Here's an intriguing tip for the new year.
While at the Amazon forums, I saw a tip from a customer whose Whispernet on his new Kindle (Global wireless had suddenly stopped working. Because he is not in the U.S. he couldn't easily call Amazon support w/o charges to his phone. (U.S. residents would call Kindle Customer Support at 866-321-8851 for a quick response and no time charges.)
Kindle customer support wrote him to advise him that he should use Amazon's Call Me Now feature, which is available, though, only in the U.S., Canada, Guam, Puerto Rico, and Virgin Islands. International callers would need to call 1-206-266-2992
Customer Support asked him to go through some steps with them and it worked to get his Whispernet wireless working again. Here are the steps he reported but first you'd need to turn ON the Wireless and also go to Settings page by pressing the Menu button and then 'Settings' ...
' On the Settings page I had to press 311 - this opened up an application that searched for al the wireless providers in the area.I have a Kindle 2 U.S. (not global) and the '311' doesn't work in my case.
I chose one that I knew had good signal in the area and that was that... '
It could ALSO, possibly, be that '311' doesn't work unless you are on the phone with Customer Service, who might enable the application he decribes.
But any of you who have the global (or International) Kindle can try it out to see if it works on its own.
SIDE NOTE
At the settings page, inputting '411' will get you device info, such as whether the Kindle is registered, the Kindle Serial Number, the Radio Serial Number, Roaming Version Number, and other info we normally don't care about -- but the Kindle Serial Number is handy because the one on the back of the Kindle is so small it can be quite hard to read when you need it.
Inputting '611' there will get you modem and cellular network info
When you're done with any of these pages, press the 'BACK' button to get back to where you were and press that button again if you want to go another 'jump' back.
Also, be sure to turn your Wireless Off at that point (unless you're using it).
I have an international Kindle - and live in Canada - I tried it - and got 3 networks - one was checked - a 3G network identified by some numbers - also present was Rogers 2G network and a 3rd 3G network. I just left it as is.
ReplyDeleteScott,
ReplyDeleteThanks for that quick feedback! Good to know. Very nice too.
For anyone else looking for more details on this i posted this on Mobile Read forums.
ReplyDeleteOf interest, I think this was caused by moving my country in the online profile back and forth between Australia and USA and not a simple Whispernet issue.
;-) The things we do for more books!
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthreadphp?p=710432#post710432
thatsthat,
ReplyDeleteYour link is not leading to any article though. Did they remove it?
I think you might have posted something similar to the longtime thread at Amazon forums at http://bit.ly/kroutsusa ?
Thanks so much for this. I have a Kindle 2 International and am in Germany. I too had the problem that at one point my wireless suddenly refused to connect. This worked like a charm! I'm also happy to have the shortcuts to the device information.
ReplyDeleteDiane,
ReplyDeleteThis is very good to know. And thanks for the feedback.
I will probably add a permanent link to this blog entry in the right-hand column's Guides, Tips, and Tutorial box then to make it easier to find.
Thanks again!
The 311 trick will only work on the Kindle 2 world edition. This is due to the way roaming works with the GSM family of standards (HSPA, 2G GSM).
ReplyDeleteThose numbers you see are the network carrier codes. Scott, being in Canada all your codes start with 302- as that's the code for canada. A list of them are here:
http://www.cnac.ca/other_codes/imsi/imsi_codes.htm
The three you probably saw were 720 (rogers), 880 (Bell/Telus shared, which they jointly built their 3G network together to catch up to rogers), and possibly 490 if you were in a region where WIND is building a wireless network. If you were in Saskatchewan, it may have been 780 (SaskTel).
In Canada, the kindle will only work with Rogers' network, since it's the only company that currently has a roaming agreement with AT&T. This may change, as telus/bell's 3G network is huge in comparison.
Christopher,
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the good information.
Yes, I suspected it worked on only the AT&T global model, which is why I asked Kindle Global/Int'l owners to check to see if it just worked off the bat for them. What you describe is interesting.
I don't actually know Scott but I linked readers to his message thread and experience as related on an Amazon forum -- I can go there and post your informative note or you can click on the link and write him on the forum yourself, and others will likely have questions for you.
Thanks again, very much.
Thank you very much for posting the comment of using 311 in the settings menu to search for wirless networks. I was ready to throw my Kindle out the window out of frustration, but I was able to choose another wireless network and now my connection is even quicker than before.
ReplyDeleteKind regards
Gavin McIntosh
South-Africa
(Viva World Cup 2010)
Gavin,
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on that World Cup!
Glad that switching capability for '311' on the International Kindles was helpful for you.
Note: Blogger relaesed Gavin's note dated here as June 7 (the day I responded to it) though the date on it is December 2009.
ReplyDeletethank you so muuuuch!!! finaly I can conect to another network provider I´m From Chile in south america and suddenly my Kindle 2 stops conecting to wirless, now I use the 311 setting and can switch the network provider, thank you sooooo muuch!!
ReplyDeleteKind Regards
Joaquín Avaria
Joaquin,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback that this easy fix solved the problem! I think I'll repost this, as most people don't know about it and it's been almost a year...
Yay! Thanks so much for this, you've helped me Kindle work again! I'd pre ordered a book that was released yesterday and have had to wait until now before I could sync and get it on the device. So stoked!
ReplyDeleteSheBee,
ReplyDeleteThat is GREAT news! Thanks for letting us know.
I have an international Kindle in Australia and it turns out my battery was just too flat (but still working) to run the 3G wireless. Charged it a bit and wireless restored! If Wifi is on, 3G cannot be, so make sure it's off.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous in Australia,
DeleteI guess you're not using a WiFi network then, so that you'd definitely want it off. If it can't find one, it would drain very quickly after trying and trying.
Thanks for the tip!
i have 2nd generation kindle comes with 3G network capablity. the whisper net recently stopped working. i have tried everythign; re start, update sw etc. the date looks funny it shows 1970 GMT. I am in U.S where there is free coverage and the people at amazon couldn't figure out either.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, when your device can't reach the Internet, it then has no way of knowing the time, so the next time you close a book or it logs a last-page-read, it takes some ancient date&time instead of the current one.
DeleteMaybe you just need to restart your Kindle. Press the power button or lever, and hold it for 20+ seconds. Then let it go and go away for awhile (5 minutes+). It'll redo your memory configuration the way a computer does when rebooting.
MAYbe then your Kindle's Whispernet will start working again.
If that doesn't work -- you'd need to get help from Kindle Support but your Kindle2 is almost surely out of warranty period if it does need replacement.
To call Kindle Support, call 1-866-321-8851 if the 'restart' or 'reboot' doesn't work for you.
Works on the kindle dx too :-)
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, I wish I could find that big DX Kindle reader too ! Thanks for the feedback.
Delete