Sony Blu-ray Player BDP-S3200: “Internet Connection: Failed”

I recently came across a problem with a Sony Blu-Ray player, specifically the model BDP-S3200 running software version M19.R.0071. When I open the network status screen, it shows valid IPV4 network settings such as a good IP address, a subnet mask, DNS servers, etc. However, there is a glaring message on this screen that reads, “Internet Connection: Failed.” I can use the internet browser just fine to access different websites like Youtube and Google. However, when attempting a software update of the player, it would report that it did not have an internet connection. And to add to the confusion, that same player would perform the software update and see it has a valid internet connection when it is connected on a different network. When I performed the network diagnostics, it reports there is an error connecting to the DHCP server.

Since no other device on the network was having problems, I decided to capture the network packets both when the player powers up and when it attempts the software update. I also captured packets on a network where the player does work and update successfully. I first compared the packets captured during power-up. The DHCP server and the player seemed to be responding appropriately. The packets are valid and there doesn’t appear to be any malformed packets or odd flags.

When I also looked at the packets from the software update attempts, I found that the player that works immediately starts running DNS queries to .net root DNS servers and Sony servers. The player that doesn’t work did not run those queries. I looked closer at the DHCP packets.

At this point I’m looking for any differences no matter how small. Besides the expected difference of the IP address, the only other difference I noticed was the subnet mask. The player on the network that worked has a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0, but the player on the network that didn’t work had subnet mask of 255.255.255.128.

Let’s take a moment to briefly describe what subnet masks mean. You can find several websites that can explain it in more detail. The subnet mask just tells the devices on the network how large that subnet is. A subnet mask of 255.255.255.0, the most common on home routers, means the network size is 254 addresses (+2 addresses reserved for other purposes). You may typically see this as an address range like 192.168.1.1-254. These defaults settings usually are adequate for most home consumers.

But a 255.255.255.128 subnet mask means the network is half that size, only 126 (+2 reserved) addresses. So the address range may be 192.168.1.1-126. The size of the network normally does not have any bearing on an application or device such as a Blu-ray player.

But unfortunately it does in this case. Sony’s software has a bug where it does not recognize a subnet mask of 255.255.255.128 (and probably others, although I did not verify this). As a result, it thinks there is an error when in reality there is not.

They two simplest fixes are to change the subnet size to 255.255.255.0 on your router, or to manually put in the network configuration in the Blu-Ray player.

There may be other bugs within the software to make the player fail when connecting to the internet. It wouldn’t hurt to adjust some of your network settings to see if your player will accept them.

I don’t know if in a later update Sony has fixed this bug, or if it is a bug on other Blu-ray devices, but it seems like a lot of people have an issue with their Blu-Ray player being able to update or use apps that rely on a network connection.

As a workaround, either manually enter the network settings, or change the network settings to a size of 254 addresses.