Roku issues

[Homerboy]

1st let me start off by saying this is my brother's problem, not mine. I don't even own a Roku, but he's not the most technical guy. so I'm trying to give him some support on this issue (via phone) right now.

He has a Roku box for streaming NetFlix etc.
Out of the blue the other day, it lost wireless connection to the network.
He tried getting it reconnected, but it simply will not.
It can SEE the network, and attempts, but at the stage where (I assume) its trying to get assigned an IP/subnet/etc it times out: "Can't connect to wireless network"

There is nothing special setting wise on his router except standard encryption/login/pass etc. In fact, when he set it up the 1st time it was literally plug and go for him (after entering pass).

Does anyone have any familiarity with these devices. Lots of google results and discussions seem to just drop off, without a resolution so I figured I'd ask here before I drove out there and troubleshot in person.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Drako]

Do other wireless devices connect through the router? It sounds like a router issue to me, but need more info. If all else fails, have your brother reset the router to default settings and try again.

 

[Homerboy]

Sorry I should have mentioned that.
Yes other wireless and wired devices are working fine with the router in it's current configuration. Laptops, desktops etc have not had any issues. He changed NOTHING in either the router or the Roku when this started to happen. Just one day "poof" the Roku couldn't connect.

 

[Drako]

Your brother doesn't have any kids does he?

My brother had a similar problem last year with a Wii losing connection. Turns out one of his boys (age 10) went into the router settings and turned on MAC address filtering for some reason .

 

[Homerboy]

Your brother doesn't have any kids does he?

My brother had a similar problem last year with a Wii losing connection. Turns out one of his boys (age 10) went into the router settings and turned on MAC address filtering for some reason .

HA! yes he does have 3 in fact (14-10) but they dont know the passwords.
That being said, MAC filtering is the one thing I had him confirm on the phone last night. Its unchecked (not to mention, the laptops are connecting just fine anyways).

 

[The Stigenator]

I have a roku, its a unusual problem. Ask him to disable WEP / WPA on the router and see if it connects, if it does, then there is something with the key.

I hate encryption because it does not consistently work. I just use MAC id Auth. The reason I say WPA and WEP dont work. At my friends house recently I was trying to connect my WinXP laptop to his network, with the right key keyed in it still wouldnt connect, however my iphone happily did.

Yeah.. get rid of the encryption, use MAC id Auth

 

[Homerboy]

eh? I've never ever had an issue with WEP/WPA before.
But, that's still a good test I guess. Turn off encryption and see if it can connect or not.

 

[Destiny]

Do any of your PCs or Laptops have Windows Live Sign on assistant activated? It seems that when that thing is on it interferes with media players with their network shares and transmission... try disabling, turn off, or uninstall the Windows Live Sign On Assistant...

I had that happened with my both Nixeus Fusion HD networked media player and my Popcorn Hour A-200 when I installed a new Windows 7 OS on my recent new PC Build and I activated the Windows Live Sign On Assistant - when my new windows 7 PC build connected to my home network for the first time I then experienced a similar issue as your brothers... I disabled it and now everything is fine and dandy...

If at least one of his PCs or Laptops have that Windows Live Sign On Assistant operating it will cause that issue - make sure it is disabled, uninstalled, or turned off on all devices connected to that router.

I reported the issue to Nixeus and they're creating a new firmware to address that issue for my media player.

Hope it works for you.