i have a 4th generation apple tv and it randomly drops internet connection. I have to restart my router on average once a week to fix it. It's really frustrating. My MacBook and iPhone has no problem. When the internet does drop, macbook and iPhone work fine. Only the apple tv is messed up. Its a wireless connection via belkin router thru time warner cable(satans internet). Anybody know of any solution or anyone that has this problem?
iOS 9.3
Hello Daniel,
It sounds like your new router has some configuration issues.
You should use only WPA2-AES encryption, no TKIP, for best performance. This is in the router WiFi settings for the network.
Some routers behave differently when WMM (QoS settings) is enabled or disabled. On my Netgear, when I disable it, the speed drops fro 350 Mbs to 54 Mbs, presumably switching from 802.11ac to 802.11n. Others report better performance with WMM off. You should try changing it and see if it helps.
Have you reviewed possible router settings issues: MTU, fragmentation threshold, RTS threshold? You can find discussion of these on the web, particularly in your router's support groups.
You can get a speed test app for ATV 4 which would let you quantify performance as you tune the network.
Also, are you in a country that requires DFS (Dynamic Frequency Selection) to avoid interfering with radars on 5 GHz? Others have reported that ATV does not handle the required channel changes very well. Your router WiFi settings should indicate if DFS is enabled, and the router log may indicate if automatic channel changes have occurred. If so, can you select a channel that doesn't require DFS?
My situation may be different but could offer some clues. I have a high-density wi-fi deployment; multiple access points all with the same SSID. I noticed the new firmware will lock on to just one access point, and will not roam to a different one (even though it is the same SSID). Sometimes my access points change channels of otherwise glitch for a moment. Most devices don't notice; they either move to a different access point, or follow the change of channel, or (if the glitch does not involve a channel change) they just hiccup and then keep working. But with the new firmware, if Apple TV drops off the wifi for an instant, it starts a new session and so shows up on the network as a different device using the same IP address. A lot of routers/access-points will block a second session with the same IP address because it looks like a man-in-the-middle attack (such security blocks do not use MAC address to recognize that it is the same device, because an attacker could spoof that). That may be why restarting your router fixes the problem.
More research indicates it may be caused by the Bonjour multicast messages or gratuitous ARP messages. It may be that each time the wi-fi glitches the Apple TV sends a new broadcast message that my controller misinterprets. One user reports that the ARP message goes out announcing the IP addresses of other Bonjour partners, rather than the IP address of the originating Apple TV. That would surely be interpreted as an IP spoof by my controller. Further testing will follow.
Diana I have the same problem that every time I take the ATV out of sleep mode it's unable to find an Internet connection. If I go to search for networks it will search endlessly and find nothing. If I do a restart it immediately connects to the 5 GHz network and everything is fine. The problem is the inconvenience of every time
Bill, did you solve the problem? Have you found any solution ? I have the same problem in a multiple acces points with airports...
Bill could you solve the problem? I have a multi points condensed WiFi too and I have the same problems...
Hi MaxBlast0. Try checking your router logs for evidence of a problem with the Apple TV connection. The ethernet connection should not fail.
Hi,
Did you ever get this resolved, I'm having the same issue and its driving me nuts
Apple TV 4th gen randomly drops internet connection
