Connect to server via Lan only (no internet access)?

[boggle247 4]

My mother uses a roku and remotely connects to my server from house A. She mow rented an apartment closer to me (live 500 miles apart) but without internet (she's cheap).

So last fall I had her bring up her roku and I set her up at her apartment with a nuc running emby server on Debian, connected to an old router, that's wireless connected to roku via wifi. Problem I had was roku  wouldn't connect bc it detected no internet connection. I ultimately got it working somehow but now she's gone and come back and brought her roku again. But she had it connected to her other wifi at her house. So now it won't connect to the internetless-apartment router. 

 

I thought maybe I had bridged the router to my phone while my phone was a Hotspot so the router had internet access, just to connect the roku to the router successfully then afterwards it was good for months. But that's not working either. 

 

Maybe there was an update to the emby app or roku? 

[Luke 40106]

Hi, I think the Roku itself requires an internet connection in order for apps to run. @ebr and @speechles will know for sure.

[speechles 2012]

2 hours ago, boggle247 said:

My mother uses a roku and remotely connects to my server from house A. She mow rented an apartment closer to me (live 500 miles apart) but without internet (she's cheap).

How would she connect to your server if you live 500 miles apart and she has no internet? nevermind. I see you gave her a local emby server instance.

Did you set the NUC at her apartment with a static IP on her router? If she unplugs the router or the NUC for any length of time and uses DHCP for addressing it will assign a new IP address the next time it sees that device. Then the information the Roku has stored is no longer correct since it will be using the old IP address.

The Roku does not need the internet to use a local Emby server. The Roku might complain that to launch the Emby application _may_ require internet, because some things do need it. Such as premiere device authentication to access LiveTV. To use the IPTV plugin or movie trailers plugin, as well as some other plugins also create entries that might need the internet on the Roku. But otherwise having no internet will suffer no ill effects. You might have a little blinking light on the Roku since it cannot access the internet.

Edited Sunday at 04:05 AM by speechles

[boggle247 4]

53 minutes ago, speechles said:

How would she connect to your server if you live 500 miles apart and she has no internet? nevermind. I see you gave her a local emby server instance.

Did you set the NUC at her apartment with a static IP on her router? If she unplugs the router or the NUC for any length of time and uses DHCP for addressing it will assign a new IP address the next time it sees that device. Then the information the Roku has stored is no longer correct since it will be using the old IP address.

Yeah at home she uses that same roku device with internet to connect to my server. At her apartment however, as you said, I have another nuc running as a local instance that she can access over LAN. 

It worked last fall. I just can't figure out what's changed. I did NOT have a static ip (should do that), however I was able to ssh into that local server from my phone, when connected to the router via wifi. Used that same ip in the roku emby app. 

The problem starts though, with not even being able to connect to the router with the roku since the roku detects there is no internet. If I could connect it, I think all would be fine. And I was able to do it last fall. She used it for 6 months. Only thing that's changed is she brought that roku device back to her home and connected it to the internet there and in roku emby app connected to my server at my house. 

[boggle247 4]

1 hour ago, Luke said:

Hi, I think the Roku itself requires an internet connection in order for apps to run. @ebr and @speechles will know for sure.

Unless this has changed in the last few months, she was using it without internet connection back in May. 

[ebr 15670]

10 hours ago, boggle247 said:

The problem starts though, with not even being able to connect to the router with the roku since the roku detects there is no internet

So this is an issue at the Roku OS level, not in Emby, correct?

[boggle247 4]

7 minutes ago, ebr said:

So this is an issue at the Roku OS level, not in Emby, correct?

I suppose. Was hoping someone in this community had encountered this and could help though. 

[speechles 2012]

On 7/6/2025 at 7:16 AM, boggle247 said:

I suppose. Was hoping someone in this community had encountered this and could help though. 

The key is the SSID name/password of the two routers. Remembering the SSID name and password you used on the Roku to connect at your house with internet. 

Now on your Mothers router you want to use the same SSID name and password as you use at your house. This way the Roku will auto-connect and just assume it doesn't have internet at her apartment. It doesn't matter about MAC addresses or any of that being the same. The Roku is just looking for the same SSID and will try to auto-connect. What happens is you set it up and then at her house it auto-connects after since the ssid name and password are identical. Then when launching Emby it will realize there is no internet and you can launch Emby anyways. This way would last the longest.

You cannot reset the connection. If you do this it will need internet to sync/link the Roku to an account to authenticate. You want to have the connection already exist to keep the authentication active without the internet being required.

Edited Monday at 05:44 PM by speechles

[boggle247 4]

5 hours ago, speechles said:

The key is the SSID name/password of the two routers. Remembering the SSID name and password you used on the Roku to connect at your house with internet. 

Now on your Mothers router you want to use the same SSID name and password as you use at your house. This way the Roku will auto-connect and just assume it doesn't have internet at her apartment. It doesn't matter about MAC addresses or any of that being the same. The Roku is just looking for the same SSID and will try to auto-connect. What happens is you set it up and then at her house it auto-connects after since the ssid name and password are identical. Then when launching Emby it will realize there is no internet and you can launch Emby anyways. This way would last the longest.

You cannot reset the connection. If you do this it will need internet to sync/link the Roku to an account to authenticate. You want to have the connection already exist to keep the authentication active without the internet being required.

So I actually had brought her router and roku to my house, plugged the router into my modem to provide internet. Then I signed in on the Roku (but I didn't have her server with me so I couldn't actually sign into the server on the emby app).

 

Upon unhooking the ether net cable providing internet to her router, the Roku says not connected on the main screen and when I try to connect to that same router/ssid, it fails. 

[speechles 2012]

56 minutes ago, boggle247 said:

Upon unhooking the ether net cable providing internet to her router, the Roku says not connected on the main screen and when I try to connect to that same router/ssid, it fails. 

I think you are misunderstanding.

Set it up with internet and WiFi working on her router. Now connect the Roku to that router and login normally. That will work with internet since the ethernet cable is hooked up. Run all the System Update and let the Roku update anything it must. Including the Emby app. The Roku Emby app must stay in sync with the version of Emby server you use.

Once you get the Roku to work correctly with internet this is the part where it can confuse you. You need to pull the power cord off the Roku. Make it believe there was a power outage that also wiped out the internet. Then pull the ethernet from the router. Now plug the power back into the Roku. It will auto-connect to the router and notice no internet and ask to check the connection. Tell it skip or not to or press Home on the remote. There is an option to NOT have it check the connection and reconnect. Once you skip it shouldn't bother you again. It will just think you have a temporary internet outage after the power outage.

You will be left with the Roku light blinking since it cannot access internet. This is how Roku makes it so users are aware the device cannot update. But you should be able to double-press the Home button and get to your apps. Emby will launch, but will trigger the dialog that says it might need internet. You can launch it anyways.

Make sure you are not entering the WiFi setup again after you initially set it up.

Edited Monday at 11:58 PM by speechles

[boggle247 4]

Ahh okay. Well at any rate she plugged it in at her place and it all works. So idk why my test run didn't work but it's all good now. She's going to get another roku to leave at the apartment so we don't have to deal with this again. 

 

Thank you all for the help, much appreciate.