Channel Issues & Questions

[Debstoy54]

I have the latest Roku OS and Roksbox v4.5 and it takes forever to display my movies on both a 2nd gen Roku 2 XD and a 4th gen Roku Streaming Stick.  It was sometime around the end of last year that this slowdown started.  Before then it was pretty quick, similar to loading up Netflix.  Now it has me searching for alternatives.  I don’t want something that requires me to have a computer running as I frequently travel in my small RV and am able to just hook up my network hard drive to a travel router and I’m good to go.  I’d rather not switch from Roksbox but I’m hating how slow it’s become and there doesn’t seem to be any fix on the horizon.

[ChrisAK]

I just upgraded from a Roku2 to Roku Ultra and am trying to get my roksbox setup going again. My server streams via https; it was hard to convince the roksbox to do this at all (don't type https in the URL, but specify the port as 443) and now it's complaining that I use a self-signed certificate. Of course I use a self-signed certificate for my local media server!

This wasn't a problem on the Roku2. What gives? Is there a way to override this?

[fluke]

The strong enforcement of authenticating certificate signing is from a trusted certificate authority is a huge improvement.  Other platforms have allowed developers to turn off CA verification and in some cases resulted in applications being released in that insecure state (do a Google search for "FTC Fandango" for a fun read about this sort of thing).  Allowing unauthenticated certificates to be used for TLS encryption is leaving the connection open to a MITM attack (Man in the Middle) which defeats the purpose of using encryption.

Roku seems to have addressed this type of issue in modern versions of Roku OS.  I don't see any way in Brightscript for a channel developer to enable blindly trusting a self-signed certificate.  Instead, there is the option to trust an additional certificate authority file for the specific channel.  It would be up to the Roksbox author on if he wants to support using additional CA files in any future update to Roksbox.  It would probably involve having to copy the self created CA file in PEM format to a USB drive and then leaving that in the Roku every time you use Roksbox.

Ultimately, I think trying to get TLS working for a local network is not worth it.

If it is that important for you to do it, buy a domain and try using Let's Encrypt.  However, keep in mind that Roku does not use your local DNS server and probably will confirm the name in the URL matches the name in the CN or SAN field of the certificate.  So you will have to publish a DNS entry that the internet based DNS servers that Roku uses can locate.

Or, you can try just going to using unencrypted HTTP.

[atc98092]

"fluke" wrote:

If it is that important for you to do it, buy a domain and try using Let's Encrypt.  However, keep in mind that Roku does not use your local DNS server and probably will confirm the name in the URL matches the name in the CN or SAN field of the certificate.  So you will have to publish a DNS entry that the internet based DNS servers that Roku uses can locate.

Or, you can try just going to using unencrypted HTTP.

And you can't publish your internal IP address to the public DNS servers, so that won't accomplish what he needs either. Now if you run a DNS server inside your network, and has that assigned by the DHCP server, you can add your internal IP address. But I agree that's way too much work for something that remains inside the firewall. 

[fluke]

Actually, you can publish intranet IP addressed to public DNS servers.  But the Let's Encrypt certbot in HTTP mode won't work because Let's Encrypt won't be able to reach the intranet IP.  Instead, it would require doing the DNS based challenge to renew the Let's Encrypt certificate each time. 

It looks like "GoGetSSL" has two year certificates for $8.

I still think going unencrypted makes the most sense when using Roksbox.

[CthulhuSaves]

Just bought this channel/app because it's the only one listed on Roku as being able to view media stored on Google Drive; exactly what I was looking for.

Problem is, it shuts down (drops back to Roku's main menu) the moment I begin the setup wizard. Once that's happened, just opening the app causes it to immediately close out. If I uninstall/reinstall it just puts things back to the beginning, and the wizard crashes it all over again.

Could really use some help here. 

[Cgabri]

I've same problem and I bought the channel because it appear with cost $0.00 ! So, I've paid for something that not work. Anybody can help me to resolve the issue or to put in contact with someone?

Thanks in advance

[walterbyrd]

Does Roksbox actually work with dropbox? Can I put a video on dropbox, and stream it to my roku? Will it start up and quickly and run smoothly?

It is not confidence inspiring that Roksbox has no forum, or support of any kind. I can find no way to contact them. This hardly seems the way a legit company would operate.