Forum Discussion

angry_kreyon's avatar
angry_kreyon
Binge Watcher
7 months ago
Solved

All my Wifi Roku players, connect with excellent signal, but internet download is maybe 1 mb

as I start to write this I got this error code "code rlp-1002 - network unavailable". get this a lot many times a day, it is impossible to watch these devices anymore, they are 4k streaming sticks t...
tv & player wifi
  • RokuRhea-V's avatar
    RokuRhea-V
    7 months ago

    Hey angry_kreyon,

    Welcome to the Roku Community!  

    Thank you for your efforts to resolve this issue. To help us investigate further, please let us know if you have encountered the same problem with other apps. If not, we recommend further troubleshooting steps:  

    • Uninstall the Spectrum app on Roku, press Home, highlight the app, press Star, select Remove app, and confirm.
    • To reset your network, go to Settings > System > Advance system settings > Network connection Reset to reset your network.

    For more details, visit your Roku device's support article on issues such as playing shows and movies.

    Please keep us updated on the results; we will continue assisting you from there.
    Thanks,

    The Roku Community Team

  • angry_kreyon's avatar
    angry_kreyon
    6 months ago

    to any and all that happen upon this thread with the same issues, I have found my solution, I took apart a unit that was not working well at all, and looked it over with a magnifying glass and found the Dot that is supposed to be the antenna and I took a simple key ring and clipped it on the antenna and hooked it back up, the keyring touches the tiny metal spot that is the antenna and extends it the length of the keyring loop, and let me tell you I see a Huge difference!! I am now connecting at 25mbps and have watched hours of 4k quality picture and it has not failed or buffered since!! it's the Antenna inside the device which is the issue, it is a Tiny little dot of a thing and if it had not been marked on the board I would have missed it, but it is too small to get a signal, add some actual length to it and it functions, Imagine that!! hey Roku, Really? you can add 1 inch of wire for an antenna? my $5 ESP32 boards have longer antennas than these $50 devices? it's no wonder there is so much suffering in the Roku world,  I will add links to some pictures soon to show how this HACK to add an actual antenna works and how it can be accomplished in less than 30 seconds, and video to show the difference in signal strength and lowered failure rate. I am Just an End User IT guy, I resolved this for myself, I do not have all the answers and I do not work for Roku, but I do know how to fix things that are broken and how things Should be designed. 

atc98092's avatar
atc98092
Community Streaming Expert
7 months ago
angry_kreyon wrote:

nothing else in my house connects at less than 100GB 

I think you have a couple of extra zeros there, as well as an incorrect abbreviation. I seriously doubt your home has 100GB Internet. From everything I can find online, the fastest available home Internet is Google Fiber at 8 Gbps, which is 1 GB per second. No problem there, just wanted to level set what speed you might expect.

Roku devices with an Ethernet jack have Fast Ethernet, which is 100 Mbps (real world about 92 Mbps). When connected to WiFi, Roku devices are capable of speeds faster than that, but not by a lot. I have tested two different Roku Ultra players (4800 and 4850). Both were installed in the exact same location and only three feet away from a 802.11ax access point. This is a best case scenario as there's nothing blocking the signal and I use a channel that minimizes interference from any of my neighbor's WiFi points. My home Internet is just under 1 Gbps via Comcast, and I've tested it with both wired and wireless computers to confirm the connection. on 5GHz the 801.11ax protocol has a theoretical maximum connection speed of 14Gbps, but differences in routers, interference and other factors mean you would never see speeds like that.

So, the fastest maximum speed my network could offer on WiFi is just under 900 Mbps. The Windows 11 laptop that I'm using right now is about eight feet from the access point, and I just measured my WiFi speed at 325 Mbps. So you can see how much speed I'm losing even at only 8 feet away. The Roku 4800, less than 3 feet away and connecting to the exact same access point maxed out at 225 Mbps. When I swapped the 4850 into the same location, the speed increased to 280 Mbps. 

These measured speeds are the hardware limits of the Roku players themselves. Even with a higher speed connection, they simply can't use a speed any faster. And I have confirmed this playing constant bitrate video files connected directly to the Roku on a USB drive. Both versions of the Ultra start having buffering issues playing files around 160 Mbps. I have a 250 Mbps file, and they will not even load, let alone play.

What does all this mean? Roku devices are hardware constrained far below the limits of current WiFi technology. But they will play media up to about 150 Mbps without an issue if there's no networking issues involved. I can play my UHD ripped movies on either Ultra without any issues, and these files have peak data rates that can exceed 150 Mbps. I stream my media from a PC on my Gigabit network using either Plex or Serviio as the media server. Both will send the video in its native format and bitrate, only transcoding the audio codec which the Roku players don't support.

angry_kreyon's avatar
angry_kreyon
Binge Watcher
7 months ago

yea, that was supposed to be MB, but was not talking about internet, just internal network, internet speed is 600mb Down /50mb up with numbers generally staying in that area any time I do a speed test.  but I have newest routers, and gig switches, and run Cat 6 for cables. for Wifi, I within the last 3 months put together a brand new mesh system with Asus routers partly to try and resolve the issues. generally I Was trying to say that my general speeds are good for all other devices, but my roku runs between 1mbps and 11mbps on a good day, and no apps play without issues. and all of this started about 2 years ago, after I had been using them for over a year and one day I turned it on and had to wait for OTA firmware update, and ever since has not worked the same. 

but you bring up an interesting thing, about the file size, and I was thinking that I Can cast to the roku fine, but realized that it is the Visio smart TV that I cast to and not the Roku, the cast screen says that the roku's are only available to stream some content, and not whatever video app I happen to have open on my PC. (netflix, peacock, etc..) , so if my streams are over 160mbps I guess that makes sense. 

the thing is I am not even talking about casting, just it connecting to the network and doing it main function of streaming at 4k to my 4k tv's, 600 mb internet speeds and local wifi 6 network and gig switches, should have this working up a storm, my laptop on the same wifi AP is pulling 498mb at the moment, and has no issues with the same content.  streaming peacock on my PC and the Roku, started at the same time, and the Roku is a whole 2 min and 17 seconds behind in the stream due to buffering.  they are 2 feet apart. 

I tried turning every setting on my router on and or off, have reset the router over and over, internet is generally not the issue as my Wife and I both Work from Home and are on the phones and remoting into other devices all day long with no issues, yes it glitches once in a while, and when that happens our PC's see Glitch and we know to wait a min and it comes back to normal, if I had to average how often that happens it would be once every 2 months. but the roku's glitch all the time randomly, could be 3 min, could be 30 min. but always starts by the screen getting pixelated, and then buffering and then the app I am in will dump, restart and wait for the random glitches.  so the network is good enough for 2 people to work from simultaneously, and if we watch the Smart TV apps (on Wifi) and not turn on the Roku, no issues, turn on the roku and you would think the TV is on Dial up. I can run open speed test server on my network and internally I get 922mbps across my devices, can't find a way to have roku test that connection. 

since I forgot to post his message the other day, I took 2 of my units to other locations, on both frontier and Spectrum, and again, they see the Wifi signal as excellent and then connects and says connection speed is 2mbps,  less than 5 min of watching before buffering off the screen. did not make a difference if it was the provider modem or a 3rd party modem, the signal is 5 bars, but it can only get 2mbps downloads??  like I said the apps I use don't matter it is the Roku's connection that is the issue.

anyway thanks for all the suggestions and trying to help. but I Am done with these things.  it is just not worth the hassle they have been the last year or so. but thanks again for the help.

  • atc98092's avatar
    atc98092
    Community Streaming Expert
    7 months ago

    angry_kreyon thanks for the update. Could you provide the model number(s) of any Roku devices you're using? Are they all the 3810 Stick models, or any others? I noticed in a message you just posted you mentioned a 3930, which is the basic Express with only a single band WiFi radio. I was never a fan of that Roku, as it had pretty poor performance compared to other models. And that could be part of your issue. On the 2.4GHz WiFi band, I too have seen poor performance with a 3920 Premiere. Not quite as bad as yours, but still pretty dismal. And in my case, the Premiere was within 3 feet of an access point. It was the limitations of the 2.4GHz band compared to 5GHz that made the difference. There are far more potential interference points in a given home on 2.4 compared to 5GHz. Even a clean string signal on 2.4GHz doesn't always provide as fast as the band and protocol supports.

    In theory 2.4GHz using the 802.11n protocol should be capable of 300 Mbps of more, but in real use I seldom see higher than 30 Mbps or so, and that is with better hardware than a cheap Roku. Using a dual band Roku player, I've tested both bands, and with no changes other than the band used I find a far higher connection speed on 5GHz. I feel 2.4GHz has simply gotten too crowded, and with only three non-overlapping channels (1, 6 and 11) there simply isn't room for them all. 

    I live in a residential neighborhood with a reasonable amount of space between my home and others. From the chair I'm sitting in, I'm at least 25-30' away from my nearest neighbor's home. I just fired on a WiFi scanner on my laptop, and it is reporting 150(!) different access points within receiver range. Now, most of those are not actually strong enough to use, and nine of them are access points in my home (remember that each radio band counts as a separate AP) and a few of them are Roku remotes that appear as an unnamed AP. But what it all means is the 2.4GHz band is far more crowded and hence has the potential for more interference. Using a scanner like this might help you see if you could select a different channel that provides a clearer signal. I like inSSIDer, but it appears you now need to create a (free) user account to use the software. 

    • angry_kreyon's avatar
      angry_kreyon
      Binge Watcher
      7 months ago

      I will say at least 4 of these are 3930 models, bought for the fact that they have remotes that can control the TV as well as the roku. and while I get that they are single antenna, single band units, they used to work fine. it was not till an update that I had no choice to install came down and then the issues started. my neighborhood is not packed in and I only see 2 AP's from outside of my network when I do a scan. I have tried all channels in the wifi settings, and the channel is not the issue as they all still cause the buffering. and while I understand that 2.5g is not as good as 5g, the roku is the only device to have tis issue, can stream on tablets and PC's and phones, even my cellular service has better speed than this thing.  and while writing this just for giggles, I connected the roku to my Cell phone hot spot , it connects at 4mbps!!! LOL it is the unit not what it connects to. can connect to any Wifi you ask me to and it will never be more than 11mbps on it's best day.  reconnected to my Wifi as normal and less than 1mbps download, cant even watch today. 

      I know these are probably small ESP32 type boards, so I am gonna tear one apart and have some fun with it. I bet if I can get access to the board I can program it to work as it should.  so we will see. 🙂 

      • angry_kreyon's avatar
        angry_kreyon
        Binge Watcher
        6 months ago

        to any and all that happen upon this thread with the same issues, I have found my solution, I took apart a unit that was not working well at all, and looked it over with a magnifying glass and found the Dot that is supposed to be the antenna and I took a simple key ring and clipped it on the antenna and hooked it back up, the keyring touches the tiny metal spot that is the antenna and extends it the length of the keyring loop, and let me tell you I see a Huge difference!! I am now connecting at 25mbps and have watched hours of 4k quality picture and it has not failed or buffered since!! it's the Antenna inside the device which is the issue, it is a Tiny little dot of a thing and if it had not been marked on the board I would have missed it, but it is too small to get a signal, add some actual length to it and it functions, Imagine that!! hey Roku, Really? you can add 1 inch of wire for an antenna? my $5 ESP32 boards have longer antennas than these $50 devices? it's no wonder there is so much suffering in the Roku world,  I will add links to some pictures soon to show how this HACK to add an actual antenna works and how it can be accomplished in less than 30 seconds, and video to show the difference in signal strength and lowered failure rate. I am Just an End User IT guy, I resolved this for myself, I do not have all the answers and I do not work for Roku, but I do know how to fix things that are broken and how things Should be designed.