I tried like crazy to find a solution to this problem and since I had to put in the time, I figured I’d save someone else hopefully. I’ve got a first gen Roku Netflix box on firmware 3.1 (the most current version as of this post). Recently moving and getting the Actiontec modem I started to notice problems with the Roku joining the network. For example, if I unplugged the Roku from the power source, and plugged it back in, then I wouldn’t be able to join my wireless network again. My Roku could see all available networks, and join some of them, but just not the one that the Actiontec PK5000 was creating.

I tried several options to get the Roku to be able to join, but what finally was the culprit was not security settings, wireless channel, ssid, passwords, or the type of encryption. What ended up allowing me to get back on the network was changing the settings on the Actiontec PK5000 to broadcast as wirelless B or G instead of the setting that I had, which was G only. The way I figured this out was by first setting it up to broadcast as a wireless B only network, and voila … the Roku joined immediately. Moving it back to G only caused the Roku to not connect again, and then the B and/or G setting finally got me the results I wanted.

In my experience the only other way to get the Roku to join my network was by resetting the Roku firmware to factory defaults and reinstalling all my channels, settings, and whatnots. For anyone who’s been through the process, you know what a pain and waste of time that can be, because the next time you lose power, you’re back to square 1.

 

For people who might need a little help finding the setting to change, here’s a quick tutorial:

step 1: go to your routers config page (open a browser and go to 192.168.0.1 – should be the default) try clicking this if you’re a bit lazy http://192.168.0.1

step 2: click on the grey button that says “wireless setup”

 step 3: click on the sidebar link to “radio setup”

step 4: under option 3 “select mode” choose 802.11b or 802.11g from the drop down menu

step 5: click “apply”

That should be it! Your modem will update with the new settings and once that’s done, your Roku should be able to join your network.