terms! :-D

SJD: I upgraded from v2.10.22 to address other issues, which is how I came to 3.01.38. I'm not an upgrade junkie! I agree that the incremental changes in the release notes are not worth changing for, but (at least in this case) not everything is documented.

--
Nick.

 

[stduc]

Many thanks for the information Hameau. MUCH appreciated. I'll give it some serious thought and I may try .38 if I feel like experimenting. But it doesn't sound good from your report. I've contacted Netgear (again) to see if they have any firmware updates in the pipline. But I won't hold my breath.

One certainty is that when I replace my router it won't be Netgear. My experience of their support has been abysmal.

stduc: Hardware v1 and v2 use the same firmware -- .38 is available to you.

I am aware of that - but .31 isn't - as far as I can tell.

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

 

[Hameau]

stduc: Yes, I noticed earlier that .31 is missing from the v1 Support page. It's on the v2 page and both pages have the note that v1 and v2 hardware share the same firmware, but I understand your hesitation! As v1 and v2 hardware is no longer supported from late last year, I was surprised to see any new firmware at all.

I don't think Netgear is so bad that I'd look for another supplier, but then I've had very good performance from those that I've installed, considering that it's only a SOHO unit. The DG834G is still my first choice for most installations. (Of course, that's like always buying the same make and model of car -- 15 years on, the new one's nothing like the one you started with!)

 

[stduc]

Ah! I see the confusion. I have a DG834 - plain & simple, not a DG834B or a DG834G or a v1 or indeed a v anything!
I don't believe the hardware is the same as the DG834v2 even.
So - that leaves me more pondering to do. Shall I go and 'play' with .38 - which is available for my box, or shall I leave it until I find the time and energy to get a Vigor? - LOL!

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

 

[Hameau]

I have a DG834 - plain & simple ...

It's all the same hardware -- see: <

http://kbserver.netgear.com/release_notes/D103284.asp>

"DG834 and DG834G Wireless ADSL Modem Router". No version suffix is v1; the OS auto-detects the wireless card, if fitted. (One of the v3 firmwares corrects a bug that showed a wireless config page on a wired version.)

Have fun!

--
Nick.