Wi-Fi & connectivity

[brianmw42]

Are you nuts!!!

Theres 2 issues with that:

1.  my tv is on one side of the house, my router is on the other.

2. It wont accept ANY network connection without internet.

Im NOT running a cable across the house because Roku cant design a normal IP interface.

[brianmw42]

If the ONLY purpose of the device was to stream "PAID" content streams there would not be other applications available.

ALSO,  under YOU TUBE terms of service, You tube DOWNLOADS TO OTHER DEVICES can be mirrored from the YOU TUBE app without an internet connection.  If you dont want to support that, then REMOVE YOU TUBE, but I know you cant, because its your NUMBER ONE APP on the Roku System.

Roku should have an interactive dialog:  "Roku is unable to reach the internet.  Please select an app that allows local streaming (You Tube, Amazon)"

Your logic and argument have NO merit.  If you designed the device like ALL other internet devices, which CAN acquire a dhcp address and remain on the network WITHOUT internet it would not be an issue.

i am a corporate network engineer and I manage over 1500 devices (mobile and media) which have NO issue staying on network when our internet goes off line.

THIS IS A BAD DESIGN ISSUE WITH ROKU, not a user error.

[brianmw42]

RESETTING THE NETWORK IS NOT AN ACTUAL SOLUTION

[TheMav]

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@Reuben wrote:

If there is an ethernet port you might try hard wiring it to your router.

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No - 2 issues with that suggestion:

1) Roku Streaming Sticks have no physical internet ports - only Wifi.

2) Roku devices still currently check for an active internet connection before allowing the App to proceed.  So that wouldn't work either even if you have a Roku device with a LAN port.

[Unltd]

What’s really strange is that I just placed a Wi-Fi mesh system in my home that is not wired to the internet. Only to provide a Wi-Fi signal for this purpose of streaming content from my Plex server. I have been using it for the past week with no issues other than it asking if I still want to proceed without internet access when I launch the Plex app. 
today I connected the Roku to my mobile hotspot to watch some other content, and when I tried to switch back it would not allow me to connect to that Wi-Fi any longer. 

so it does work. But I just can’t quite figure out how to get it to connect again. 

[Unltd]

There is a solution. 

you need to connect your Plex app with a manual connection to the ip address the router has given in. 
you go to the Plex app and launch it, then go into the settings to set up a manual connection and enter the ip address the server is running on. 

[Unltd]

This actually is possible through the Plex app. 
I have been running my media library without internet access through my Roku now for a few weeks. 

I don’t know about other apps but if you open the Plex app on your Roku and go to the settings and look for the manual connection in the settings and enter the ip address your server in running on it will connect to it and run your media in offline mode. 

to do this I had to set up the mobile hotspot on my phone with the same network name and password as my Wi-Fi device I am using to cast the signal. Connect both the Roku and the server to that hotspot. Open them up and let them find each other. Make those changes in the settings menu on the Roku Plex app. Then turn off your hotspot and restart your Wi-Fi device and try and try and connect them, then when the Roku fails to connect, open the Plex app and wait. It will find the server and connect. 

it is a very strange process, but it works. 

[AvsGunnar]

@Unltd 

When the Roku device connects to a network, it is assigned a LAN IP by the DHCP server (your router).  For the most part, as long as this LAN IP remains the same, you can usually continue to use some Roku devices on a LAN without internet access. (caveat - must have passed a Roku OS internet check at some point).

When you switched to your hotspot, the Roku device was assigned a new LAN IP. (and a new internet test was performed).

To get it to work again on the other network (your mesh), you will likely need to connect the mesh netowrk to the internet so the Roku device can again pass the network/internet test, or configure your mesh to use the same LAN settings as your hotspot so the Roku device does not lose its LAN IP during the switching.

For example, many hotspots use a Gateway address of 10.x.x.x while most home routers use 192.168.1.x or 192.168.0.x.  If you configure your mesh to use the same 10.x.x.x as the hotspot you may find it easier to continue connection.   Even better if you can reserve the same LAN IP address within your hotspot and the router for the Roku device.

All mobile hotspots and UI (user interfaces) are different.  Some allow you to change the hotspot's LAN IP range (instead of changing the router setup) while others do not.  You may have to do some experimenting here in your settings.

Edited to add... Looks like you found the solution while I was typing. 👍

[Unltd]

Yeah. It’s a very strange solution. 

the strange part is that the Roku itself is not connected to the Wi-Fi. 
and I think that’s where everyone is getting problems. The Roku itself will not connect, but the app will somehow go onto the set Wi-Fi configuration it was last connected to and find the Plex server. 

[AvsGunnar]

@Unltd 

Well, some of the issue is that the media servers (like Plex, Jellyfin, etc) only require a local connection (the lan/wifi part of the network) while the Roku OS is requiring an active internet connection before it will connect the device to the network. (no internet=no network access).

The Roku devices used to operate just fine without internet prior to an update in Roku OS 9.5, or 10 or somewhere thereabout.  If you lost your internet, the devices would still be able to use the local network to stream local content.  Since Roku is basically an internet streaming device, they simply changed their OS to require this active internet requirement. (Roku is very slow to respond to user feature requests so I do not see this going away soon, but I am still hoping it will revert back in the future).

I have other methods of getting my servers to play on my TVs, but I really wish Roku would make it easier for their users to be able stream local content without the need for internet.  (I'm pretty rural and subject to internet outages if the wind blows too hard on any given day).

Feel free to post any updates if you find something changes/improvements or run into issues.  The only way to learn about  these different workarounds is by users reporting what works for them.