macinsane

Q: Apple TV 3 error -3906

Trying to connect the new Apple TV 3 wirelessly to a router (Fritz!Box 7390) on its 5GHz channel, but we keep getting error 3906 after entering the passkey. With other words, the Apple TV recognizes the router, but isn't able to go past the step of entering the router's wireless passkey.

 

Router set to DHCP, mac address filtering (tried both on and off), encryption with WPA + WPA2 (not Enterprise), infrastructure mode, authentication: WPA-PSK, WPA2-PSK, data encryption: TKIP, AES-CCMP.

 

Router was reset, Apple TV was reset, several times the both.

 

Every Mac in the house connects to the same network without a whim, but the Apple TV 3 persists in an error 3906 message.

Apple TV 3

Posted on Mar 27, 2012 4:16 PM

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Q: Apple TV 3 error -3906

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  • by Damian Smith1,

    Damian Smith1 Damian Smith1 Mar 27, 2012 8:35 PM in response to macinsane
    Level 3 (740 points)
    Mar 27, 2012 8:35 PM in response to macinsane

    I would check for Interference on you network. While 5GHZ signals are less prone to inference, it also doesn't travel as far and can't pentrate some walls. Try using istumbler to check what channels and frequencies your neighbors are using.

  • by macinsane,

    macinsane macinsane Mar 28, 2012 6:37 AM in response to Damian Smith1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 28, 2012 6:37 AM in response to Damian Smith1

    Thank you for the response.

     

    Our Macs use the same 5GHz signal and some of them are considerably further away from the router. They however, have no issues with it.

     

    The Fritz!Box we're using has a built-in scanner for networks and it shows that our 5GHz channel is the only one it receives in the area. On the other hand, it receives well over twenty SSIDs on the 2.4GHz band.

  • by macinsane,Solvedanswer

    macinsane macinsane Mar 29, 2012 9:47 AM in response to macinsane
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 29, 2012 9:47 AM in response to macinsane

    Anyway, we've been trying to get the Apple TV 3 to work on a 5GHz channel many times. The ATV3 was placed near the router, to limit the chances of an insufficient signal. The router was reset to factory defaults, to prevent our settings to be the cause. Wireless security was disabled, different channels were selected, but we keep getting this highly informative error 3906 message.

     

    Just to try the ATV3, it was connected to a 2.4GHz channel. Since iTunes is the only means to watch the latest movies, we tried to find some titles we were interested watching. However, we didn't find any of those titles, which are readily available through other channels, or on DVD and BluRay.

     

    The other thing is iCloud, which we definitely don't want to use. The ATV3 doesn't allow playing from our own cloud/server, which is ridiculous.

     

    Again, Apple made a product that is especially beneficial to Apple, but not to us.

     

    Bottom line is, that we'll send the ATV3 back to Amazon and see if there's a better product available.

  • by Carlos Ribeiro,

    Carlos Ribeiro Carlos Ribeiro Oct 21, 2012 6:17 AM in response to macinsane
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Oct 21, 2012 6:17 AM in response to macinsane

    I had the same problem. I just solutioned it just by disabling MAC Address filtering in my LinkSys router. This is strange as I did enter the address of my ATV3 in the list of allowed devices in the router configuration software.

    The truth is that it now works! I just seems that ATV is not compatible with MAC Address filtering.

  • by devlas,

    devlas devlas Oct 22, 2012 4:37 PM in response to Carlos Ribeiro
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 22, 2012 4:37 PM in response to Carlos Ribeiro

    Thank you!

  • by paulfromnorthwood,

    paulfromnorthwood paulfromnorthwood Nov 3, 2012 7:39 AM in response to macinsane
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 3, 2012 7:39 AM in response to macinsane

    I think I have solved this by moving the device a few feet away from a Powered HDMI splitter that I have fairly recently started using. Seems to be some interference from something. I have gen 1 and gen 2 and they both have recently developed this issue in this location, but are fine in another room. MAC address filtering on or off didn't make a difference to me. Interestingly, my wifi range has dropped recently too, coinciding with this issue and my car remote does not always work outside my house too now. As if there us a jammer in town. Weird.

  • by tommy_p,

    tommy_p tommy_p Jun 28, 2013 4:42 AM in response to macinsane
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 28, 2013 4:42 AM in response to macinsane

    I had to configure my FritzBox to broadcast the WLAN name. I've double checked this by reconfiguring the router to not broadcast the name after the ATV has a good connection and sure enough, ATV loses the connection.

  • by Kinch87,

    Kinch87 Kinch87 Jun 14, 2014 6:33 PM in response to macinsane
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 14, 2014 6:33 PM in response to macinsane

    Got the -3906 error. Just sit in front of your ATV with your laptop connected wirlessly to your router, and in the router settings go through each Network Authentication and test each one out, each time testing the connection on your ATV to your home network.

     

    Worked for me on WPA-PSK.

  • by NavyMark,

    NavyMark NavyMark Mar 18, 2016 9:13 PM in response to paulfromnorthwood
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 18, 2016 9:13 PM in response to paulfromnorthwood

    So, your post is 4 years old and it helped me.  I have a new Samsung TV which uses essentially a powered HDMI splitter.  My Apple TV was next to it and wouldn't connect.  I moved it a few feet and it works fine. Thanks!

  • by steve1974,

    steve1974 steve1974 Apr 30, 2016 6:22 AM in response to NavyMark
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Apple TV
    Apr 30, 2016 6:22 AM in response to NavyMark

    You wouldn't believe it. I have worked it out!!

     

    I had read that it was recommended that the IPv6 be turned off but you can't do that in the WiFi TCP/IP settings now. The only options are to change them to "automatically", "manually" or "link-local only".

     

    So then I thought I'd check my router settings through the Airport Utility. I discovered that two of my three Airport Express devices had Enable Access Control checked. When I went in there, the Timed Access Control had an "Unknown" device changed to "No Access". Once I turned off the Enable Access Control the Apple TV started working over the WiFi again without issue.

     

    This must be a glitch or something because I can guarantee I hadn't changed any Access Control for any devices.

     

    Very very pleased with myself!!