Wi-Fi & connectivity

[MMG8500]

Won't connect to the wifi any more, but it works on my phone's hotspot. Other Rokus and devices here still connect with no issues or adjustments.

What changed in 2 hours? Not the password, not the router settings, not the TV. Swapped the HDMI cable, did all the resets. Even changed the wifi password. Still zilch on this one Express connecting with the correct password. What did I miss?

[renojim]

What's the model number of your Express as displayed under Settings->System->About?  It's not unusual for ISPs to update or change settings on their customer's routers that affect connections.  Given that it connects to your phone's hotspot, it might be something with your router.  You might want to restart your router (unplug the power for a few seconds) to see if it helps.

In addition, do you get any error messages or codes when you go through the process of trying to establish the W-Fi connection?

[MMG8500]

Hi and thanks, @renojim. It's a 3930  Roku Express (3930, 3931 series)  . Can't get into the System settings after the reset didn't fix the login problem. (D'oh.) And the error message is 014.40.

Since everything else here that connects via wifi is still logging in without incident, the Roku or the TV it's attached to seem like more likely culprits, and whatever it is went south last night, less than 2 hours after it was working fine. Sheesh.

Can't reboot the router at the moment but that will be part of the troubleshooting when I can get back to it.

[atc98092]

@MMG8500 your Roku will only connect to a 2.4 GHz WiFi, and it's not unheard of for an ISP to remotely turn that radio off on customer's routers. Really stupid, but we've heard of it happening. 

And even if they didn't turn the radio off, some routers have channels that Roku doesn't support. On a 2.4 GHz radio, the channel has to be from 1 to 11. If it is set to 12, 13 or 14, your Roku will not even see it. One additional setting to check is the Mode. On 2.4 GHz, the mode could be set to G/N, and on some routers that causes a problem with Roku devices. Set the mode to B/G/N and that solves that specific problem. 

Doesn't really matter if other devices still connect to your WiFi, as they are either connecting at 5 GHz or they don't have issues with the 2.4 GHz radio settings that the Roku does. 

[MMG8500]

Thank you again, @renojim and @atc98092 for the responses. After looking into your good advice, plus long calls with both my ISP and Roku support during which I promised I had tried everything their scripts were telling them to tell me, I felt like my options were spent. So I tried once again rebooting my modem and router and -- third time was the charm -- everything started working as desired. But I certainly learned a lot about other details along the way!