Wi-Fi & connectivity

[chrishuggett6]

The device is a Roku Premiere SKU3920UK,  Device ID is 062983937123. The unit works normally when connected directly to my Plusnet Hub One router.  However those two units are a long distance apart and the wifi signal strength at the Roku is only 'fair'.  I have introduced a BT wifi extender as above which produces a strong signal that can be seen by the Roku with signal strength 'excellent'. 

However, the Roku will not connect to this wifi extender signal despite it being much stronger.  As the same position, I can easily connect my phone (Motorola G7Play) to the extender signal and the phone then has no problem linking to the internet.  So it looks to me that the BT wifi extender is working correctly.

The BT unit adds a prefix ' EXT2- ' to the Plusnet wi-fi SSID, but the password/key is the same as for the router.  The BT unit is dual band but but has a band selection switch which I have set to 2.4.  I have tried deleting the password in the Roku from the basic router signal and only using it for the extender signal but this did not help. 

If anyone can advise me on this I'd be very grateful.  

[RokuKariza-D]

Hey @chrishuggett6

Thanks for letting us know about the issue you're experiencing.

Try configuring your router and use the preferred wireless channels 1, 6, or 11. Each time you change the wireless channel, you will likely need to apply/save changes before you are prompted to restart the router.

Let us know how it goes!

All the best,
Kariza

[chrishuggett6]

Many thanks Kanza, for your advice. 

I have tried setting the router (HUB1) channel in turn to 1, 6 and 11.  In each case, the channel was identified correctly on the Roku after searching for wireless sources.

Unfortunately the behaviour of the Roku unit was the same for all those channels.  It will connect to the basic router signal with sig strength 'fair'.

It will not connect to the (boosted) extender signal in all cases with sig strength 'excellent'.  So I have returned the wireless channel setting to 'smart wireless'

where it tends to select channel 6.  But again the Roku  will not connect to the boosted signal.  My phone has no problem connecting to the boosted signal.

best regards,

Chris

[chrishuggett6]

I should apologise for misreading the name of the person offering advice above.  I should have replied to 

Kariza.  

[RokuKariza-D]

@chrishuggett6

No worries and thanks for the update. 

I have passed along your information and concern to our Support team. They will follow up and further assist you through email.

We appreciate your patience and understanding.

All the best,
Kariza

[chrishuggett6]

Here is my reply to a message on this topic from Gomathy Baskaran on 8th Sept 21.  This arrived by email direct and I can't find it on this ROKU website.

Many thanks for your suggestions.

1. Restart the ROKU device.  I followed the instructions and the ROKU restarted. (I think this happens every time I switch the TV on because the ROKU power is taken from  a TV USB socket.)  There was no change to the ROKU behaviour.

2. Reset the ROKU device network settings.  I did this according to the instructions - no change again.

3.Setup Network.  I followed the instructions and the ROKU immediately found the boosted router signal with sig strength 'excellent'.  However as before it would not connect to it. I checked that I could see the boosted signal on my phone and the phone then made an internet connection via the boosted signal.  Download speed using 'fast.com' was found to be  ~11 Mbps.  This seems to indicate that the boosted wifi signal is OK.

I further checked that the ROKU could also see the basic router signal sig strength 'fair' on ch 11 and lock to it - OK.  

4. Update ROKU software. I attempted this (while connected to the basic router signal) but the ROKU said 'all software was up to date.'  It said software was version 10.0.0 build 4209.

So summarising, the ROKU behaviour is still the same.  It can lock to and connect to the internet via a weak router signal, signal strength 'fair' although it doesn't always work well.  It can see a boosted router signal at sig strength 'excellent' but won't lock to it.

Thanks for the help but unfortunately it still wont work.

I am unclear why some communications from ROKU appear on this website and others arrive by email. Is it expected I would reply via my email?  If I did that,  no-one else on the community would see how the problem is progressing - assuming people are reading it.  Regards.

[RokuKariza-D]

@chrishuggett6

Thanks for following up.

Since you were in recent contact with our Support team, we would recommend continuing to work with them by replying to the email they've sent as they would best be able to assist you moving forward.

All the best,
Kariza

[SteveParker]

Was this issue ever resolved? I have almost the same issue. However, my Roku stick has been working with the extender for about six months (I have not changed any of the settings on the router, nor would I know how to). Yesterday, when I turned on the TV, it wouldn't connect, even though every other device finds the network. It could see the wi-fi network fine, but just refused to join the wireless network. 

It is the second stick I have had, but it is two years old, so I ordered another one, which arrived this morning. This connected, but it immediately asked to install a software update. I agreed and now it won't connect. I've turned off everything in multiple combinations, moved around the extender, keep re-inputting the password, but although it sees the network fine, it simply refuses join.  

[RokuTakashi]

Hi @SteveParker,

Greetings and welcome to the Roku Community!

Thanks for letting us know about your concern, and we'd like to help you with this. This seems like a network issue rooted in your WiFI extender. Have you tried restarting the network of your extender? Additionally, are the credentials such as the network name and password correctly typed in?

Please keep us posted, and we're here to assist you.

All the best,
Kash