Forum Discussion

ae_zero's avatar
ae_zero
Newbie
2 years ago

How to use Roku without Internet access

Hi all,

A year ago, I made a neat little setup to entertain the kids on vacation using a Raspberry Pi running Plex and a Roku Streaming Stick+.  The Pi creates a wifi SSID, and the Roku would connect and be able to stream from the Plex server running on the Pi.  I can use it anywhere, as it didn't need internet (ie. in the car, or hotels without free wifi).

This year, however, there seems to be a new requirement on the Roku for it to have internet.  If I try to connect to the SSID my Pi is running, the Roku detects that there is no internet access and it disconnects.

Does anyone have a good workaround?  (for example, how to override this requirement, or a way to spoof whatever site or protocol it is using to detect for internet connectivity)

Thanks!

tv & player wifi

1 Reply

Replies have been turned off for this discussion
  • AvsGunnar's avatar
    AvsGunnar
    Community Streaming Expert
    2 years ago

    ae_zero 

    You could certainly do this with older Roku OS (pre-10.0 I believe).  I wonder if your Stick received an update. The Roku devices now do both a Network and Internet test check.

    On some of my devices, when I lose internet (storms and other outages), I can still access a DLNA server on the network.  On others, if the internet goes out, sometimes it won't allow access to the server, and at other times it will.). 

    ----

    Other than using the same SSID on the Pi as a network that has internet (ie. connect it to your home network and let it perform the tests), then just move it to the Pi setup.  As long as you don't change networks (ie. use a different SSID), the Roku device shouldn't perform another network test. (at least for awhile). 

    I really don't fully understand why Roku made this change, other than they really don't care about a user's ability to use the Roku device for offline viewing of content.