[Beethoven9th]

Hello all,

I recently got a PlayBook. I really want to like this thing, but the constant wi-fi problems are making this tablet almost unusable. There has to be a bug in the OS or something because the PlayBook continually drops my wi-fi connection at home literally every few minutes, and sometimes it doesn't even pick up a signal. And no, it's not my router. My phone, my friends' phones, my laptop, my old tablet, etc. all connect just fine.

I then went to a free hotspot at the local bookstore, and while the PlayBook does connect, the browser gets stuck every few minutes while loading a page, and I have to turn wi-fi off and back on to get it working again. BUT, this is only a temporary fix because I get stuck again 2-3 minutes later. The device also gets stuck downloading apps both at home and at the hotspot.

Anyway, I thought it was the unit itself so I exchanged it for a brand new factory sealed device.....but guess what?? The new one is doing the exact same thing! The problems are identical.

After doing a Google search, the most frustrating thing is that I seem to be the only user experiencing this. Anybody have any idea what's going on? I mean, two brand new PlayBooks with the exact same behavior?

It's neither my router nor the device, so it has to be the OS, right? But then again, this doesn't seem to be happening to anybody else running the current version 1.0.7.3312.

Help!

[anindoc]

Did you try to hook onto another router- hotspots don't always work that great (depends on where you go to access them), your router might not have a decent range for the PB, so before you do anything I suggest go to a friends place and try their router and see what happens. Then you would know for sure that its your PB and not something else.

Btw as you have pointed out yourself, this problem seems to be unique to your PB, my guess would be its your router !

[Beethoven9th]

Yeah, I actually did try both PlayBooks standing right next to my buddy's router, and the same thing happened. This is so frustrating...

Did you try to hook onto another router- hotspots don't always work that great (depends on where you go to access them), your router might not have a decent range for the PB, so before you do anything I suggest go to a friends place and try their router and see what happens. Then you would know for sure that its your PB and not something else.

Btw as you have pointed out yourself, this problem seems to be unique to your PB, my guess would be its your router !

[anindoc]

Thats sucks man.. sorry to hear that. Hope someone else gives you better insight into this peculiar problem.
Good luck !!

[Superfly_FR]

Two things that have made my wifi connections work fine (I didn't experience the problems you described):
- Is your router WPS capable ?
If yes, try to set it up that way
- Is your router IPV6 enabled ?
If yes, try to turn on IPV6 in both PB and router

As you've just got your PB (you're probably not under 2.0 beta) , can you check the OS version is 1.0.7.xxx ?
If not, make a software update.

[jnak00]

My Playbook will drop the Wifi connection on B/G/N if a B device connects to the network. No B devices, connection is steady. Do you have any 802.11B devices?

[FF22]

You are not the only person with the problem. There have been other posts about their pb dropping wifi connections or not being able to connect to hotel/other wifi.

I've had some problems at hotels but none at home with my rather older linksys router.

Some folks have tweaked some of the more obscure settings in their router but as one person wrote within the last 2 or 3 days, they don't have that tweaking option with hotel or other routers not under their control.

[anakin1979]

I had the same symptoms when I had my Playbook two weeks ago. While everyone else at home was surfing and connecting to my router with no issues, I constantly had the issues you described. This was happening on all of the OS updates, including OS2, which I later removed.

I later confirmed the problem was with the Playbook when a friend of mine who also had one had the same exact issues when he came over my house while my sister and cousin had no problems with their devices- an iPhone4 and a a Macbook.

Do you still have the opportunity to return the Playbook for a refund?

[servingwater]

I'm in the same boat.
Very frustrating issue this, especially for "mobile" device.
I don't believe either that it's just a bad playbook since there a quite a few with these issues. I mean that would mean that RIM produced numerous faulty products.

I bought the pb almost exclusively for on the road usage, so you can imagine how disappointed I am with it.

And to make matters worse, today when I actually did get a connection for once, AppWorld told me it's currently not supporting my country!
The wifi net I'm using has it's ISP in Hong Kong but it worked in the past so I hope it is only a temp situation.

Not a happy customer at all right now.....

[bbqkid8]

Do you still have the opportunity to return the Playbook for a refund?

Haha this is in every post! You, sir, are on a mission!

As for the OP I will try to help with a constructive post to try to help him solve his problem:

I've never had a problem with my home wifi until yesterday... so I was sort of in shock. I reset the Playbook to no avail. I reset the router to no avail. Reset the router and modem and the Playbook and it worked. So I'm not quite sure what it was. All the while, my Bold 9900 was able to connect and surf the web on the same wifi so I am leaning towards some kind of glitch with the Playbook for that span of 15 minutes. Every wifi I have tried out in North America has worked, so I can't tell you what else it might be.

When I was in Greece back in July I had trouble connecting to some free hotspots, but I think it was a range issue (and who knows what kind of router they had, plus the PB wasn't even available there yet). At times I would connect and surf and sometimes it wouldn't. In those instances I just put the Playbook away and continued on with my travels

[anakin1979]

Haha this is in every post! You, sir, are on a mission!

As for the OP I will try to help with a constructive post to try to help him solve his problem:

I've never had a problem with my home wifi until yesterday... so I was sort of in shock. I reset the Playbook to no avail. I reset the router to no avail. Reset the router and modem and the Playbook and it worked. So I'm not quite sure what it was. All the while, my Bold 9900 was able to connect and surf the web on the same wifi so I am leaning towards some kind of glitch with the Playbook for that span of 15 minutes. Every wifi I have tried out in North America has worked, so I can't tell you what else it might be.

When I was in Greece back in July I had trouble connecting to some free hotspots, but I think it was a range issue (and who knows what kind of router they had, plus the PB wasn't even available there yet). At times I would connect and surf and sometimes it wouldn't. In those instances I just put the Playbook away and continued on with my travels

LOL I'm not on a mission. Well maybe I am, actually! For so many years I had been devoted to Blackberries and swore by them.

But I tried to be a bit open minded and tested other devices out there after the OS2 delays and realized why RIM is so behind the times now.

So I guess I'm just trying to do a good deed here by illustrating how everyone can benefit by leaving Blackberry :-)

[anakin1979]

To the OP- sorry if you mentioned this already, but before asking for a refund, have you tried deleting the WiFi profile of your router on your Playbook, and then adding it again?

Might work.

[pbfan]

I have to re-boot my Air every time when it sleeps more than 1 hour for it to work again with my wi-fi.

Try rebooting your wifi router to see if it helps. I also have to reboot my wi-fi router to make my Air happy.

LOL I'm not on a mission. Well maybe I am, actually! For so many years I had been devoted to Blackberries and swore by them.

But I tried to be a bit open minded and tested other devices out there after the OS2 delays and realized why RIM is so behind the times now.

So I guess I'm just trying to do a good deed here by illustrating how everyone can benefit by leaving Blackberry :-)

[bbqkid8]

To the OP- sorry if you mentioned this already, but before asking for a refund, have you tried deleting the WiFi profile of your router on your Playbook, and then adding it again?

Might work.

Oh yeah, I deleted the wifi profile too when troubleshooting my wifi problems. Thanks Anakin. Never thought I'd say that

I too have been open to all companies. Years ago I was on the Apple train with an iPod Mini, Nano and Touch (way before it was cool). So now I'm on my BB binge (way after it's cool). Android might be next in a few years? We'll see

[anakin1979]

I really think there is something about the WiFi antenna or whatever you call it on the Playbook that has issues. It's not as consistent as other devices.

I would have actually kept my Playbook and not sold it for a really low price if it could have tethered on my Galaxy SII- but even that had issues. My Galaxy SII could act as a WiFi hotspot and I had friends who had already connected to it and surfed with no issues, but my Playbook would only connect and recognize it, but never got the Playbook to surf successfully.

Hopefully, future OS builds might fix these intermittent issues. Though I heard that the OS2 update was delayed many times, and the latest announcement was February 2012. I'd be surprised though if they actually release it as they said they would, in February.

So you were an Apple fan as well? I still am, I use a Macbook Pro to run my photography business and have an iPod nano. They are just more superior to Windows machines.

Why did you downgrade to a Blackberry though?

I think you will enjoy Android :-) Good luck...

[Victimized]

Same problems as OP, but severity varies from session to session. Have WPA enabled on router (better security than WEP - refuse to run it any other way) with no other devices accessing it at the time (no other devices even turned on that could access it - all are G, none are B). Have rebooted router. Have deleted wifi profile on PB. Have updated the software on PB. Have even wiped PB and started from scratch. None of this matters. Same problems are experienced on friend's PB in a completely different location with different router.

[FF22]

Same problems as OP, but severity varies from session to session. Have WPA enabled on router (better security than WEP - refuse to run it any other way) with no other devices accessing it at the time (no other devices even turned on that could access it - all are G, none are B). Have rebooted router. Have deleted wifi profile on PB. Have updated the software on PB. Have even wiped PB and started from scratch. None of this matters. Same problems are experienced on friend's PB in a completely different location with different router.

I know about the wifi secuirty but maybe as an experiment you could go to wep for a test run. Also, and I'm not clear, are there TWO standards of wpa? Have you tried playing around. It probably is the pb but it might be helpful to try narrowing down the potential issues with its antenna or "protocol" (if that's the right term for how it communicates)

[Beethoven9th]

Hi guys, thanks for all of the responses. I hadn't checked back in because I had gotten so ticked off from the stupid wi-fi problems that I gave up and didn't touch my PlayBook for several days.

But then something weird happened (a good type of 'weird'). On a whim I decided to fire up the old PlayBook again, and guess what?!? The wi-fi connection was a lot better! (It still drops the connection from time to time, but it's not nearly as bad as it used to be) And no, I hadn't done anything to the PlayBook or my router, so I can't possibly understand how this problem all of a sudden got 'fixed'. I'm not complaining though.

[jamesbondOO7]

I have to say that my wifi works faultlessly. I had the good surprise the first time I took the PB to the office that it connected automatically without having to enter the password. I guess it picked up the details from the Bold (and no, I am not connected via the bridge).

[meierjn]

You may want to fire up a WiFi scanner like inSSIDer or Netstumbler to just see whats out there. Chances are you will see several wireless networks attempting to use the same channels or using overlapping channels on both the 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz spectrums. If you do you should be able to adjust the channels your AP or router to a less congested, or if your lucky an open channel. if the 5Ghz frequency is less congested you can try turning off the 2.4Ghz frequency on your AP or router and just use the 5Ghz. I have 15 WiFi networks in my neighborhood I'm dealing with! I hope this helps...

[kbz1960]

The rumored 1.7 update we might get is suppose to have better wifi and bluetooth.

[rs422a]

Had some small issues at first with connection drops. Fixed it by setting wireless hub to get network time automatically. Extended the DHCP lease to 24 hours. Forced into 802.11G mode only. On my repeater I set rebroadcast to 11mbs and forced to 802.11G. The PB hasn't dropped a lease now in 4 weeks. I think most connection problems are due to mismatched router issues. The PB itself seems rock solid. certainly more so than my laptop with a Broadcom 4312 card - which is a piece of junk BTW.

[robsteve]

I had connection problems this summer when an update came through. I was on a Dlink Wireless-N router, which are known to be problematic with the Playbook. In the end I just ordered an Apple Extreme router with the dual and simultaneous channels and the problems went away.

For what it is worth, I had similar problems a few years ago at home when I couldn't find a combination of settings that would allow my Bold 9000 and my wifes iPhone to both have reliable connections to the wifi. In that case, the router was also a Dlink and an Apple Extreme router solved the problem.

Just from memory, in both cases I was using WPA and the logs would show the device connecting and then a few minutes later the log would show the device de-authenticated. I think it may be a software error in the Dlink router causing this.

[PatrickMJS]

I am with bbqkid8 on this. My PB has worked fine here at home, at Starbucks, McDonalds, various hotels, restaurants, airports etc. The occasional time I have had connections issues, my laptop has issues at the same time... so I chalk it up to weak wifi.

IMHO wifi issues as severe as the op is reporting should be solvable by replacing the device under warranty. It strains credulity that you could be on your 3rd one (2 warrsnty replacements) and still no wifi. I'd call the 1-800 # and get them to help you sort this out.

[rs422a]

I have a friend who bought a PB last August and called me to say it was a piece of junk because wi-fi worked for a while and simply quit. I had him bring it over fearing a defective box. After a minute I found he had put it in airplane mode.

And you can't simply unbox a wireless router, plug it in and go. I was wireless before wireless was cool and I can tell you that every router needs configuration. I'm not arbitrarily defending the Playbook per se', but any device hooked to a network whether wired or not needs a nudge.