Intermittant loss of wifi connection

[2tall]

I was wondering if someone could help with an issue we are having.  I bought my wife a Kindle 3 for Christmas.  I opened it up before wrapping it to charge it, load a book, etc. before gifting it to her (shame on me).  Anyway, we are having an issue of the Kindle losing it's connection with our router after being connnected and working fine for some time.  I have other devices that stay connected during the issue with the Kindle.  The bars at the top right of the display are grayed out.  When trying to reconnect to the router, the Kindle will sometimes find the network and sometimes it won't.  When it does identify the network in the list, it shows 3 or more bars in the list but, it can not connected back to the network.  I have downloaded and installed the latest revision (3.0.3 I believe) and this still happens.  We are curious if this will happen while connected to our work's wifi network - which we will try tomorrow.  The only thing we have done to correct the issue is to put the Kindle to sleep for a while, then try to connect again.  Are we missing a setting somewhere or something?  Please help if you have any suggestions.

Thanks!

[Morf]

I'd look at whether you have any "unusual" configuration in your wifi setup. I get the impression from various threads on here that the Kindle has a fairly "basic" wifi setup, and expects your router to be a fairly standard configuration, so won't connect to some wifi networks where the more versatile setup on a PC or laptop is OK.

They seem to like a simple network with WPA/WPA2 security.

They don't seem to like settings such as hidden SSID's, and I'd avoid things like MAC address blocking and static IP addresses. If you have specified the wireless channel in your router, make sure you use the standard channels (1-11) and avoid the 'extension' channels (12+).

[ff2]

Do you have any cordless (not cell) phones?  Some of the older ones used a frequency used by wireless routers.  My laptop would get booted off the network when I was using my cordless phone - not all of the time but enough that I replaced the cordless with a variety with a different frequency.

[Ann in Arlington]

They don't seem to like settings such as hidden SSID's, and I'd avoid things like MAC address blocking and static IP addresses. If you have specified the wireless channel in your router, make sure you use the standard channels (1-11) and avoid the 'extension' channels (12+).

In fact, hidden SSID's are not a problem. . .but you do need to set it up manually because it obviously won't find the network on it's own.

Many have reported that unusually long security keys, or ones that contain non alpha-numeric characters as being problematic -- but usually in these cases they're having problems connecting at all.

Others have reported that replacing their older routers with a newer model solved their intermittent connection problems. 

[nogdog~6op6ou]

...
Others have reported that replacing their older routers with a newer model solved their intermittent connection problems. 

Yep, made all the difference in the world for me.

[Mardler]

See my post here:- http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php/topic,46558.0.html .

The problem is the unit's useless modem. Period.

Let's face it, the Knidle is a toy: the principle is adult enough but the production engineering is c**p. Mine drops the connection and displays an error message yet sometimes has a signal strength of 5 bars (other times it does not even list my modem but shows others in the area!).

It's a great pity as the thing is basically rather good.

[Elk]

The problem is the unit's useless modem.

The Kindle is a little computer with limited capability, but most have no problem with the modem.

Some, of course, do and their issues are real.

One known issue us that the Kindle doesn't like complex security passcodes.

They also like newish routers (within a year or two) for some unknown reason.

[ff2]

My wifi k3 finds my linksys (4 or 5 years old) without any issues.  I come home and the network is there an available.

The open public wifi where I work shows up but I do have to agree to their terms each time and then press connect.  But then the k3 is  on that one, too.

[Ann in Arlington]

Really, there are many many brands of routers and everyone is set up differently:  gone are the days where you could 'wardrive' a neighborhood and find 20 "linksys" SSIDS with a password of "password".

I think, in general, the less complex your security protocols are the easier the Kindle will connect.  And, as Elk suggested, in some cases a newer router fixes the losing connection problem.

OTOH, as ff2 suggests, an older router won't necessarily be an issue.  I too have an older router -- eHome model, I believe -- and neither I nor my son who got one for Christmas have had any problem connecting.

But, you know, if it doesn't work for you, that's o.k. too.  

[hidden_user]

Connection problems can be very frustrating, especially when the new "toy" doesn't work as one would like. I guess I'm one of the lucky ones (or millions). I set up a Linksys E2000 Cisco router easy as pie and with default security (WPA2/WPA and SPI Firewall built in). I didn't try screwing around with the settings at all. I see no need to and my Kindle works just fine with not a single drop ... ever.

Those who are experiencing problems MIGHT try hitting that little reset button on the back of whatever wireless router they have and return the router to default settings if they have mucked around with the settings and see if that clears up the problem.

If someone wants the bells and whistles of a laptop ... then get a laptop. The Kindle is an e-reader ... a very good one apparently.
:looks around for those $139 laptops:

[2tall]

Thanks for all the replies.  I do have a great router Cradlepoint MBR1000, less than a year old.  Had to get a good one because I have internet through an air card from Alltel.  This is the best of my very few options in the country.  I have the default settings and no password for access.  There are only my desktop (hardwired), and Xbox 360 (hardwired) and sometimes my laptop connected wirlessly to the router.  So, these should not be issues.  My wife connected to the wifi at work last night and everything was going fine until she tried to connect to her hotmail account.  Now it is locked up and I have that issue to deal with.  I see another post on the mobile hotmail access, so we will try that.  I need to look up how to get the Kindle from being locked up.  We tried holding the switch over for 30 seconds, but stuck on password screen - can't enter password.  Thanks for the help folks.

2tall

[Blue 92]

As far as hidden SSID versus non-hidden I can tell you my experience.

New Kindle, Linksys router several years old using WEP and key 2.  Since I was enabling wireless connections to my printer, iPhone and Kindle all at the same time I reconfigured the the router to WPA-PSK with AES.  The iPhone and printer will only connect on Key 1 using WEP so I moved to WPA.

I set the router to broadcast the SSID while setting up the three devices above along with two laptops and a second desktop located on the second floor.  After I had them all on line I disabled the SSID broadcast function again.

All except the Kindle would connect on start up with no problem.  

If I turned broadcast mode back on the Kindle would connect.  Turn off SSID broadcast, put the Kindle in sleep mode and on wake up it would not connect.  Manually entering the SSID and pass key would not work.  Re-enable SSID broadcast and within a minute or so it locates the router and re-connects.  I went through this 5 to 10 times.....

What it seems to boil down to is the Kindle appears to be case sensitive to the SSID.  In the Wireless Advanced setup portion I had entered the SSID in all lower case, on the router itself it's mixed case.  It appears that if the SSID is broadcast it picks it up and all is good.  

I suspect that if the SSID isn't being broadcast the Kindle uses the manually entered information to try and connect and a mismatch was occurring between the lower case SSID and mixed case SSID on the router.  I edited the Advanced setting and changed the SSID to mixed case on the Kindle and it has been flawless since.

If you have issues make sure the SSID and password / key match down to the mixed case.

It resolved my problem.  

[Elk]

If you have issues make sure the SSID and password / key match, down to the mixed case.

Excellent point, Blue.  It is easy to overlook these simple things.