[ale] OT: Roku

[Chris Fowler]

On Mon, 2010-08-02 at 11:59 -0400, Jerald Sheets wrote:
> 
> I get no wireless failures with Roku nor do I get wired failures. 

The wireless failure is a hardware failure that happens with time.  My
daughters use the Roku so it stays on 24x7.  I bought the box in 07/09
and I think the wireless failed in 01/10.  What happens is that the box
no longer can "see" access points.  It will lock up in the configuration
page for wireless.  If you try to get the MAC address of its wireless
adapter you get all 0's.  This is not an intermittent problem.  It is
death of the wireless transceiver.  If you google and look in forums
you'll see this scenario.

I do not know what causes this.  Possibly the heat from being left on
either makes solder joints fail or kills the chip.  

Before the wireless failed we had some issues streaming anything on the
first box.  It is so hilarious because the girls stopped watching Roku
but used a laptop in the same room running Windows XP and Netflix
streaming!  After I saw that I doubted signal strength was an issue and
decide more on hardware.  When someone is doing something on a laptop
next to a device that should be able to do it, it is hard to blame the
network on that one.