Home networking issues... any ideas?

[dougdirt]

So, a few weeks ago my wifi router crapped the bed after a power outage. It was pretty old, and while it would still power on, there was no connectivity whatsoever. My cousin had an extra one, a Linksys e4200 and brought it over. Everything seemed to be working fine at first. Then I began to run into smaller issues. The biggest one being that I'm having trouble finding other devices on my network, sort of. For example: My Roku stick is something I can no longer screencast to from my computer. When I search for a wireless display device it simply doesn't show up. I used this function quite often and it's just not there anymore. Rather frustrating. I can however screencast from my phone to the Roku just fine. No go on my Windows 8 tablet, which is having the same issue as my laptop - both used to work, but now neither will find the device.

After about a week with my new router I noticed that I can't find my Windows 7 Laptop that's in the other room any longer when I go to my network on my main laptop. The Windows 7 laptop is running through ethernet, while my main laptop is going through the Wifi, but that never mattered in the past and didn't seem to matter for the first week or so with the new router either. I use that mostly as a media streaming computer, but also use it as a backup for my external hard drive - which I tend to back up from the other room through the network. The Windows 7 laptop and the Roku work just fine with each other. But my main laptop can't seem to find it anymore.

So, uh, ideas?

[Eric from NC]

I'm not an expert, but I had some problems like this with a leased time warner modem. TWC boosted the signal and some of these issues went away. Maybe make sure the current router is boosting a strong enough signal to work with devices in multiple rooms. I'm not an expert but all I could think of as far as solutions.

[dougdirt]

I don't have a TWC modem, I have my own. And the devices in question are all within about 5 feet of each other (the roku and laptop are about 5 feet apart - then the two laptops are about 5 feet apart, but separated by a wall/closet). The rouder is between the laptop and roku, both within 2 feet. It's not a weak signal issue.

[dougdirt]

One problem solved. Somehow when I changed routers the network sharing was turned off on the laptop that serves as my media server.

Still can't get the Roku to work properly though. And that really sucks.

[Beltway]

The first thing I would do is start pinging IP addresses. Specifically, I'd try to ping the Roku's IP address from the Windows 8 tablet. I don't know what port the screen mirroring uses, but I'd include that port in the ping command. If you can ping the IP address and the port, then the problem is most likely some sort of software setting. If not, you might need to get into your router's settings.

Did you reset the router's configuration to the factory defaults when you got it (usually done by holding down a reset button for 5+ seconds)? If not, it's possible that settings the previous user changed could be the cause of your problems. If you haven't or don't want to do that, I would take a look at the router's settings to see if any ports are being blocked or forwarded.

[dougdirt]

I did reset the router to the factory defaults when I got it.

I will look into trying to ping stuff later and see if that could be an issue. Hadn't thought about that one.

The fact that I can screen mirror from my phone to the Roku suggests it's not anything going on inside the router, but I could be dead wrong on that one. Where I'm totally lost is how both of my Windows 8 machines just totally lost the ability to find it upon switching routers. Welp, wish me luck.

[Beltway]

Another thing that could be helpful is looking at log files. I don't have a Roku so I don't know if they have log files, but if there is one somewhere that would be another avenue worth exploring.

[dougdirt]

I was able to ping the Roku just fine from the computer, so there's that. I can't figure anything out about which port is used on it though.

I went and updated my Intel Widi-drivers (which is what I believe is actually used for the screen casting) as well as my display drivers.

I updated the firmware on the router.

Still no luck. I don't have Windows update turned on, so I haven't updated the OS since I bought this laptop two years ago. I might actually bite the bullet at some point and try to update (not to Windows 10 though) and see if that does anything, but I would doubt it. It's just incredibly frustrating at this point.

[Beltway]

It looks like the Roku uses ports 80 and 443, which are standard HTTP/HTTPS ports. I would be shocked if they're somehow blocked, so I don't think that's the issue.

This seems to me like it's more likely a configuration or driver issue than a network issue. Google results show that screen mirroring is a relatively new function that was released for beta testing about a year ago. Is it still in beta? Does Roku provide any support for that function? That's the direction I would go next.

[dougdirt]

It looks like the Roku uses ports 80 and 443, which are standard HTTP/HTTPS ports. I would be shocked if they're somehow blocked, so I don't think that's the issue.

This seems to me like it's more likely a configuration or driver issue than a network issue. Google results show that screen mirroring is a relatively new function that was released for beta testing about a year ago. Is it still in beta? Does Roku provide any support for that function? That's the direction I would go next.

It's been around for a little over a year now, and yes, it's still in beta. I'm waiting around on the Roku site in a support chat, but I'm on the "waiting list" right now. Hopefully they can help me out.

Maybe there's some configuration going on in my router that's causing the issue somehow. I don't really know. Until today I hadn't updated or changed any settings or drivers in a very long time that should have led to an issue. What's even weirder is that it's only causing problems with my two Windows 8 devices.

[dougdirt]

Chat was unable to help, but it's been pushed to an administrator of some kind and they are supposed to email me.

Chat didn't really offer any solutions that I hadn't already tried. Mostly the standard stuff "unplug the modem, router, roku - wait 15 seconds, plus all back in", are they on the same network, is screen mirroring enabled, double checking I had the right Roku for screen mirroring.... Ugh.

[Beltway]

That's not surprising. The first level of tech support is usually worthless if you know how to do any troubleshooting.

You're not the only person experiencing this problem. If you Google "Roku screen mirroring not working", you'll see lots of people have been having issues. It's still in beta, so I guess that gives Roku a legitimate excuse for it having issues, but that doesn't make it any less frustrating.

[dougdirt]

I've googled it a few times. I've only really found one other person that seems to be having something of a similar problem. Granted I've only gone through about four pages of search results. Most of the results are of people who could never get it to work in the first place - likely because their computer doesn't have the correct hardware to do it.

[Roy Tucker]

When I troubleshoot things line this, I first try to figure out if it's a wireless issue or a general router issue. So first thing is to break out an Ethernet cable and plug the devices to the router (anything that can be plugged in that is) and see if they work that way. At least that way, you know if it's a wireless issue or if your router is flaky. I've also been known to plug my pc, laptop, whatever right to my broadband modem and see if that works.

[dougdirt]

Can't plug in the Roku.

What's even more annoying is that my roommate just got a Roku stick and I can find and connect to it just fine. I'm infuriated with this.