Wi-Fi & connectivity

[ag6]

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. 

[AvsGunnar]

@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]

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]

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]

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]

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.

[atc98092]

Oh, I'm not doubting you. It is absolutely dependent on the device. I tried on my iPhone yesterday activating the hotspot while connected to WiFi, and it WiFi connection indicator immediately went away on the home screen. It's good to know that it works with a Pixel phone. 

[AvsGunnar]

@ag6 

If you are interested in using your Linux laptop simultaneously as an ad-hoc hotspot while still using wifi (can still use all your devices, basically sharing wifi access), you might be interested in installing "linux-wifi-hotspot" on your machine.

This is a very easy to use software and of course, open source.  I have used others in the past which were more terminal based and complicated (ie. NetworkManager/nmcli), but linux-wifi-hotspot is as easy as it gets. (especially if you are Ubuntu-based).  Essentially you connect to a wifi network, then run the command "wihotspot" in your terminal, and a GUI (graphical interface) will open where you basically just "create a hotspot".  Then connect your devices to that hotspot. (I verified still working with Roku devices using my home network wifi on both my Ubuntu and Arch based distros).

Here is the link to linux-wifi-hotspot project on Github.  Be sure to read through what it does to give you a better understanding. https://github.com/lakinduakash/linux-wifi-hotspot

Here is a link to a very easy tutorial on how to install linux-wifi-hotspot.  Sometimes Github can be confusing with Install instructions.  https://www.makeuseof.com/create-wireless-hotspot-on-linux/

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Basically for Ubuntu, enter into terminal (one at a time, followed by enter)

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:lakinduakash/lwh

sudo apt update

sudo apt install linux-wifi-hotspot

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Then to launch linux-wifi-hotspot, just type in wihotspot in terminal.  

Might be nice to have this as a backup in case you run into problems again in the future.  I would get it running using your home network wifi so you know how it works, then you will be familiar with it if the instance arises again on the road.

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Similar hotspot feature is apparently available for Windows 10 and 11 with this hotspot feature/wifi sharing, but am unfamiliar with it. (as I rarely, if ever use Win OS).  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/use-your-windows-pc-as-a-mobile-hotspot-c89b0fad-72d5-41...