Uwf-1 connection issues

Hi KuifjePDX,

How many concurrent users do you have setup to run through this router? Also did you use the Pre-shared key that you setup for WPA2 on the router in the UWF-1 or did you use the actual password for the actual router?

OnkyoUSA wrote:Hi KuifjePDX,

How many concurrent users do you have setup to run through this router? Also did you use the Pre-shared key that you setup for WPA2 on the router in the UWF-1 or did you use the actual password for the actual router?

At the time I tried to connect the TX-NR809 I had three wireless users connected (desktop, laptop, smartphone) to the router. At times I have had up to ten devices connected to the router concurrently with no apparent problems.

Of course I used the pre-shared key for WPA2. My original post stated I could connect the UWF-1 to my router when the UWF-1 was plugged into my laptop. I have entered that key so many times when trying to connect the TX-NR809, just to make sure I didn't make a typo. The WEP security scheme also requires a key (not the router admin password) to connect and the TX-NR809 CAN connect after entering the WEP key when network security is stepped down to WEP. But WEP is not secure enough so I only tried that to test the components. Switching to WEP is not a valid solution.

Please, fix the WPA2 connectivity in the receiver. The problem is not with the router, the dongles, or the configuration. Each and every piece of the system has been tested and passed except for the receiver.

OnkyoUSA wrote:Hi KuifjePDX,

What router are you using; I will need the exact model number?

It's an Actiontec MI424WR-GEN2

Firmware Version: 20.12.2.4
Model Name: MI424WR-GEN2
Hardware Version: F
Serial Number: CSJF0161202790

Again, all other devices can connect to it using WPA2, even the UWF-1 will connect my laptop to the router using WPA2, it's just the TX-NR809 that cannot connect.

Hi KuifjePDX,

If we can connect fine on our end using WPA2 and you can not then my final suggestion is to have your 809 looked at by a service center. You can find authorized service centers on our main page under support.

OnkyoUSA wrote:Hi KuifjePDX,

If we can connect fine on our end using WPA2 and you can not then my final suggestion is to have your 809 looked at by a service center. You can find authorized service centers on our main page under support.

Hi OnkyoUSA,

Really? I purchased that TX-NR809 brand-new in a sealed box from a local authorized dealer on April 20th, 2012. So, really? You want me to return a brand-new receiver with an MSRP of $1,099 to a repair facility because it went bad within a week or so of being in service? What does that say about the manufacturing and QA process at Onkyo? Judging by the number of complaints about connectivity on this forum this issue is not isolated to my particular TX-NR809 but appears to be endemic to the whole line of Onkyo receivers. I think Onkyo owes it to their customers to do more than just refer them to the nearest service center on a case by case basis.

Searching for a service center closest to my ZIP code I see I will have to ship it to Huntington Beach in California, more than 800 miles away. Over 40lbs of receiver plus packaging. Something tells me that Onkyo is not going to pay for those shipping charges. Indeed, I am not happy with the situation.

BTW, this being an internet forum you could have provided the direct link to the service center locator in your post. But I digress.....

Hi KuifjePDX,

I apologize for the inconvenience but that is our policy and as you infer it is not with your router, dongles etc... And you've already done all the trouble shooting on your end then my only recourse is to have it checked out at one of our authorized repair facilities. It will be covered under our warranty.

OnkyoUSA wrote:Hi KuifjePDX,

I apologize for the inconvenience but that is our policy and as you infer it is not with your router, dongles etc... And you've already done all the trouble shooting on your end then my only recourse is to have it checked out at one of our authorized repair facilities. It will be covered under our warranty.

Here's something I found while researching the differences between WEP, WPA and WPA2.

www [dot] differencebetween [dot] net wrote:WPA can be activated on some network devices via a firmware upgrade but there are devices that are too old and cannot use WPA. WPA also takes up more processing power compared to WEP and some devices might suffer performance hits when using WPA under heavy load.

www [dot] differencebetween [dot] net wrote:The only disadvantage of WPA2 is in the amount of processing power that it needs in order to protect your network. This translates to a direct need for more powerful hardware or suffer a reduction in network performance for heavily used networks. This is an issue with older access points which were designed and built prior to WPA2 and only implemented WPA2 via a firmware upgrade. Most of the more recent access points have been equipped with more capable hardware to minimize the speed degradation.

So, while WPA2 implementation can be accomplished by a firmware upgrade the increased processing power needed for WPA2 over WPA over WEP puts a lot of strain on the hardware that can cause connection issues. That sounds familiar as I can connect to my router using WEP but not using WPA2. So, in my opinion, it appears that Onkyo did not use the more powerful hardware needed for WPA2 connectivity in their receivers. Upgrading the firmware should therefore not bring any relief to WPA2 users.

OnkyoUSA, before I ship my receiver to the service center, can you investigate if the repair procedure involves installing more powerful hardware so WPA2 connectivity is handled in hardware rather than software as to not affect network performance. If not, it will be a waste of time and money to ship the receiver to the service center.

Thank you.

Hi KuifjePDX,

If you would like we can have your 809 shipped to our facility and we can have one of our engineers perform tests on your unit to determine if it is in fact the 809. Please PM me with your answer. Thank you.

OnkyoUSA wrote:Hi KuifjePDX,

If you would like we can have your 809 shipped to our facility and we can have one of our engineers perform tests on your unit to determine if it is in fact the 809. Please PM me with your answer. Thank you.

Hi,

Rather than shipping my 809 back across the country to New Jersey and not being sure if my UWF-1 / WPA2 connectivity issues will be solved I decided to go another route that has been working flawless for me since I installed it this afternoon.

Instead of using a wireless dongle in the USB port of the receiver I installed a wireless client and use a wired connection from my receiver to the client. The client then connects over the air to my router. It works like a charm. I've been playing Pandora Internet Radio all afternoon without a glitch.

I will return the UWF-1 to the store I purchased it from and give up on the direct wireless connection between my receiver and the router. Less headache, same price, and I won't be out of my receiver for however long it would have taken to investigate the connectivity issues.

Hi KuifjePDX,

We are sorry that you were not able to get this to work.

OnkyoUSA wrote:Hi KuifjePDX,

We are sorry that you were not able to get this to work.

Hi OnkyoUSA,

Don't worry about it. I did get it to work, just not with Onkyo equipment.

I'm equally sorry that the TX-NR809 can't connect using WPA2 through the UWF-1. Maybe this will be solved with the TX-NR810....

Thanks!

The more I read about the issues with the wireless USB, the more it seems that Onkyo has dropped the ball on this.

Onkyo has to make a serious commitment to fix the various issues/problems related to this option.

The use of this feature, which is a unique selling proposition versus other brands and lower level models, should be as easy as plugging it in, inputting and/or selecting the SSID (hidden and/or visible) and the password. That includes ability to use it afterwards with the SSID hidden, as most do with their routers and how most other wireless devices work.

Come on Onkyo, instead of apologizing (which seems to be the standard response around here), make the commitment to address the issue.

Onkyo, reading these comments; I´m think you´re not prepared in 100% to release this product; some times your indications work, sometimes not.

Just in order to check and be sure that all the recomendations that you give to us are executed. could you please give as a list with the steps we should to check before to consider replace this adapter?

Thanks.

Hi fchamorro,

There really aren’t any steps to follow, you plug it in set it up and it should work. The only common denominator is the routers.

OnkyoUSA wrote:Hi fchamorro,

There really aren’t any steps to follow, you plug it in set it up and it should work. The only common denominator is the routers.

Ok, I going to check it this week , I´ll back to you with news. Thxs.

fchamorro wrote:

OnkyoUSA wrote:Hi fchamorro,

There really aren’t any steps to follow, you plug it in set it up and it should work. The only common denominator is the routers.

Ok, I going to check it this week , I´ll back to you with news. Thxs.

I tried some things; the first one is follow the steps indicated in the youtube video called "ONKYO AVR AV Home Cinema Receiver - Installing the UWF-1 Wireless Adapter " by OnkyoEU; the problem look with the adapter because after to connect the adapter to the receiver the message never change and stay in "USB - no storage" trying in front and rear usb port. After that, I connected a cable directly from the wireless router to the network port and works fine!; please confirm me if you think is necesary change the adapter; I write you from Bogota - Colombia where I have this products (tx-nr515 and UWF-1) , on june the 19th I´m going to travel to miami do you think can I return or change this item until this date ? I bougth it trough amazon , onkyo store thanks.

OnkyoUSA wrote:Hi fchamorro,

There really aren’t any steps to follow, you plug it in set it up and it should work. The only common denominator is the routers.

Hi OnkyoUSA,

I wanted to share the result of the one more try I did with my TX-NR809 and the wireless adapter. I already returned the UWF-1 to the store I purchased it from but I still have the TP-Link TL-WN722N with the high-gain antenna but with the exact same chipset as the UWF-1. Since I was able to connect using the WEP security protocol but not the more secure WPA2 protocol I thought that perhaps the level of encryption played a role in the problem. So instead of using my standard WPA2 key (more than 12 characters) I changed WPA2 key in the router to simply '12345678' (it needs to be at least 8 characters).

And guess what? I only needed to enter this key once in my TX-NR809 and in two tries it connected to my wireless network using the WPA2 security protocol. Only at about 45% signal strength (like the WEP connection) but it is able to play Pandora radio. So, in my opinion, this little experiment proves that the processing power in the TX-NR809 is not capable to handle longer, more secure WPA2 keys but can squeeze by with the bare-bones minimum key length.

I sure hope Onkyo can figure out a way to streamline the processing of the WPA2 security encryption in software so a new firmware version can be released to solve the issues, rather than having to wait for the TX-NR810 with more capable hardware. I respectfully disagree with your statement that the routers are the only problem causing elements in the wireless networks, as my little experiment proves to me that the receiver hardware and firmware play a large role too.

As I said before, I'm using the TrendNet TEW-647GA gaming adapter and use the Ethernet port on my TX-NR809 to connect to my router as the gaming adapter *IS* capable of using my more secure (12+ character) WPA2 key. And I like it that way, because now, as an added bonus, I have the rear USB port available for a permanent hookup of a media hard drive with my music and video. With the neat little front cover on the TX-NR809 the front USB is not really suitable for a permanent USB connection.

In general, I am happy with my Onkyo TX-NR809 (my first Onkyo product ever) but I do agree with the sentiment others have voiced in this thread that Onkyo has dropped the ball on the wireless connectivity and cut the corner a little too much.

Just my two cents to help others in this thread find a way to solve their problem.

Best regards,

KuifjePDX

Hi KuifjePDX,

I've asked this with to our engineering department. Thank you for the test.

OnkyoUSA wrote:Hi KuifjePDX,

I've asked this with to our engineering department. Thank you for the test.

Hi OnkyoUSA,

Any word from your engineering department? Were they able to repeat the test and identify possible causes and solutions?

Thanks!

Hi KuifjePDX,

I have not heard back from our engineering department as of yet on this matter. I will send the request again.

OnkyoUSA wrote:Hi KuifjePDX,

I have not heard back from our engineering department as of yet on this matter. I will send the request again.

Hi OnkyoUSA,

What has your engineering department found out in a month of testing?

Thanks!

I keep getting a DNS error 0-13 every time I try to update my firmware. My TX-NR609 does not have an ethernet connection. The firmware installation directions for ethernet says you have to have an ethernet cable connected to the receiver. But the directions for updating with USB also says an ethernet cable has to be plugged into the ethernet port.

Can you clarify this for me?

Hi RobertWy,

What is the IP address you are getting?

OnkyoUSA wrote:Hi RobertWy,

What is the IP address you are getting?

It is correct for my Comcast connection.

I assume you mean the IP address for my DNS server? It is 75.75.76.76.

It is the same one all my othere wired and wireless devices are using.

Hi RobertWy,

What is the IP address the router is giving the receiver? To find this out go to the setup menu of the receiver then go to hardware setup then network.