[pbfan]

I used to have high expectation on PB. It worked well and did not cause problems until I tried to play HD video from Youtube. I found that my router would freeze every time after I tried it. That did not happen to my MacAir and Win7 netbook.

I called the PB technical support. A lady told me to clear out everything from the cache. That did not help. Then she told me to connect my PB while it was turned off to my computer and do an update. This did help either. From bad to worse, it wiped out all my stuffs including all pictures and videos taken using my PB.

I called technical support again and talked to another lady. I explained the situation and she told me she need to talk to senior people. She came back and asked me to try at different routers. I said I�ve tried two routers in my home. Then she asked to try at places like Starbucks coffee. I said that I could try it but that would not solve my problem. I told her it is OK to be slow on HD video but not OK to cause my router to freeze.

She went back to senior people and came back with a very surprising suggestion: we will close this case because your PB worked OK with non-HD video. The reason she provided was that all other people had HD video worked OK. I told her problems were discussed on Crackberry.com but she said she did not know Crackberry.com. I told that is not OK with me. My stuffs were wiped up because of the technical support and I did not ask for anything. It is not acceptable to close this case.

Finally a senior person talked with me on the phone. He first asked me if I know data communication and then continued with something like PB have passed all 11g/n tests. I told him I know data communication perfectly to know that communication devices need to negotiate how to communicate before actual communication starts.

It seems that he was surprised that I knew communication stuffs but insisted that there were no problems on PB side because other people did not report problems. (I could have told him but did not that other people probably might just return PB and never came back. We should report all problems to them otherwise they would think PB is perfect.)

I told him that my router may be old (one ~5 years and the other ~ 3 years, supporting only 11g) but all were very stable. Both my MacAir and Win7 netbook are slow when playing Youtube HD but they would not cause my router to freeze. This encouraged him to say these devices also had issues with my router and the router is the problem. I told him again it is OK to be slow but not OK for my router to freeze. I feel very uncomfortable that they did not want to try to improve PB to work with possible real conditions.

Finally he agreed to take a look my firmware version. I will call them again after I found it out.

I spent 2-3 hours on the phone and I lost my high expectation on PB.

[bazjeepers]

Strange ... I have never had any problems with my Netgear N router and this same router was a refurbished unit. What OS version are you on? and are you using WEP, WPA-PSK, etc ... to connect to your router.

[mjs416]

Maybe I missed it in your post but have you tried updating your router firmware?

And for the heck of it - I would try going to a public hotspot and crashing their router too just to see if thats actually the issue.

[prez87]

Misleading thread name...

[slingxshot]

I used to have high expectation on PB. It worked well and did not cause problems until I tried to play HD video from Youtube. I found that my router would freeze every time after I tried it. That did not happen to my MacAir and Win7 netbook.

I called the PB technical support. A lady told me to clear out everything from the cache. That did not help. Then she told me to connect my PB while it was turned off to my computer and do an update. This did help either. From bad to worse, it wiped out all my stuffs including all pictures and videos taken using my PB.

I called technical support again and talked to another lady. I explained the situation and she told me she need to talk to senior people. She came back and asked me to try at different routers. I said I�ve tried two routers in my home. Then she asked to try at places like Starbucks coffee. I said that I could try it but that would not solve my problem. I told her it is OK to be slow on HD video but not OK to cause my router to freeze.

She went back to senior people and came back with a very surprising suggestion: we will close this case because your PB worked OK with non-HD video. The reason she provided was that all other people had HD video worked OK. I told her problems were discussed on Crackberry.com but she said she did not know Crackberry.com. I told that is not OK with me. My stuffs were wiped up because of the technical support and I did not ask for anything. It is not acceptable to close this case.

Finally a senior person talked with me on the phone. He first asked me if I know data communication and then continued with something like PB have passed all 11g/n tests. I told him I know data communication perfectly to know that communication devices need to negotiate how to communicate before actual communication starts.

It seems that he was surprised that I knew communication stuffs but insisted that there were no problems on PB side because other people did not report problems. (I could have told him but did not that other people probably might just return PB and never came back. We should report all problems to them otherwise they would think PB is perfect.)

I told him that my router may be old (one ~5 years and the other ~ 3 years, supporting only 11g) but all were very stable. Both my MacAir and Win7 netbook are slow when playing Youtube HD but they would not cause my router to freeze. This encouraged him to say these devices also had issues with my router and the router is the problem. I told him again it is OK to be slow but not OK for my router to freeze. I feel very uncomfortable that they did not want to try to improve PB to work with possible real conditions.

Finally he agreed to take a look my firmware version. I will call them again after I found it out.

I spent 2-3 hours on the phone and I lost my high expectation on PB.

go to speedtest.net

You need to get at least I am guessing 10Megabits/s to get HD stuff

[evolutionPlaybook]

Don't forget that your Laptop has been getting constant updates and I am assuming is more than 1yr old. Everything on PB is fairly new, software and hardware included, to me it sounds like your old router is the problem and a conflict between the router and the PB is evident. I would try and use a free wifi somewhere else and see if it crashes their net. Or try using your phone as a hotspot if you have one that is capable.

And one last thing, when you try to go online with the PB make sure your other devices are not signed on on the network so you don't have more than 3 devices online at the same time. See if that helps, and don't forget always update your router to the latest firmware, most people neglect that just because their network works just fine.

[gregorylkelly]

I get HD stuff perfectly on YouTube. Also, based on this story, I can't really say the costumer service was wrong. They tried offering you solutions and it sounds like you were giving them attitude.

[sf49ers]

If are you are using 5 years old router and then I think it is a time for an upgrade, if it is anything below wifi-g speeds get rid of it and get a new wifi-N router. PB works amazing with wifi-N routers and I never had a problem with youtube HD videos or anyother site, i got 24mbps download and 5mps upload speeds on my tests with speedtest.net.

[piper975]

Totally agree, your routers are the issue. Try upgrading the firmware at minimum (be sure and back up the configuration first so that you don't blame people on here for helping) and if that doesn't work throw it away and get a Linksys/Cisco wireless N router and you will not have a problem after that. I am using several different types from the consumer grade (wrt54g series which support N) up to commercial grade (ap541n) without issue, they are however all less than 6 months old. All are running at a minimum of 54 MB/sec.

[Blacklac]

I would definetly look into the routers firmware for updates. People like to blame other devices, but routers are known to cause a lot of headaches.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[slingxshot]

also router freezing sounds like a router problem...also i wouldn't try streaming HD stuff none with 802.11g, i would suggest 802.11n.

[pbfan]

I have both DSL and cable.
DSL: 1.3 Mbps download DSL.
Cable: About 6-10 times of DSL.
The netgear (wgt 624 v2) has the latest firmware (V4.2.11_1.0.1). Interestingly it shows as v3 in the settings.

My belkin router is a little newer but does not as well as netgear.

[evolutionPlaybook]

Great that you posted more useful info. Now your Netgear WGT624v2 is POS, terrible cheap router, probably one of the worst routers Netgear ever made. This router is mostly known for randomly dropping conncetions and freezing. If that router is pared with the DSL (which by the way my 3G phone has twice the speed) is an unreliable internet conncetion.

We need a little more details on what is your configuration, which connection whith what router?

[pbfan]

Actually netgear WGT624v2 worked great until PB was used to watch youtube HD. I tested both cable and DSL connection with PB. Both connection has similar problem.

[kbz1960]

When I got my windows 7 laptop I had to get a new router because the one I had was too old (not compatible) with windows 7. Think the same thing might apply here.

[slingxshot]

When I was shopping for 802.11n routers, I went through 3 of them until I found the one that gave me the best performance for the price.

The biggest issue was that the lower ends routers had crappy CPU, when trying trying to download something with a good cable connection, the router gets bugged down, slows down or sometimes would even freeze. Also if the router does have a slow CPU, make sure you have WPA2 enabled, that gave me the best results with security. Also try disabling security and see if that helps.

Also see if you can force 802.11b with your router... and see if it freezes... I am wondering if the faster connection PB allows may be is too much for the routers...

[lowtrac]

I know communication stuffs too. We should hang out. LOL.

[Double_J75]

That sucks. I had a pretty good experience when I contacted them. They were polite and proffessional. Although the call did last much longer than I would have wanted.

I also can stream HD very quickly and flawlessly. I've done the transformers in 1080p. I have a 50mbs connection though.

Hope it all works out for you.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com