SachinWiki

Q: 4th Gen Apple TV Wifi Issues

My 4th Generation Apple TV has wifi issues. Everyday when the apple TV goes to sleep it looses wifi credentials OR it does not attach back to my wifi network. I have to use the apple remote to attach back to wifi. I have tried 2.4 and 5 Gz and I see the same issue. I have TVOS 9.1.1 (latest update) from Apple. I even got a apple TV replacement and I still see the same issue.

 

Called apple care and they asked me to change the channel on my wifi router. Even after changing the channel I still see the same issue.

 

Things done until now.

1. Changed channel

2. Tried both 2.4 and 5 gz

3. Changed apple TV

4. Have latest TVOS (9.1.1)

 

Wireless Router Modesl: Asus RT-AC87u. I have 20 other devices that connect to my router without issues. this is the only device that has issues.

 

Ideas please to resolve the issue.

Apple TV, tvOS 9.1.1

Posted on Feb 9, 2016 3:25 PM

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Q: 4th Gen Apple TV Wifi Issues

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  • by vazandrew,

    vazandrew vazandrew Feb 9, 2016 3:38 PM in response to SachinWiki
    Level 6 (19,115 points)
    Apple TV
    Feb 9, 2016 3:38 PM in response to SachinWiki

    Where is the ATV in relation to the router?

    Get a diagnostics report, look for signal strength, noise, nearby networks

    Test on another network

  • by swainstm,

    swainstm swainstm Feb 10, 2016 3:30 AM in response to vazandrew
    Level 1 (1 points)
    Feb 10, 2016 3:30 AM in response to vazandrew

    I too have issues with 4th Gen AppleTV on Wifi network that started sometime in January. Prior to that it all appeared to be working fine, and with no changes to the network, and everything else working fine, so strongly suspect a software update sometime in January on the 4th Gen AppleTV triggered the issue. Do you by chance over other Apple TVs on your network????

     

    The symptoms of my issue is that the 4th Gen AppleTV was not able to maintain a connection on the Wifi network. It would connect, but soon drop out. I am using Cisco WLC 2504 controller and Cisco 3702 access points. The controller reported :-


    Client Excluded: MACAddress:c8:69:cd:3e:1c:c2 Base Radio MAC :08:17:35:9d:b7:70 Slot: 1 User Name: unknown Ip Address: 192.168.10.72 Reason:Attempted to use IP Address assigned to another device. ReasonCode: 3


    c8:69:cd:3e:1c:c2 is the MAC address of my 4th Gen Apple TV, HOWEVER, it is getting an IP address of 192.168.10.133 from DHCP (as seen

    Normally this would suggest IP address conflicts, however, in this case there is no conflict. I have done a packet capture and the issue seems to be that the Gen 4 AppleTV is sending out gratuitous arp's from the IP address of another Gen 3 apple TV I have. Because of this the Cisco WLC thinks there is an address conflict and excludes the client. I have no idea why the Gen 4 AppleTV is sending gratuitous arp for another IP address. Not sure if this is a bug, or some mechanism Apple is trying to spoof the other apple TV's???? But whatever it is, is causing the issue an needs to be fixed.

     

    For reference, I have 3 Gen 3 Apple TVs as well as the Gen 4 apple TV on the network. If I turn the Gen3 AppleTV off that is using the IP address listed (192.168.10.72), the Gen 4 Apple TV seems to work better for a small period of time, however, before too long the problem happens again, but this time with 1 of the other Gen 3 apple TVs that are still on.

     

    Does anyone have a fix for this issue. Can a bug be raised with apple to fix the issue?

  • by vazandrew,

    vazandrew vazandrew Feb 10, 2016 7:16 AM in response to swainstm
    Level 6 (19,115 points)
    Apple TV
    Feb 10, 2016 7:16 AM in response to swainstm

    I have other Apple TV's on the network and don't have this issue, may want to take it to Apple for testing

  • by swainstm,

    swainstm swainstm Feb 10, 2016 2:35 PM in response to vazandrew
    Level 1 (1 points)
    Feb 10, 2016 2:35 PM in response to vazandrew

    The problem would not be caused by multiple AppleTVs alone. It appears to be caused by a combination of both :-

    1.     AppleTV 4th Gen sending gratuitous arp's from the IP address of another appleTV, AND

    2.    Network device that does mitigation for duplicate IP addresses / hack prevention etc, which see the gratuitous arp from IP already on the network as malicious, and excludes the client. In my case, the appleTV are on Cisco 2504 WLC. Cisco WLC are enterprise wireless solutions with these sorts of features to protect the network.

     

    I am guessing I am experiencing the issue because I am using AppleTVs in a business environment with enterprise equipment rather than home based environment. As such it is the enforcement of network protections that is catching out any anomalous network behavior on the AppleTV.

     

    I don't believe it is likely that this is any sort of hardware fault. So it is unlikely investigation at the apple store will show anything wrong, unless someone can duplicate the conditions (multiple apple TV and wireless that detects spoofing attempts).


    At a guess, I am it might be some sort of attempt by apple to continue to advertise Airplay details for other devices that might be asleep (wild guess here)??

     

    Anyway, is there anyone that can suggest the best way to raise this with apple (suspect someone involved with the software development will pretty quickly know what this is all about).

  • by vazandrew,

    vazandrew vazandrew Feb 10, 2016 3:00 PM in response to swainstm
    Level 6 (19,115 points)
    Apple TV
    Feb 10, 2016 3:00 PM in response to swainstm

    Still have not seen any other reports, but if you want to make Apple aware you can give feedback

     

    http://www.apple.com/feedback/

  • by SachinWiki,

    SachinWiki SachinWiki Feb 10, 2016 7:55 PM in response to swainstm
    Level 1 (2 points)
    Feb 10, 2016 7:55 PM in response to swainstm

    Thanks for the analysis. I have locked the IP of my apple TV 4th generation to 192.168.1.200. Hope to see it come online tomorrow.

     

    I also added the ip to WOL.

     

    To answer your question earlier, I have apple TV 2nd Generation and works great without issues. If this works then I will try and file a bug with apple.

  • by SachinWiki,

    SachinWiki SachinWiki Feb 10, 2016 7:56 PM in response to vazandrew
    Level 1 (2 points)
    Feb 10, 2016 7:56 PM in response to vazandrew

    I did call with online troubleshooting and take the apple TV and got a replacement and still have issue with the replacement. No luck resolving it.

  • by SachinWiki,

    SachinWiki SachinWiki Feb 11, 2016 3:21 PM in response to SachinWiki
    Level 1 (2 points)
    Feb 11, 2016 3:21 PM in response to SachinWiki

    The same issue repeated inspire of locking the IP address in router. Sent feedback to apple as issue.

  • by vazandrew,

    vazandrew vazandrew Feb 11, 2016 3:32 PM in response to SachinWiki
    Level 6 (19,115 points)
    Apple TV
    Feb 11, 2016 3:32 PM in response to SachinWiki

    What were the results of the diagnostics report?

    Where is the router in relation to router?

    Take it to another network for testing

  • by gtau4592,

    gtau4592 gtau4592 Apr 16, 2016 6:53 AM in response to SachinWiki
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Apr 16, 2016 6:53 AM in response to SachinWiki

    I'm running into this exact issue, after a long sleep the Apple TV 4 loses connection to the WiFi and won't reconnect unless it is restarted.

  • by Diana.McCall,

    Diana.McCall Diana.McCall Apr 16, 2016 8:01 AM in response to SachinWiki
    Level 4 (3,812 points)
    Apple TV
    Apr 16, 2016 8:01 AM in response to SachinWiki

    I'm not sure of this wil help, but some routers cancel DHCP leases after a certain time, or maybe a period of inactivity. It sounds like this may be happening when the network connection is lost after sleeping. Forcing a restart, or changing an ATV network setting would cause it to re-negotiate with the router. If your network is relatively static; not too many devices walking in and out; you might try modifying these parameters in the router wifi settings.

     

    I had this problem with iPad years ago, and the solution was to make the IP address static. When you want to use a static address for a device, you must be sure to remove it from the router's DHCP pool. Otherwise, there'll be chaos. The easiest way to do this is to adjust the bottom or top limit of the DHCP range, and use the addresses outside the pool range for static devices. You can adjust the pool limits in the router setup.

  • by Diana.McCall,

    Diana.McCall Diana.McCall Apr 16, 2016 8:52 AM in response to Diana.McCall
    Level 4 (3,812 points)
    Apple TV
    Apr 16, 2016 8:52 AM in response to Diana.McCall

    More on DHCP leases. This stuff is supposed to be transparent. When the lease is reaching the end, the router should ask the device to renew, and the device will normally renew the lease immediately. The whole purpose is to allow the server to recapture the addresses of devices that have actually left the network, since those devices don't say goodbye when they go. Of course, this is all just a nuisance for those of us with stable configurations. It sounds like the sleeping ATV, at least with tvOS 9.2, is not responding to these renewal requests. You do need to be sure that "Configure IP" and "Configure DNS" in the ATV network settings are both set to Automatic. You don't want to be too clever with this stuff, because it really does work the way it's supposed to.

  • by gtau4592,

    gtau4592 gtau4592 Apr 24, 2016 5:02 AM in response to Diana.McCall
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Apr 24, 2016 5:02 AM in response to Diana.McCall

    Hi Diana,

     

    As you probably know I've been replying in this thread https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7456064.

     

    As I mentioned in that thread, I did try setting a static IP for my Apple TV and initially I thought this solved the problem but unfortunately the same thing happened and had to restart Apple TV to get the connection back. My Apole TV settings are untouched which means 'Configure IP' and 'Configure DNS' are set to Automatic.

     

    This is all getting too annoying. I have sent multiple feedback. Hopefully an update fixes this soon.

  • by Diana.McCall,

    Diana.McCall Diana.McCall Jun 24, 2016 5:11 PM in response to swainstm
    Level 4 (3,812 points)
    Apple TV
    Jun 24, 2016 5:11 PM in response to swainstm

    Helo Swainstm,

    Sorry to be a tail-end-Charlie, but your hypothesis was basically right. One of the ATV was running the Bonjour Sleep Proxy, which handles service requests for other sleeping devices. It runs on either an Apple Airport router or on an Apple TV, as described here About Wake on Demand and Bonjour Sleep Proxy - Apple Support. It works by spoofing the sleeping device's IP and MAC address, so the recipient can then contact the correct device. Cisco supports this by running the Sleep Proxy on the router, as described here https://supportforums.cisco.com/document/12068926/common-apple-bonjour-and-cisco -wireless-related-issues. Check the links from that page for lots more detail.

    Cheers