[kbz1960]

I think either an update or a replacement will fix these odd problems.

[FF22]

RMA:

Rim Support
Tel:
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Playbook French Support
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Phone : 0800 914 533 (within 90 days from activation)

[louzer]

My PB's Wi-Fi setting for the "Select a Network" choice was originally set to "Available Networks" and my Wi-Fi connection wasn't working right. After it locked in to one of the wireless routers nearby, the PB would retain the signal for a few seconds and then it would disengage to try to find another signal.

JUST IN CASE YOU MISSED IT, PAY ATTENTION. HERE'S HOW TO FIX THIS PROBLEM:

The solution to this problem of losing your Wi-Fi connection is very simple. Make sure your "Select a Network" choice is set to "Saved Networks" in the drop-down box of the the WiFi screen. In this way, your PB won't be continuously scanning for a network to use.

NOW STOP COMPLAINING AND GO FIX YOUR PB.

Cautiously optimistic but I changed my 'Select a network' to Saved Networks and my connection seems steady. My problem was not dropped connections per se. Every few minutes, I'd have a page not loading or a lost connection when accessing the network via an app. When I would go into Wifi settings (set to available networks) the little green circle would be spinning next to my current connections name. I would have to tap it to make it stop spinning and reconnect. I have neighbors whose wifi was showing up in 'available connections with a very weak signal.

Since I changed to Saved Connections, it's running pretty smoothly. It's only been about 20 minutes, but before the change, I would have already been in and out of the Wifi settings page twice.

[smoothrunnings]

Replace your router, I have a Dlink 1522 AP at home and never get dropped. I have also tested my PB on a Linksys E4200 and didn't have any problems with dropped connections.

[conix67]

Cautiously optimistic but I changed my 'Select a network' to Saved Networks and my connection seems steady. My problem was not dropped connections per se. Every few minutes, I'd have a page not loading or a lost connection when accessing the network via an app. When I would go into Wifi settings (set to available networks) the little green circle would be spinning next to my current connections name. I would have to tap it to make it stop spinning and reconnect. I have neighbors whose wifi was showing up in 'available connections with a very weak signal.

Since I changed to Saved Connections, it's running pretty smoothly. It's only been about 20 minutes, but before the change, I would have already been in and out of the Wifi settings page twice.

I would give it at least a full day with frequent use before making a conclusion. Yesterday, I was doing exactly that and saw an improvement which seemed to work for few hours. However, after that period things just went back to the way it was, and for some strange reasons repeating exactly the same steps didn't help at all. This is best demonstrated through apps like Splashtop HD which requires constant and stable Wifi connection.

[louzer]

I would give it at least a full day with frequent use before making a conclusion. Yesterday, I was doing exactly that and saw an improvement which seemed to work for few hours. However, after that period things just went back to the way it was, and for some strange reasons repeating exactly the same steps didn't help at all. This is best demonstrated through apps like Splashtop HD which requires constant and stable Wifi connection.

Like I said. I'm cautiously optimistic and giving this some time, but I have yet to have to refresh a page to get it to load completely. But more importantly, I just used the YouTube app to watch 2 10 minute videos. Before this change, the first video would play through, but about halfway through the 2nd the video would stop and freeze. Both played through completely.

[Alt-F4]

I was having all sorts of quirky little bugs in various apps mainly the browser. Can't say my wifi was ever dropping but I can say doing a security wipe and fresh install of everything fixed 99% of my issues for what ever reason... Idk if you've tried or if it would really make much difference for a wifi issue like yours but if you have your data backed up it can't hurt

[PatrickMJS]

I know this is going to sound hokey but consider whether this may be contributing to some of your problems: I have noticed that when my PB is held upside down in landscape mode, the wifi icon always drops one or 2 bars from its signal strength, perhaps due to the location of the antenna. I speculate that if someone has a weak wifi signal, and they turn the PB upsidedown, the signal strength drop of one or 2 bars may be sufficient to cause it to drop out completely.

[kbz1960]

I know this is going to sound hokey but consider whether this may be contributing to some of your problems: I have noticed that when my PB is held upside down in landscape mode, the wifi icon always drops one or 2 bars from its signal strength, perhaps due to the location of the antenna. I speculate that if someone has a weak wifi signal, and they turn the PB upsidedown, the signal strength drop of one or 2 bars may be sufficient to cause it to drop out completely.

Oh no! not a you're holding it wrong

LOL

[PatrickMJS]

Hey I know it sounds goofy, but when I'm on the edge of a wifi signal, I find that holding it upsidedown reduces the wifi strength, and can sometimes cause it to cut out. At least that's how mine works. Found out the hard way when I was in a hotel room with a really weak wifi signal. The signal kept cutting out. But if I held it rightside up in landscape mode, I could get one or two bars, then if I flipped it 180, the wifi icon would go grey and it would cut out.

I notice that this happens whenever I have a weak wifi signal.

[louzer]

Hey I know it sounds goofy, but when I'm on the edge of a wifi signal, I find that holding it upsidedown reduces the wifi strength, and can sometimes cause it to cut out. At least that's how mine works. Found out the hard way when I was in a hotel room with a really weak wifi signal. The signal kept cutting out. But if I held it rightside up in landscape mode, I could get one or two bars, then if I flipped it 180, the wifi icon would go grey and it would cut out.

I notice that this happens whenever I have a weak wifi signal.

That's because the wifi antenna is in the upper right hand corner of the Playbook. When you hold it right side up, your hands are not covering it. But when you hold it upside down, your left hand is covering the wifi antenna.

[PatrickMJS]

Thanks. I guess that's my point... Maybe some of the folks experiencing wifi randomly dropping out are flipping their pb occasionally while they are in a weak wifi area. It's possible. Knowing this could save a lot of people a lot of time trying to figure out what's wrong. Well... when you're in a weak wifi area, try to avoid holding your pb upsidedown.

[kbz1960]

Hey I know it sounds goofy, but when I'm on the edge of a wifi signal, I find that holding it upsidedown reduces the wifi strength, and can sometimes cause it to cut out. At least that's how mine works. Found out the hard way when I was in a hotel room with a really weak wifi signal. The signal kept cutting out. But if I held it rightside up in landscape mode, I could get one or two bars, then if I flipped it 180, the wifi icon would go grey and it would cut out.

I notice that this happens whenever I have a weak wifi signal.

I agree patrick. I'm glad you brought it up. I attempted a funny on Jobs

[PatrickMJS]

Ha ha I get it! Oh no!!!

[louzer]

Spoke too soon. I completely dropped wifi and had to reboot. Oh well.

[conix67]

Spoke too soon. I completely dropped wifi and had to reboot. Oh well.

It sounds very familiar. Do you really have to reboot or just do what I do to get it back (flip Wifi off then back on)?

[scmcc16]

Ok, I had issues with my new router (Linksys E4200) until tonight when I figured it out. Go into your wifi network profile on your PB and change band from auto to 2.4GHz. I did that, and it instantly worked perfectly.

[ju79]

None of this magic solutions works for me. I will try a security wipe when I'm back from my holidays.

Network at home works fine. 802.11g, WPA2, channel 1.
Network at work fails to load pages (90% of requests dropped). 802.11g, WPA2, channel 6.

Yesterday I deleted all connections and recreated just one. Then I noticed 3 connections were still there after a few hours! So deleted them once again. And today... these 3 connections are still there!
There is in issue with storing connection definitions.

[marksch]

Diddo, nothing worked for me, but always had doubt if it was a wifi problem since i often
got the message when trying to browse the internet: 'can't resolve hostname'
My router displayed a 65 mb connection (wifi N).So i deleted the connection on router and Pb and setup a fresh one but not before changing the DNS in my router!
I'm on a 50/50 mb glassfibre with 'fixed' DNS from the provider, changed these to
208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220 : voila, i am flying, fast and rockstable, also
no browser crashes.
Hope this may help someone else.

[kill_9]

I suppose if one lives significantly north of the 49th parallel, that wi-fi can be a challenge to most home users.

Yeah our igloos tend to block WiFi signals sent out over the Arctic tundra. I fail to understand how a WiFi connectivity issue can be related to geographic location apart of proximity to the access point of course. Excuse me while my dogs and I watch the Aurora Borealis through the skylight in my cozy house of snow called an igloo.

[Palerider89]

Some small updates I got from our IT guys today!

They made a second reset and deleted all wifi networks. As suggested here they typed in the wifi network manually.

The good:
- Wifi stability, even with WPS 2 has increased; drops are significantly lower.

The bad:
- Drops get significantly higher when they manually add a second Wifi network
- Drops get significantly higher when WiFi settings change to "all networks". This seems to be a bug in the system. Somehow the PB does not save that it should only connect to "saved networks", or it changes settings on its own.
- During a "drop" they say also the router shows the PB still as connected, but somehow the PB does not send or receive any data.
- The PB managed somehow to freeze one of the cheap Dlink routers they used for testing

As a matter of principle they refuse though to test anything else but WPA2.

They will run some more tests, but they already recommended me to buy an iPad "just like everybody else..."

[kbz1960]

None of this magic solutions works for me. I will try a security wipe when I'm back from my holidays.

Network at home works fine. 802.11g, WPA2, channel 1.
Network at work fails to load pages (90% of requests dropped). 802.11g, WPA2, channel 6.

Yesterday I deleted all connections and recreated just one. Then I noticed 3 connections were still there after a few hours! So deleted them once again. And today... these 3 connections are still there!
There is in issue with storing connection definitions.

Is it picking them up from your phone?

[ju79]

Is it picking them up from your phone?

WOW! YES!
I would have never guessed it

[BB_makes_it_happen]

At our house we have several wi-fi devices competing for router access.

Signal drops occur (occasionally) on all devices - but much less often when I went into the router settings and dedicated one 'channel' to my PB.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

[conix67]

Reminder to everyone that OP's problem is not a signal drop issue (if it is the same issue I'm having at work), which would affect pretty much all devices. It is more like some logical issue with the way PB handles network connections, especially with certain security types.

Next step for me is to request static IP I can use on my PB as an experiment. It is possible that the issue is with the DNS server connection in DHCP mode. I can't help but to suspect PB is mixing things up somehow. I'll let everyone know the results.