Unable to connect to Wi-Fi fixed

[AlexaEcho]

Greetings

I had a previous problem unable to connect my Fire TV to my network, either by wi-fi or cable. After going through 4 units with the "help" of Amazon support, they eventually gave up & let me keep one. We got two Echo Spots on Friday & I was also unable to connect those. Just a refusal to connect to Wi-Fi, no matter which type of encryption used. (My profession is in computer support.)

My house does not have a TV licence & I am "legally licence free". Never watching any live TV, Sky or using iPlayer. I watch Amazon Prime exclusively.

In order to ensure that I am able to pass an enforcement inspection, I blocked "bbc.co.uk" on my router. (I had told Amazon support of this fact). I have now found that unblocking BBC on my router allows immediate connection for both my Fire TV & Echo Spots. I assume that the Amazon units must ping the BBC to confirm Wi-Fi connection & fail with no error when this is not possible.

As this issue is entirely undocumented, I hope that this post may help someone in the same position.

[seamus01]

Very good find and poor coding on Amazon's behalf.

[jwlv]

Wow! I had no idea that there's such a thing as a "TV license". You blokes have to pay £147 each year to watch TV? How did the legislatures get that into the books without a nationwide riot? LOL.

[seamus01]

Its a small price to pay for no commercial breaks on BBC channels. Seriously though, for less than £3 a week to fund the BBC, its not bad value.

[mindmagic]

It's not just BBC TV that's covered by the licence fee. There's also a wide range of radio stations, podcasts, the BBC website ...

[AlexaEcho]

Sorry guys.

I didn't mean for this thread to become an argument for & against the BBC funding. I was just trying to help people who got stuck with this undocumented design issue.