Hi all,

I took the plunge and got myself an RC9800i a few days ago and have to say, so far, I am not impressed.

Of all my remotes, I think it recognised just one, I had to program the rest myself (not too good as it is mostly pretty common equipment).

That is not the biggest issue though, my main problem is that the remote refuses to connect to my wireless LAN. My normal setup is 801.11 g, but I set the router to b+g mode. I normally don't broadcast the SSID and use WPA security settings.

Tried this with the remote, nothing. Turned on SSID, the remote sees the network fine, still won't connect (it sits there for a few seconds saying it is connecting, goes back to the status screen, but the connection status is always "Not Connected").

Tried the router in b only mode, tried WEP security, even no security, same thing whatever I try.

Several other devices connect to the wireless LAN just fine (a PC, laptop and PDA), but the RC9800i just refuses. No error messages, just a "not connected" status and all grey bars on the signal meter.

I've tried Philips (not very good) support pages but found nothing helpful. Several of the FAQ answers say "If needed use the I can not connect to my WiFi network.-troubleshooting.", but I can't find that anywhere (in the manual or online).

Has anybody else had this problem or does anybody have any suggestions? The remote seems to be working OK other than this, and I was able to upgrade to the latest firmware (it wouldn't connect to the WiFi before or after the upgrade), it just won't talk to the wireless LAN, i.e. some of its more useful features are totally useless.

I'd appeciate any suggestions!

Paul

PS My wireless router is a Netgear WPN824

Try connecting with a DHCP server in your network (for example the wireless modem) and the remote's ip settings on automatic. Use broadcast SSID.

My remote also doesn't connect with static ip settings but works fine in DHCP mode with wpa security and mixed b/g broadcast.

Regards,

De Pampi

Thanks for the suggestion. I forgot to include in my first post that my network normally operates with the wireless router operating as a DHCP server. If I turn on SSID broadcast, the remote will briefly say that it is obtaining an IP address, but then the status changes very quickly (after about 1 second I think) to "not connected".

If I do broadcast the SSID, the remote does see the network, so the wireless seems to be at least partially working, but won't connect.

Incidentally, I've also tried assigning the remote a static IP address, but it still won't connect, so I'm running our of configurations to try!

Paul

Are you using MAC-filtering? If yes, the MAC address of the RC9800i needs to be added to the list of allowed devices.
SSID broadcast indeed needs to be switched on for RC9800i to be able to connect.

My wireless LAN is not using MAC filtering, although to try to get this to work, I have tried turning it on temporarily and adding the RC9800i to the list.

I do not normally broadcast SSID, but again have tried to do so to get the remote to work withot succcess.

Incidentally, my wireless router never shows the RC9800i as a connected device.

I'm starting to run out of ideas here and am beginnig to wonder if there is a fault with my remote, or if it just doesn't like my router for some reason. It'd be handy if instead of just coming back and saying "not connected" in the status, if it gave some sort of error message as to why it couldn't connect...

Paul

Well, looks like I've tried everything I can, so I can only conclude that either the wireless on the remote doesn't work (seems unlikely as it can see the SSID), or it just doesn't like my router for some reason.

I'm really not sure what to do now. The WiFi was really the only reason I chose the RC9800i which now looks to have been a poor choice. I suppose I'll just have to see if I can return it and try something else...

Paul

Well, I spent another couple of hours fooling with this thing, and I'm done.

I think I've now tried literally every combination of settings on my wireless router and the RC9800i just will not connect. To add insult to injury, it connects fine (but with not enough signal to actually download anything or even set the clock) to my neighbours unsecured router (nice of him to leave it that way so I could try it out).

The only conclusion I can come to is that the RC9800i does not like one or more of the features of my router. The router is a 108MBps device, which I've alreads had to slow down to broadcast in 802.11b and g for the remote, and is also a MIMO device (multiple transitters for far better range and signal strength). I'm certainly not going to shut these features of for the darn remote and sacrifice connectivity of my other devices.

So, what am I left with? Essentially a great looking, but barely functional universal remote. It doesn't recognise half (literally) of my remotes and honestly the color display is a waste as some genius at Philips decided to make almost all the buttons grey. Without WiFi, no media streaming, no EPG and it won't even set the clock.

Time to see if I can return the thing, or failing that try to sell it on eBay and at least get some of my money back.

I used a Pronto TS-1000 for years and will now have to consider what to do next. I'm thinking about a TSU-7500, but after this experience I'm not so sure. If you believe the hype, the RC9800i looks like a great deal, paticularly as you can pick one up new for <$300 and if you can get it to work, great, but my advice would be that unless you can verify the somebody has sucessfully used an RC9800i with the wireless router model you intend to use, don't buy one.

Paul

Paul - Found this via a google search. Just bought a 9800i on amazon, and I have the exact same problems as you... I've gone through the exact same troubleshooting steps as well. Switched router to WEP, then WPA, then nothing... tried assigning a static IP address, etc.

It finds the SSID, but the status is always "Not connected".

There aren't a lot of others that I've seen this issue. I wonder if it's related to my Wireless-N router? (I've set it to BG-Mixed mode).

Anyway, did you ever send up solving your problem? If so, I'd love to know how!

Cheers!

I had this problem when I downgraded the firmware. Then I went back to the newest one and it worked fine. maybe that is it.

Also once, I had my router set to only accept devices that I allowed to connect to it. That could be it too. But I suggest reloading the newest firmware and giving it a try.

Had the same problem. I downreved and the upreved and it started to work. But the fact that it will connect to your neighbors WiFi says that the RC9800I is working so your guess that it may not be compatible with your router may be the issue

Good luck. It is a PITA remote, but it was cheap ($150.00)