[LDB]

I got my PW yesterday and set it up including wifi. This morning I switched it to airplane mode to conserve battery. Just now I switched it back to check something in the store. The first annoyance is it doesn't remember the password for my home network so I apparently have to enter it in every time which is a nuisance. Then it says it can't connect. The wifi is working fine though as I'm using it now with this computer and watching tv through it as well. So

1. How do you make it remember the password for your home network?

2. What do you do when it suddenly won't connect to a functioning wifi network?

 

[Betsy the Quilter]

I normally leave my WiFi on all the time on my PW. But, on occasion, for testing here on the forum OR when the battery did get low, I turned Airplane Mode on.  I've never had to re-enter the password.  EDIT:  Just tested again...the PW reconnected with the network without prompting or entering a password.

Generally, if one of your devices is having trouble connecting to a network, even if others can access the network, try restarting the device.  (Hold the power button on the PW until the device shuts off.  Wait three seconds, press the power button.)  If that doesn't work, try restarting the router.  Yes, even though the other devices can connect.

Restarting the device/and or restarting the router might help with the PW forgetting the password, too.  Off to poke around on mine.

Betsy

 

[LDB]

I tried turning it off for a few seconds before posting. I tried again, this time waiting 30 seconds or so before turning it back on. No joy either time. I'll try resetting the router in a little while when the DVR isn't recording through it. If there were two units out of an entire batch with a problem that would be one that's mine and one that would have been my dad's. Thanks.

 

[Betsy the Quilter]

I tried turning it off for a few seconds before posting. I tried again, this time waiting 30 seconds or so before turning it back on. No joy either time. I'll try resetting the router in a little while when the DVR isn't recording through it. If there were two units out of an entire batch with a problem that would be one that's mine and one that would have been my dad's. Thanks.

To be sure, Leo, I'm not talking about simply turning it off. I wasn't very clear ealrier. Press and hold the power button for thirty seconds. Count 'em off. When you release, the Kindle should flash and you should see the tree as it reboots. I misspoke, you shouldn't have to push the power button again, it should come back on.

Betsy

 

[crebel]

I don't have a PW here to check with (DH stole mine and I have gone back to using KK), but isn't there some sort of parental control under the settings that will require you to enter the password every time to connect?  Maybe that is toggled on and would be the answer to your question #1.

If a restart of your PW and/or router doesn't solve the connectivity problem after your password is entered, I would call Kindle customer service.

 

[Betsy the Quilter]

Well, when you turn that on for the first time, you have to give it the password you want to use.  It sounds like he's having to enter the router password; unless he uses the same password everywhere, it would be unlikely that he set up his Kindle that way.

Betsy

 

[LDB]

I'm sorry, I wasn't clear earlier. I thought I had reset it earlier, holding the power button for what seemed like a long time and then waiting a few seconds before restarting. I didn't get the tree so it wasn't as long as I thought. I just did a real reset, getting the tree this time. It still didn't reset the wifi though. And yes, it's the password for the router I'm having to enter every time I try to connect. When I set it up originally I don't remember anything about parental controls and I didn't activate the system password. I'll try resetting the router in a few minutes when it's idle.

 

[Morf]

You shouldn't need to input your password more than once, so if you have to do there's something wrong. It may be prompting for the password because it's having problems connecting, rather than because it's forgotten it, so let's focus on getting it to connect first - I think the password problem might then go away.

As suggested above, start with a restart of the PW, and if that doesn't help reboot your router.

The best way to restart a PW (or any other Kindle) is via the menu...

Home, Menu, Settings, Menu, Restart (not Reset Device!).

If that still doesn't help, check the firmware version (Home, Menu, Settings, Menu, Device Info), and if it's not 5.3.1 then install this version which has some wifi fixes, see http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_left_cn?ie=UTF8&nodeId=201064850.

 

[LDB]

Resetting the router took care of it. Lessons learned so far include

1. always check for sub menus as touching restart is much easier than trying to hold the power button for 30 seconds

2. even though after a few hours of charging until the light turns green suggesting a fully charged battery when the battery meter drops what visually appears to be either 20 or 25 percent in one day do not switch to airplane mode and upset the very fragile wifi system

Thanks for all the help. I appreciate it.

 

[Ann in Arlington]

FWIW, the few times I've had wifi connection problems, I would do a re-scan for the network.  If it showed it but didn't want to connect, I'd tell it to forget and then set it up again. . . .but that's not an everyday occurrence . . . .just now and then when it's showing as connected but books that I've sent aren't showing up.  More often simply toggling it off and then back on sorts it.

How old is your router -- some have reported that ones more than a few years old occasionally have problem seeing kindle. Or rather vice versa, I guess.  Even if all their other wireless devices were connecting happily. If you continue to have the problem you might want to splurge on something newer.   'Course, if it's already new. . .that's not going to help.

 

[Betsy the Quilter]

Resetting the router took care of it. Lessons learned so far include

1. always check for sub menus as touching restart is much easier than trying to hold the power button for 30 seconds

Yeah, I should have told you about the menu thingy. That's more gentle on the system anyway. My bad.

2. even though after a few hours of charging until the light turns green suggesting a fully charged battery when the battery meter drops what visually appears to be either 20 or 25 percent in one day do not switch to airplane mode and upset the very fragile wifi system

Thanks for all the help. I appreciate it.

I really don't think the battery level had anything to do with the WiFi issue, though Morf will probably know more.

Glad you got it working, Leo!

Betsy

 

[Morf]

...though Morf will probably know more.

Stitched up again!

No, I don't think the battery had anything to do with it. The fast discharge on the first day of use is not uncommon, because (1) Lithium batteries discharge quicker for the first couple of charge cycles, (2) the Kindle has to index the books you copy onto it which uses the battery quicker (the indexing runs even when the Kindle is asleep).

Check that indexing is complete: search for a nonsense string of characters, you should get "not found", it will tell you if any books are unindexed. Don't worry unless this lasts for a couple of days.

Personally, I leave my PW in airplane mode all the time to save the battery and only turn wireless on when I need it. I know other people on here don't!

Check the firmware version, they haven't said exactly what they've fixed wifi-wise in 5.3.1 but you are always best to have the latest, it's very easy to do.

 

[backslidr]

I used to have that problem with my Touch where it sometimes couldn't recognize my router. My Paperwhite though is fine. I do have to enter my router password whenever I switch back from 3G. It remembers it okay when I switch back and forth from WiFi and Airplane mode, but not after using 3G. I'm not sure if that's normal or not, but it's not that bad since I'm usually on WiFi.

 

[LDB]

I have 93 items on the PW right now. I just did a search for gibberish and got no items found. I didn't think the battery had anything to do with it, just that it was going down rapidly and I thought I'd slow it down. Mine is a wifi only so I won't have any 3G conflicts. I'll probably just leave it alone and charge more frequently as needed rather than risk another "adventure" like this. Oh, and the router is a Uverse system router no more than a couple of years old, if that.

 

[Morf]

If you put 93 items on it in the first day or so, indexing would take an hour or two and would therefore use your battery significantly (it uses the CPU a lot more than reading a book, so uses the battery a lot more).

If the gibberish test returns "no items found" then indexing is complete, and you should now find that battery usage is more as you would expect.

Don't let the battery usage over the past couple of days worry you, you should find it is a lot better from now on.

I read on my PW for at least 2 hours a day (sometimes a lot more), light is set at about 6 and wifi is off, and I charge it every couple of weeks or so.

 

[KOHb]

I got my PW yesterday and set it up including wifi. This morning I switched it to airplane mode to conserve battery. Just now I switched it back to check something in the store. The first annoyance is it doesn't remember the password for my home network so I apparently have to enter it in every time which is a nuisance. Then it says it can't connect. The wifi is working fine though as I'm using it now with this computer and watching tv through it as well. So

1. How do you make it remember the password for your home network?

2. What do you do when it suddenly won't connect to a functioning wifi network?

Why kindle "loosing the password" and internet connection issue

After having numbers of discussion with Kindle (eInk) tech-support, eventually I was able to get the truth about Kindle and it's wifi:
Please understand there is the difference between WiFi network and Internet (connection to WiFi network). Unfortunately not all people in Amazon tech-support know the difference.

When kindle is connecting to WiFi first it trying to connect to amazon's servers via internet. If connection was not successful, kindle misinform the user asking to enter the password again. This issue can be verified by connecting to WiFi while local network has internet access. After connection established disabling i-net access at WiFi LAN causing kindle disconnection from WiFi within 5-15 minutes with prompt to enter the password.

After you managed successfully connect to WiFi (when i-net was OK) later, in case of i-net disconnection (for example you i-net provider is down), kindle disconnects form the WiFi and will ask the password for WiFi connection.
Such Wi-Fi deficiency is not disclosed by Amazon.com and today tech support confirmed that this is the deliberately designed feature.

See http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/FAQ_Amazon_Kindle#WiFi_connection_issues

I did not investigated and I don't know what information kindle sending to Amazon.com

 

[Morf]

OK, so the Kindle confirms a good wifi connection by trying to connect to the Amazon servers.

If it can't connect to the servers, this could be:

1) A wifi problem,
2) A router problem,
3) A broadband cable problem,
4) An ISP problem,
5) An Amazon problem.
6) Something else, maybe the data fairies are on strike!...

...but in all these cases, the Kindle simply asks for the wifi password again, leading you to think it's a wifi problem.

That's very interesting information, KOHb, thanks for sharing it with us! 

I'll remember it in future when people ask about this problem.

 

[Ann in Arlington]

I have sometimes lost connection -- though the wifi still seems to be on. Sometimes I've been told it couldn't connect; sometimes it just hasn't d/l'd books that I know it should have. In those cases (after confirming my home network does see the internet) I just toggle wifi off and back on, it remembers the password, reconnects and all is well.

Occasionally that doesn't work but a full restart does.

If a restart doesn't work, I assume it's an Amazon problem; I just wait a bit and try again.

But I've never been asked to re-enter my password unless I'd just reset it to factory state for some reason, or had told the kindle to forget my network first.

Of course, if MY router isn't getting out to the world, that's a different problem. I've not had Kindle prompt me for a password in that case, it just connects and nothing happens.

If the modem shows signal I do the old "unplug it all and then plug it back in" thing. That usually works.

If there's no signal at the modem, well there's your problem! If temporarily unplugging the modem doesn't trigger anything I contact the ISP provider and usually hear a recorded message that there's an outage in my area.

I kind of feel like if your kindle keeps asking you for the router password then either you haven't entered it correctly or you have a problem with your Kindle or your router.

I also think it's possible that Kindle doesn't always play well with older routers. I know some android based devices have trouble staying connected to older ones, depending on the security it's using.

But, as I've never actually experienced that, maybe I'm mistaken. I admit I don't know nearly as much about this sort of thing as Morf. For me, if it works, I'm happy and I don't look further unless it STOPS working! Then I try the steps above. If none of them work, I seek professional help.

 

[LDB]

The only time I had the problem was when I switched it to airplane mode to save some battery life. Mine is wifi only so there's never any 3G activity. When I take it with me places to read while I'm eating or waiting or whatever it obviously disconnects from the wifi since it's far away but it always connects back as soon as I come back to the wifi. I haven't tried switching to airplane mode again. I just plug it in more often.

 

[KOHb]

OK, so the Kindle confirms a good wifi connection by trying to connect to the Amazon servers.

I tried to get information from Amazon.com about the reason for this, the reply was something like we "we check if the device is working properly or any of books require conversion(?)" but I understood that Amazon's does not really know the reason.

If it can't connect to the servers, this could be:
.......
...but in all these cases, the Kindle simply asks for the wifi password again, leading you to think it's a wifi problem.

Correct. My kindle keyboard and new Kindle (s/w ver 4.1.0) behaved exactly like this. If I disconnect internet from internal network it ask to reenter the password. If I leave network open (no password require to connect it - it report about problem to connect to network. When I enable i-net provider connection - everything file in both cases. Network monitoring during kindle connection shows the following traffic between kindle and internet:
207.171.185.201 TCP www
23.23.189.26 UDP 33434
23.23.189.26 UDP 49317
23.23.189.26 UDP 40317
72.21.203.199 TCP https
23.23.189.5 UDP 33434
205.251.228.4 UDP ntp
72.21.192.213 UDP ntp
72.21.214.151 TCP https
72.21.203.199 TCP https
72.21.203.199 TCP https
72.21.211.177 TCP https

You may see that all above are amazon's servers

That's very interesting information, KOHb, thanks for sharing it with us!

I'll remember it in future when people ask about this problem.

I search the internet for almost one year (since I bought my kindle 3) trying to find some fix for this problem (I want to connect kindle to network w/o net access to use it with the local web server), but I cannot for the reason which is described above.
Not many people are aware about it, everyone is blaming the encryption method or something else...

This is the answer I received from kindle support :

Hello from ....,

I am sorry we were unable to come to a positive conclusion to our conversation. Unfortunately the kindle won't connect without the Internet connection.

We do appreciate your business and hope to see you again.

Thank you for your inquiry. ....

I hope that somebody with kindle development kit and good programming skills will be able to make the patch to fix this deficiency.