Netgear DG834 emailing with wrong month!

[stduc]

I have a Netgear DG834 v1 modem/router that works just fine.

I have it email me its log on a daily basis.

Suddenly in July it started emailing me using the wrong month!
For example today, the email said
Date: Fri,28 Aug 2006 06:00:00 -0000 (GMT Daylight Time)


It has the correct date & time. Individual lines in the email noting events, have the correct timestamp. It simply insists that it is August. It has to be an internal look up table issue as the day is correct (for July) and the year is correct. It just writes in August and not July!!!!!

The Firmware Version is V3.01.25
The ADSL firmware version is 4.01.02.00

Both the latest available I believe.

I could treat it as a joke and of no importance except that if the look up table is incorrect what is going to happen next month and what will happen in December? Will the router crash because it will try to reference an entry in the look up table that does not exist and get an internal error?

I have contacted Netgear but beyond suggesting I re-boot the router (I have) they have nothing more to say.

So is anyone else experiencing this?
Does anyone have a solution?

 

[gio2006]

Yes I agree.
The problem is on the Web side of things.
The reason why I mentioned the cgi script is that the a simple grep for sendlog on /

http://www/*

shows that the string is in setup.cgi and the setup.cgi seems to be called as action by almost all POST methods in html files.

 

[BionicJohn]

The last few posts are far more insightful into what's happening than any Netgear offering. I'll give TelNet a go later. Thanks.

Meanwhile, Daljeet Singh of Netgear Support has handed over to Netgear UK:

12/12/2006 3:37:00 PM
Sir,

Your issue will be passed to our engineering department where it will be looked into.

Regards, Netgear UK

Have we moved to level 3 or is it case closed?




LIVERPOOL FC - FA Cup Winners 2006.
Iechyd da! John
Glannau Mersi, Lloegr.

 

[BionicJohn]

We have Sumit on the case now…

12/13/2006 3:16:00 PM

I appreciate the opportunity to assist you. Thank you for contacting Netgear Support. My name is Sumit & I will be handling your enquiry.

Thank you for your feedback. Your feedback is important to us and I will forward this to an appropriate department.

Regards,
Sumit Sharma, Netgear Support

LIVERPOOL FC - FA Cup Winners 2006.
Iechyd da! John
Glannau Mersi, Lloegr.

 

[stduc]

The Kiwi syslog server works a treat. (I finally found time to install it). You can use it in addition to having emails sent if you wish.

I have also discovered you really have no choice but to set email notification to 'when log is full' as setting it to 'daily' means the router simply stops logging when the log is full until it sends and clears it! The log buffer is only 17k so it soon fills. Especially if you set the all rule I mention in thread

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1314462

 

[BionicJohn]

I'm getting nowhere with Netgear. They just keep handing on the matter to someone else.

12/13/2006 3:16:00 PM
Dear John,

I appreciate the opportunity to assist you. Thank you for contacting Netgear Support. My name is Sumit & I will be handling your enquiry.

Thank you for your feedback. Your feedback is important to us and I will forward this to an appropriate department.

Regards, Sumit Sharma
Netgear Support

12/18/2006 7:50:00 PM

"Dear Valued Customer,
With regards to your last technical enquiry, we're standing by to receive a response and would like to know if we can be of further assistance."

It's the other way round - I am waiting for a response from you. All you have down is pass my request to someone else who says he or she is handling it - the problem of the incorrect date is still unresolved.

I would appreciate an interim statement to indicate what progress Netgear have made with this case.

Iechyd da! John
19:51 18/12/2006 GMT

12/19/2006 8:14:00 PM
Dear John,

My name is Sumit and I am following up on your support case.

Based on the complexity of this case, it may be appropriate for me to seek additional resources. I recommend escalating your case to the next level for further review and response Please allow them 24 hours to respond to you.

This message is for your information only. There is no additional action needed from you at this time. The next level agent will update the case and you will be notified.

Again, thanks for choosing NETGEAR. We appreciate your continued patience. We will get back with you very shortly.

Regards, NETGEAR Support

This is the third hand over - I wonder how long it will take to get round to the first guy again!

LIVERPOOL FC - FA Cup Winners 2006.
Iechyd da! John
Glannau Mersi, Lloegr.

 

[Homerz]

Bet you a fiver that you'll just end up getting a bot generated reply like:

"The case has been escalated to the relevant department and the issue is being looked into, there may shortly be a firmware release which solves this problem, please periodically visit our website to check for the latest updates."

I.E. "We give up / don't care

 

[BionicJohn]

Agreed.

So I've just bought myself a LINKSYS wireless access point to plug into the DG834. They lost a sale.

LIVERPOOL FC - FA Cup Winners 2006.
Iechyd da! John
Glannau Mersi, Lloegr.

 

[stduc]

Now we are into the new year it seems to have sorted itself out. But for how long?

 

[BionicJohn]

Likewise!!

http://bigjohnd.250free.com/netgear/netgeardate2.gif

LIVERPOOL FC - FA Cup Winners 2006.
Iechyd da! John
Glannau Mersi, Lloegr.

 

[Homerz]

MeToo®

However, IIRC it wasn't until the middle of the year (July/August) that this started happening, so don't breath a sigh of relief just yet.

Also, this now means that Netgear Tech. Supp. are even less motivated to investigate this, let alone fix it. Not that they ever seemed interested in the first place.

 

[Homerz]

I'm looking for a new router anyway. The DG834GT overheats far too easily, suffers from "freezing", i.e. unresponsive admin web interface, has a crap a wireless signal, and looks far too much like a kitchen appliance.

Time I moved up to something a bit more professional.

 

[BionicJohn]

Also, this now means that Netgear Tech. Supp. are even less motivated to investigate this, let alone fix it. Not that they ever seemed interested in the first place.

Yup.

DG834GT

I have the wired variety, with a Linksys WAP54G attached for wireless access. I've no complaints, other than the date issue and absence of a sensible response from Netgear Tech support.

LIVERPOOL FC - FA Cup Winners 2006.
Iechyd da! John
Glannau Mersi, Lloegr.

 

[gio2006]

I have been away for a while from this thread, but there have been lots of email excahnges (I have been able to talk to L2 / L3 support people, have had a chance to test Beta versions of firmware, to the point that my device became unusable: no further upgrades/downgrades were possible). So in the end, all they could suggest was to replace the router. To their credit their service was astonishing: I spoke to some guy in the States on Tuesday, who arranged for a replacement, which arrived on Thursday after a call from the reseller on Wednesday. If it wasn't for the various problems, I would recommend them to anyone ...!
The pre-installed firmware is V18, which has the following "features":
- Started ok. Connected ok.
- Sends mail with correct date (no duplicate emails - I had this problem with a Beta version of the firmware). However, this may be because of the New Year
- Does NOT log admin failed login attempts (it was working instead with a Beta version)
- PDAs wireless connection with WPA-PSK ok (good range too!); not working with later firmware versions.
- In "Basic Settings" the Test button does NOT go to the Netgear

http://WWW (just

refreshes the screen) - this is the behaviour with the all versions I think.
- When Added the following 2 Inbound rules (to always log):
# Service Name Action LAN Srv IP WAN Users Log
1 Any(TCP) BLOCK always Any Any Always
2 Any(UDP) BLOCK always Any Any Always

(This is because Default rule can't be edited and Log=Never)

It logs Destination as 1.0.0.0 in BLOCK/DOS/PORT SCAN events (should be my IP)
- BLOCK/DOS/PORT SCAN events set to send log immediately strips the date off the event in email content (the web interface has the date).

I am now going to test V30 and hope that at least the date stays correct and lets me regress, as I bet that the WPA-PSK encryption will not work for PDAs.
I'll keep you informed. Apologies if I have added extra issues to the thread (thought it could be useful to share).

gio2006

 

[Homerz]

You have the "PN", whereas I have the "GT" version, so the firmware is probably incompatible, (mine is V1.02.04).

Pity, or I would have asked for a copy of yours.

Bear in mind, none of us are experiencing the date problem right now, due the New Year. Wait 'till July/August and see what happens.

Anyway, as I've already said, I'll probably have a new router by then anyway.

You're right though, their phone support is excellent (pity their Web support sucks).

 

[gio2006]

I have tested V30... and regressed immediately to V18.
The only new features in V30 seemed to be:
1) pre-defined rules for IM ports in Firewall Rules
2) WPA2-PSK encryption

As 1) can be defined manually and 2) breaks the currently working WPA-PSK connection with my PDAs I "archived" it straight away. In addition I was getting every email from logs twice!

I have kept the replacement device and sent back the old one (after I was able to regress of course)