Wi-Fi & connectivity

[mmortal03]

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@Kat6 wrote:

So I have done everything, unplugged both the router and roku numerous times, tried the factory reset, nothing worked. So I wiped my whole roku for nothing

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Yeah, a factory reset tends to be bad, lazy advice from Roku. I'm not a Roku support technician, but I'd venture to claim that it's very unlikely out of the many cases where someone's Roku stops connecting to their WiFi that a factory reset will permanently fix the problem. Even if it goes back to an earlier firmware version and works for a while, the next update will break it again, until Roku actually fixes the firmware on their end. It should only be tried as a last resort just to prove that maybe the WiFi adapter circuitry inside the Roku has died. Otherwise, it's probably most often going to be some weird WiFi compatibility issue between the Roku firmware and the person's router that a factory reset isn't going to fix.

[anode505]

Its also a wired connection issue.  I get this at times and mine is wired.

So the problem is somewhere in the tcp/ip stack.

[atc98092]

A factory reset does not revert to an older OS version. So a reset is giving the user a clean, fresh installation of the latest OS. For whatever reason, code can become corrupt on a device, and a reset clears it out. Depending on the original cause, the problem might return, or the device may be fine afterwards. 

I have many Roku devices, some wired and the rest connected to WiFi. I have never encountered an issue with the network connection. Not saying that some users have had issues. Merely pointing out that is isn't a systemic issue. And with Roku TVs, you have different manufacturers using different hardware, and the TV manufacturer needs to address that issue. 

[Kat6]

I'm on a Roku Express Plus for older TVs, so it has the yellow audio cables attached to the TV, then gets the internet thru wifi. Been running it like this since May 2019.

My xfinity box for some reason needs unplugged and plugged back in when it loses internet between 3-5am every single day, hoping to go to the store monday to exchange it.

Usually the Roku reconnects, but one other time it was challenging like this and I had to unplug the roku 2-3 times to get it to connect to wifi again, this time it's not working.

My Alexa dots and phone both were able to access the wifi, so I know its sending a signal.

[mmortal03]

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@atc98092 wrote:

A factory reset does not revert to an older OS version. So a reset is giving the user a clean, fresh installation of the latest OS. For whatever reason, code can become corrupt on a device, and a reset clears it out. Depending on the original cause, the problem might return, or the device may be fine afterwards. 

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I could be conflating it with people who had multiple devices, and as each got the new firmware, each one could no longer connect to their router. It's been a while since I was personally impacted by this issue. But I swear there were people who got a factory reset, it started working for a while, but then maybe an even newer firmware update came along and it broke again (which, I will give you, isn't necessarily the same thing).

I agree that there can be cases where data gets corrupted and only a factory reset will fix such an issue, but it seems more often than not with these WiFi problems, that they arise from a bug or "restriction in compatibility" following a firmware update, and also from certain WiFi channels/frequencies not being supported by the Roku and the router having randomly switched to those.

The other part you said, that it's not a system wide thing is technically true, but there have definitely been unknown changes in firmware updates, especially back in December or earlier where it broke compatibility with certain routers, and no one publicly facing at Roku even acted aware of it.  We ended up discovering on our own that we had to uncheck "allow legacy 802.11b rates" in our routers to work around the issue. This was in routers using OpenWRT firmware, but I suspected that some other routers using open source code could have been impacted that didn't have the ability to configure this option.

[atc98092]

I won't say that Roku might have caused an issue with a firmware update. It wouldn't be the first time. 🙂 But often the network issue was found to be something related to their WiFi access point, as you found with yours. I agree that it would help if Roku could be more specific about limitations with older 802.11 protocols. It's so rare today to find devices that can only connect with the .11b protocol, but most people still have it enabled in their WiFi. You are correct that few access points/routers have a setting labeled like yours, they almost all will allow de-selecting 802.11b, and often even .11g, leaving only .11n/.11ac. For Roku devices, you have to go back to the first generation players to find one that doesn't support .11n. 

OpenWRT is a great option for hardware that supports it. Unfortunately I don't have anything that does anymore, and the last one I had that did have a supported version wouldn't see the 5 GHz radio, making it rather useless at that point. But absolutely a excellent router OS. I take that back, I am still running an older version on a simple 2.4 GHz router that I run as an access point for a few specific devices on my network. 

[Kat6]

So today before work I checked the living room TV, more modern flat screen with an HDMI compared to my bedroom one with the audio/yellow cabled hooked up to a 1995 TV. That Roku can't connect to Xfi either, so it's a problem with the modem. I left both Roku's unplugged while I was gone for 10 hours, came home and unplugged my modem and plugged it back in, still no connection for the Roku's.

I have no TV in my house right now except for a few antenna channels and what I can watch on my computer, which I can't while I work. Makes me think this is Xfinity's way to make someone subscribe to their TV service. So frustrating.

[mmortal03]

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@atc98092 wrote:

But often the network issue was found to be something related to their WiFi access point, as you found with yours. I agree that it would help if Roku could be more specific about limitations with older 802.11 protocols. It's so rare today to find devices that can only connect with the .11b protocol, but most people still have it enabled in their WiFi. You are correct that few access points/routers have a setting labeled like yours, they almost all will allow de-selecting 802.11b, and often even .11g, leaving only .11n/.11ac. For Roku devices, you have to go back to the first generation players to find one that doesn't support .11n. 

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Yeah, on OpenWRT, the setting for legacy 802.11b rates was actually being proposed to be disabled by default for performance reasons around that same time, coincidentally: https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt/pull/3654

I believe that was pushed to their master branch back in December (didn't make it into an actual release for some time after that).

But that wasn't the cause of the Roku problem, that had been that way for years. The problem was that, for whatever reason, a change on Roku's end caused the Roku WiFi chips to break in the presence of this setting, just because our routers were still supporting 802.11b rates. (Mine was at a family member's house, and they didn't even have any 802.11b devices, it was simply because OpenWRT still supported these rates by default, and then whatever Roku changed introduced an incompatibility there).

[Ks6232007]

Same thing is happening with mines I’m sure they troubleshoot on their end and make **bleep** not work just so you can go out and buy a newer one smh 

[anode505]

One might be able to pop the box open and hook to the debug port.  They usually are serial in nature.  And a crapshoot if they have any auth to get to a command line.  Then its just basic linux