We have been running a RB1100AHx2 on our network without problems for a year now. The domain network has about 60 client PC's with static IP's, runs a `Server 2012 Domain Controller, DHCP Server, DNS Server. A 10 Mbit fiber optic line is connected to the modem/router that NAT's the public IP to 192.168.1.1/24 on that modem. From here a LAN cable on port LAN1 connects to ETH1 on the RB which has a fixed IP of 192.168.1.10 (RB WAN). The RB NAT's to our local network 192.168.5.1/24.
This may not be the most elegant setup but it has always worked perfectly. The RB has 3 main functions:
- assign bandwidth to address groups of IP
- force DNS requests to Opendns.org
- limit facebook etc. by day and time

Recently we experienced unstable performance with some clients where Outlook email would download, but browsing would not work. Or the other way around. On my Mac, Skype would work, but email and browsing also does not. Many clients are affected, but some not, though browsing would be terribly slow. Some webpages open and others don't.

I brought the RB to my house last weekend for thorough testing and it connected fine at first. Then I did a number of things.
- restore default settings and setup interfaces and nat only. Worked.
- Upgraded from 5.26 to 6.27. Worked.
- Loaded backup settings from 5.26. Worked (after small alteration in Queue tree for Global-in/out changes).

I did above things repeatedly and only had a few times where my internet was unstable/not working by the end of Sunday evening. Monday morning at the office, we tried with our own ISP modem/router as well as getting internet to the RB from a different network (and ISP). Both very slow browsing or not opening a page at all. We finally did manage to load http://www.speedtest.net and it would actually measure the correct down/up speed from our provider! Skype is on but emails do not load. I can ping http://www.google.com as well as internal IP from RB terminal.


These symptoms now stay persistent even after:

- Downgrade to 5.26 again with "fresh" basic interface and NAT setting, as well as restore our custom rules
- Same on 6.27.

So, is this a hardware failure or what is it? Karma perhaps?, as the board is exactly one year and 3 days old...

Sounds like dns problems. Try with other nameserver.

Yes it does sound like that. I have tried RB with static IP and testing different DNS servers in the DNS settings (Google, ISP, Opendns). Have also tried obtaining WAN by DHCP (RB as client) where it would obtain the modem's and ISP DNS. All similar results.

Should add to that that we now run the network directly from the ISP modem/router without any problems. What we obviously are missing now is the extra control what we bought the RB for....