1. indy84's Avatar
    OK folks -

    Use WEP security- using other security causes issues period.

    I do not use WEP I use WPA and it does disconnect randomly

    Heres Why and its applicable to most likely any security but less affected on WEP -

    The BlueTooth and Bridge do not work well together especially when you have your BB wifi on as well.

    Leave the Bluetooth off - avoid using bridge when your surfing and all and have your cell right next to you hence not needing the mail connection.

    I tested this. WIFI working fine surfing. Turned BT bridged and bam wifi fail on PB.

    Turn off BT Turn off Wifi wait 5 secs - turn wifi back on and manually unless it does it quicker than you - manually click your network granted its saved just click it within the options/tools menu.

    Hopfully they will fix this in the next update.
    05-05-11 04:01 PM
  2. lindajm22's Avatar
    Everything you mentioned is contrary to my experience. I use WPA2 at home and I have never been kicked off my home network (or any wifi actually). I have connected to other WPA secured networks and never been disconnected. I have my playbook bridged with my BB all the time. In fact I never unbridge it, even at home. It's just always connected. And I am surfing on it all the time. I have yet to be disconnected under these circumstances. Not sure what the issue is that folks are having but it's not WPA, at least for me.
    05-05-11 04:15 PM
  3. Blacklac's Avatar
    I have not had a single issue using WPA2 on my home network either.

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
    05-05-11 04:30 PM
  4. kirson's Avatar
    Nope - that doesnt fix it for me. Still connect and disconnect every few seconds on my work WPA connection. Holds the signal like a champ at home on an open network.

    Perhaps it has to do with the band? At home, 802.11n while the office doesnt have n. Could that be it?
    Last edited by kirson; 05-05-11 at 04:48 PM.
    05-05-11 04:32 PM
  5. Zizzzzy's Avatar
    I have a lot of dropped WIFI at work, but our WIFI is terrible and has issues with just about everything we connect to it. At home, never had an issue once. Its a good thing my $100 router is more reliable than our multi million corp wifi!
    05-05-11 04:39 PM
  6. indy84's Avatar
    I didnt say wpa or wpa2 are the cause. WEP agrees better with the current tablet.

    security plays a factor i am unsure what type of firewall, network security you all have but as mentioned when you run on the open network its working

    you can reference several dozen posts about bridge and wifi issues .

    again im putting out solutions that r working. may not for all.

    are you guys using dynamic or static ip's that is also a factor. dynamic is what i have.
    05-05-11 06:42 PM
  7. PatrickMJS's Avatar
    my D-Link "N" wifi router works fine with my amazing PB. No issues at all. Even the "PBC" (push button configuration) worked on the first try.
    05-05-11 07:27 PM
  8. PatrickMJS's Avatar
    my router has DHCP enabled by default. Never heard of anyone using static IP addresses on a basic home wifi setup.
    05-05-11 07:29 PM
  9. kirson's Avatar
    Can anyone confirm whether they are having wifi problems with an 802.11n router? I am still trying to get to the root cause of the wireless issues. I have a very small sample size to work with...personally, I have no problems on the 802.11n router, and lots of problems on my office 802.11a/b/g router. First principle of problem solving - anyone having issues on 802.11n?
    05-06-11 07:29 PM
  10. shirokuro's Avatar
    Kirson, not sure but I may be having the same issue as you. I'm on a Cisco/Linksys E4200 router with WPA2. My Playbook loses it's internet connection randomly any time between a few seconds, to a VERY few minutes. Actually it's more accurate to say it doesnt seem to lose its connection - wifi still shows fine, and it still has IP and whatnot - it simply stops talking to the router. When I browse, the progress bar gets to about 1/4 away along the title bar and sits there. Forever.

    I can temporarily resolve it by toggling wifi off and back on. Then, it'll reoccur after either a few seconds or a few minutes.

    I've tried wiping, resetting several times - no joy.

    A poster on the blackberry.com support forums recommended turning on wifi sharing, but this, also, didnt help.

    Note that, for me, this is a new issue with 1868 OS load. This did NOT happen for me with 1710 load.

    Any help and suggestions appreciated! unfortunately, my PB is a useless lump of plastic to me until I can resolve this :-(

    PS I had posted a new thread about my issue, and subsequently came across this thread. I guess my search for threads before posting wasnt very thorough :-( Apologies.
    05-07-11 12:53 AM
  11. kill_9's Avatar
    WPA and WPA2 function flawlessly on the BlackBerry PlayBook including when Bluetooth and bridging are enabled. As for using WEP you may as well not bother because that encryption can be broken in a few minutes leaving your wireless traffic open to sniffing.

    My BlackBerry PlayBook and BlackBerry Bold 9700 have Bluetooth and bridging enabled 24/7, and WiFi is enabled when I am from my home office, without any connectivity issues. However, I will concede the WiFi on the BlackBerry Bold 9700 is not enabled therefore I cannot comment whether it might be a contributing factor in the case of the OP.
    05-07-11 02:24 AM
  12. lindajm22's Avatar
    Kirson, not sure but I may be having the same issue as you. I'm on a Cisco/Linksys E4200 router with WPA2. My Playbook loses it's internet connection randomly any time between a few seconds, to a VERY few minutes. Actually it's more accurate to say it doesnt seem to lose its connection - wifi still shows fine, and it still has IP and whatnot - it simply stops talking to the router. When I browse, the progress bar gets to about 1/4 away along the title bar and sits there. Forever.

    I can temporarily resolve it by toggling wifi off and back on. Then, it'll reoccur after either a few seconds or a few minutes.

    I've tried wiping, resetting several times - no joy.

    A poster on the blackberry.com support forums recommended turning on wifi sharing, but this, also, didnt help.

    Note that, for me, this is a new issue with 1868 OS load. This did NOT happen for me with 1710 load.

    Any help and suggestions appreciated! unfortunately, my PB is a useless lump of plastic to me until I can resolve this :-(

    PS I had posted a new thread about my issue, and subsequently came across this thread. I guess my search for threads before posting wasnt very thorough :-( Apologies.
    I have the same router using the same encryption with no problems at all. I don't have any suggestions, just wanted to let you know it's not the router itself.
    05-07-11 06:21 AM
  13. PatrickMJS's Avatar
    I have my PB connected via "N" wifi using WPA for security. It has been working rock solid since I got it on the 19th. BTW, I saw no change in connectivity when I upgraded from 1710 to 1868.
    05-07-11 10:00 AM
  14. shirokuro's Avatar
    Thanks to all for your replies. I'm glad (and sad) that I'm not the only one with this issue. Anyway, here's an update on some investigating I did today:


    So I tested today on a different router (actually a Clearwire 4G dongle shared over a Cradlepoint router) and I had no problems with that. I went back to my normal home router and started investigating it. I noticed I had set a very narrow range (14 IPs - ie a 16 range subnet) for DHCP allocation. I had done this on purpose - just to make things a tiny bit more annoying for anyone who might hack in to my network. Anyway, I noticed that all my DHCP IPs were assigned. I guess I have more devices than I thought. The Playbook WAS assigned an IP, and I checked, and it was the IP it indeed had. However, just in case anything was getting screwed up somewhere with IP address congestion/conflict or something kooky, I changed the Playbook setting to a static IP. Famous last words, but so far it is now working fine.......
    05-07-11 11:56 PM
  15. anon(3770111)'s Avatar
    Nope - that doesnt fix it for me. Still connect and disconnect every few seconds on my work WPA connection. Holds the signal like a champ at home on an open network.

    Perhaps it has to do with the band? At home, 802.11n while the office doesnt have n. Could that be it?
    I had similar problems with my Playbook. I have a Netgear WNR1000 router and the Playbook would not connect to the network using WPA2 when the router was using 802.11n, but would connect using the lower security standards. When I set the router to using 802.11g, I was able to connect the Playbook using WPA2.
    05-16-11 11:37 AM
  16. Venlaw's Avatar
    Router running DDWRT, 802.11n, WPA2 AES, never get booted.

    Hotspot iPhone 4 drops sometimes.
    05-16-11 12:41 PM
  17. ILuvGadgets's Avatar
    All of this is really new to me and I'm really trying to get to know my PB in and out.

    I want to connect to my job's network, but they are so BIG on security that I'm afraid someone will come and get me......like.....really come and GET ME if I do!

    I hate it that I can't get an internet connection at all times, or get to App World when I want to, so I'm wondering how most of you do it. There aren't any current plans for these PBs, so I just wanna know how I can get connected at all times. Home isn't a problem because I can use my own secure network there, but what about in my car, or most other places?
    05-16-11 01:03 PM
  18. kill_9's Avatar
    I do not use WEP I use WPA and it does disconnect randomly

    Heres Why and its applicable to most likely any security but less affected on WEP - The BlueTooth and Bridge do not work well together especially when you have your BB wifi on as well.

    Leave the Bluetooth off - avoid using bridge when your surfing and all and have your cell right next to you hence not needing the mail connection.
    Strange. I keep Bluetooth and bridge-mode active 24/7 between my BlackBerry Bold 9700 (OS v5.0) and BlackBerry PlayBook (OS v1.0.3) with WiFi and WPA enabled when I am at home and have never experienced any such issues. I can read incoming email via bridge-mode while surfing the Internet via full browser and be simultaneously streaming audio through Slacker Radio or even watching a television programme in the full browser. No connectivity problems at all.
    05-16-11 01:09 PM
  19. kill_9's Avatar
    I hate it that I can't get an internet connection at all times, or get to App World when I want to, so I'm wondering how most of you do it. There aren't any current plans for these PBs, so I just wanna know how I can get connected at all times. Home isn't a problem because I can use my own secure network there, but what about in my car, or most other places?
    I use bridge-mode with Bluetooth though arguably it does not provide the "full web experience." However, with Slacker Radio installed on my BlackBerry Bold 9700 I can still listen to streaming audio plus with the 7digital store downloads I have an offline music collection, plus browsing is acceptable for many websites (if I really need it) though email connectivity is much more important.
    05-16-11 01:13 PM
  20. dosto's Avatar
    Sorry so late to this thread, but I am having similar issues with my PB dropping wifi connection every few minutes.

    Any updates on this issue? Is this fixed for everyone but me?

    It seems to happen no matter what wifi network I am using. Laptops and 9700 not losing wifi connection.

    Not sure what to do.

    Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
    06-30-11 04:15 PM
  21. theprocess's Avatar
    Have you tried using WEP as suggested? If you have a D-link router there are reported issues (do a search).
    06-30-11 04:37 PM
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