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ag6's avatar
ag6
Reel Rookie
2 years ago

Nasty surprise: my Roku doesn't connect to hotel wireless anymore

I have this Roku unit that I've been taking with me forever on business trips. Would always follow the "I am at a hotel or college dorm" prompt without any problems. Until today... I connect my phone to the Roku wireless, and the instructions say "Launch a browser on your smartphone, tablet or laptop to enter the required information (such as name and room \#)".

I launch a browser and nothing. If I go to any sites, it tells me "domain not found". If I enter an IP address (such as the IPv4 that my device gets with the last number set to 1: 172.29.243.1) the loading seems to start but does not progress from 0%. The gateway (172.29.243.225) refuses the connection.

I've tried my phone Android 14, and my laptop (Linux) with exactly the same lack of success. Terribly frustrating... In the 3rd millennium  connecting to internet should be established technology, not a lottery ticket!

Something must have changed. Either software of the Roku (I have "4640X - Roku Ultra", software version 12.5.0 build 4172-29; device reports it up to date as of today), or the hotel messed something up. Yet, I can connect my phones (various variants) and laptop. 

tv & player wifi

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  • AvsGunnar's avatar
    AvsGunnar
    Community Streaming Expert
    2 years ago

    ag6 

    atc98092 is the resident traveling gypsy around here.  He likely has some tips/advice on connecting to these different hotel connections.

    I travel with an older 3921 Premiere+ and have never been prompted with the dorm/hotel login requirement so haven't had any experience in troubleshooting the different scenarios.  I just plug it in and has always worked.

    Edited to add... Wonder if you can just use your laptop to establish the wifi connection and then connect your Roku to the laptop wifi. (ad-hoc hotspot scenario).

    • atc98092's avatar
      atc98092
      Community Streaming Expert
      2 years ago

      I connected my Stick last week without any issues. But I will say that sometimes the hotel network provides just enough Internet connection to make the Roku think it's connected, so it doesn't trigger the hotel function. This is why Roku really needs to add the ability to manually tell the Roku that it's on a hotel/dorm network. While it's the fault of the hotel network configuration, it would really be good to have the ability to trigger the role manually.

      Unfortunately, I don't think you can connect a computer to the hotel WiFi and then provide a hotspot for other devices. That would require the WiFi to support two separate connections on the same radio, and I'm not certain that is possible. It would require two separate WiFi radios.

      But I did do something similar when I was at a hotel for several months. I used a Windows PC to connect to the hotel via WiFi, then shared the connection over the Ethernet port and added a network switch with WiFi (in other words, a router set up as an access point) and connected all my devices I was traveling with to that connection. That way I only had a single connection to the hotel network, but all of my devices connected to my private network. I could use the Roku app on my phone if I desired, as well as streamed media from the PC that I brought with me to my Roku devices. The room had two TVs, so I put my Stick on the living room TV and my Ultra on the bedroom set. 

      Since a laptop has a WiFi radio and likely has an Ethernet port, someone could do the same thing I did, but it would require traveling with that extra router that was set up to be an access point. If you didn't care about accessing media from the computer, the router wouldn't need to be set up as a WAP, so that would simplify things. 

  • ag6's avatar
    ag6
    Reel Rookie
    2 years ago

    As a workaround I did connect my Pixel phone to hotel wifi and offered hotspot to which I connected the Roku. But that means Roku streaming goes twice through wifi in my room and all through my phone, which I have to charge. A workaround, but a kludge if I ever saw one, to be sure.

    • atc98092's avatar
      atc98092
      Community Streaming Expert
      2 years ago

      I doubt you were using the hotel WiFi once you enabled your hotspot. Unless your phone can do both at the same time (which I highly doubt) all you did was connect your Roku to your phone and then used your phone data for the Roku. I will say I've done that myself with an Android player I have that I am experimenting with for travel. 

      • ag6's avatar
        ag6
        Reel Rookie
        2 years ago

        I do know what I am doing. You, atc98092, can doubt me, but that doesn't change the matter: I am using both the hotel wifi _and_ offering hotspot to Roku, because my Pixel phone on Google Fi _can_ and _does_ both at the same time. I realize not all phones may be capable of this, or some providers may preclude this functionality, but I'm lucky to have found a combination of hardware and provider that enable this. How do I know I'm achieving this feat? I have my mobile data turned off. And am regularly checking my mobile data usage. After an entire evening of streaming my total mobile data usage for the current billing period (cycle ends in 8 days) is still 0 bytes.

         

        However, let's not lose focus: whatever kludgy workaround I ended up using, it is Roku device that should connect direct to hotel wifi.