Wi-Fi & connectivity

[jemmhubred]

We moved from a house to an apartment and are trying to set up our Roku stick. We have a username and password, but the device doesn't prompt for either when connecting to the building internet service. We don't have this problem with computers and smartphones. What can we do?

[RokuJohnB]

Hi @jemmhubred,

Greetings from the Roku Community!

We understand you are having a problem with the Roku streaming stick, as it was not prompting you to connect to your Wi-Fi. We're pleased to assist you.

Troubleshooting steps

1. Power cycle the Roku device for 30 seconds.
2. Restart the router.
3. You can reset your Roku device's network connection by going to Settings > Advanced System Settings > Network connection reset > Reset connection.
   • Note: Before doing so, make sure you know your Wi-Fi credentials. 
4. After the network reset, your Roku device will restart, and you will need to return to the Settings menu to set up your wireless network again.

You can connect your streaming device to a mobile hotspot as a temporary workaround to prevent an issue from occurring.

For additional troubleshooting steps, please see this article: How to fix internet errors and issues on your Roku streaming device.

If the issue persists, we recommend performing a manual factory reset.

Please try doing this and see if it helps with what you're experiencing.

Best regards,
John

[atc98092]

@jemmhubred can you be a bit more specific?

• Are you having an issue connecting to the building WiFi?
• or is it once you connect to the WiFi you can't access the Internet without entering credentials on a login page?

[jemmhubred]

Our Roku stick goes through every step fine and connects to the building wifi, but it doesn't provide any prompt for a username and password like our other devices do. I've seen what should happen in a YouTube video. I've also rebooted and even reset the Roku stick, and apparently resetting it now won't even allow it to start up correctly.

[atc98092 · Accepted solution]

You can get your Stick connected back to your user account by using a hotspot, such as on a smartphone. Then you can get back to the network connection issue.

How do you mean "other devices" prompt for a user name and password? That sounds like a separate authentication webpage that comes after the device is connected to the WiFi, such as most hotels use. If you aren't getting the prompt asking if you're using a hotel or dorm connection, that means the Roku thinks you have a network connection that doesn't require authentication. Since there's no way to manually trigger that function, you have two options. The first is to contact the support staff for your new network, and your management company should be able to provide you with that info. When you contact them, ask them to "whitelist" your device in their system. They will ask you for your device's MAC address. This is a number you can find on the Settings/Network/About screen. It's a 12 digit alphanumeric with two digits, a colon ( : ) and the two more, and so on.

The second is a bit more complicated, but overall might be more satisfying to use. You can use a  Windows computer with a WiFi card (such as an old laptop) to connect to the WiFi network, then share that network connection to the same computer's Ethernet connection. This is basically called a secure bridge connection. You can then connect your own router to that Ethernet connection using the WAN port and you now have your own personal, private WiFi network that won't require anything more than knowing the SSID and password of the router WiFi. 

The advantage to the second method is that you now have every device in your home completely separated from the building WiFi, which gives you much better privacy as well as complete control of your internal network. I've used them method when I was staying long term at a hotel during a work assignment. As I said, it's a bit complicated to set up, but once it's running you should never need to be concerned with your connection to the building WiFi again, unless they contact you and advise they've changed WiFi passwords or something like that. If that happens, you simply go onto the bridge computer and change it to the new one.

[jemmhubred]

Thank you. I was able to finish up the setup using a hotspot, but when I try to connect to our normal internet service, there still isn't any prompt for our username and password. I will have to ask our apartment manager about it. Thanks for the help!