Netflix Problems

Yes I have the same problem and the only way to fix that it's unplug it and re star it, or disconnect from the network and connect again.
I hope it helps.

What worked for me:

- Use a static IP

-Setup the DNS to: 8.8.8.8

Now works perfect.

Setting the DNS to 8.8.8.8 worked for me. Thanks!

As suggested, I've tried unplugging/rebooting the device several times, but with no change. Since there is no firmware update available, my Netflix account is in good standing, and the Apple TV can access content via all the other major sources (including an iTunes library on my home network), I'm almost convinced I have a defective unit.

If a may be able to throw my two cents in the troubleshooting pile, given the fact that your ATV2 works wired but not in wireless, would point out an issue with the wireless link between your router and ATV2.

Let me try to quantify this a bit, so that it makes sense:

You see, even though we are conditioned to see connection speeds reported as 54MBits, or 130, or even 300 with N equipment, all this is more of a theoretical value than a realistic one. And though all of us know this to be the case, in reality, that translates to a series of ill-fated possibilities.

From other posters earlier in the thread, it appears that the quality of the expected stream from ATV2 is higher than say the Roku, xbox, PS3 or TiVo implementation. Unknowing if this is possibly changed in future firmware releases or not, your current description points to perhaps a wireless connection that does not maintain a consistent bandwidth between the source (Netflix) and the ATV2 Box.

Though the connection may be still up, most likely it is fluctuating; and by that it may drop to any of the in between rates, from 1.5, 2, 5, 11, 24, 48 MBps that are possible within the g-standard. Adding any WEP/WPA encryption, and possible neighboring interference in the mix, compounds the issue even further. And if your wireless connection drops even for a second to anything below 11MBps, that will not be enough to maintain a healthy Netflix stream, on top of all the encryption, networking stack chatter and packets that encapsulate it.

So you may have to patiently experiment with different channels, transmission modes and encryption types for testing, and that will give you a better idea as to why this is happening.

Keep us posted; I am sure you will be able to find the light in the end of this tunnel 🙂

Vageli wrote:
You see, even though we are conditioned to see connection speeds reported as 54MBits, or 130, or even 300 with N equipment, all this is more of a theoretical value than a realistic one. And though all of us know this to be the case, in reality, that translates to a series of ill-fated possibilities.

That's a valid point. 54Mbps is the theoretical max speed of 802.11g technology. But very rarely does anyone actually get 54Mbps. I think Broadcom (who makes most of the chips) states that the average connection is closer to 24 -- and that's with reasonably good signal. Any weaker and the connection would drop to 11 or worse -- at which point you are precariously close to the point where it is no longer possible to 'stream' a movie. You'd have to pre-download the entire thing.

The advantage of 'n' technology is twofold. In part, it's that the speed is faster. But the other half (and possibly more significant) is that the range is much greater. 802.11n allows clients to be about 3x farther away AND still have an even better signal as compared to 'g'. I think Broadcom states that the average 'n' user is getting around 160Mbps -- which is a HUGE difference. Often times a house that requires 2 or more 'g' base stations can have the entire space adequately covered with just 1 'n' base station.

But what doesn't make sense in Dave's case is that when he's on wireless he can STILL stream quite nicely as long as the machine he's streaming from is in the house. If the root issue in his case were wireless signal quality, it should be equally poor when try to stream from a local computer running iTunes.

If you have an 802.11n router, set it to use the 2.4GHz bandwidth as this will have better penetration through objects than 5GHz (lower wavelengths penetrate better.) There are utilities you can get which will show you which channels are being used (normally not displayed in your list of wifi networks). If there are many other wifi networks in your area, you'd like to know which channels they're using so you can avoid using the same channel (thus reducing interference). There's also signal bleed to adjacent channels (technically it can bleed just slightly into a frequency 2 channels away).

I wonder. Some of these media devices use upnp to get out. I have had stale upnp cache that affected other devices before. Logging into the router and simply clearing all upnp cache from the router fixed my problem. I wonder if that may be the issue with some of the ATV2 problems. Worth a shot.