# Whispernet download time.



## mwvickers (Jan 26, 2009)

I normally cannot use Whispernet, as I cannot pick it up at my house.  The few times I have tried, however, (at my in-laws', etc.) it has actually taken about five minutes or so for a book I order to download to the Kindle.  It takes about the same amount of time to switch a book over to my Kindle that is on my father's (we share an account).

Does anyone else's Whispernet sometimes take this long?


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## Mikuto (Oct 30, 2008)

Though it depends, Whispernet generally downloads a book within a minute or so for me. I've emailed things to my kindle and had them arrive no more than two minutes later as well.

However I live in the San Francisco Bay Area which is saturated with cell phone towers. I always have five bars, and it's possible that this makes a difference in speed.


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## Guest (Jan 28, 2009)

Ours usually takes about 1-2 minutes.

But I live in the same city as the Alltel HQ.


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## Mom2AshEmBella (Dec 8, 2008)

I have found that it is highly variable for me. I Live in the middle of a major metropolitan area, tons of towers everywhere, I almost always have 5 bars etc. Sometimes I can download in about 30 seconds, sometimes a couple of minutes. Sometimes Whispernet is down and I just download it to my laptop. I have found that in nonpeak times, it is much faster.


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## Sofie (Dec 30, 2008)

My download time is sometimes 5 minutes or longer. We have Verizon and At&T where I'm located. I have to drive 30 miles for an area saturated with Sprint. Five minutes is still better than driving 30 minutes to the bookstore.


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## mwvickers (Jan 26, 2009)

Bluebell,

As long as I'm not the only one.  LOL


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## Sofie (Dec 30, 2008)

I live smack dab in the middle between St. Louis, MO and Springfield, IL. It's an hour drive both ways to get to Barnes & Noble (my personal favorite) or Borders, if I want a choice. Luckily there is a Borders about 30 miles away in Edwardsville, IL. and the nearest Sprint coverage.


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## Sioux (Nov 26, 2008)

I live in Portland Oregon and I frequently see the download notice at the bottom coming in as soon as the "thank you for purchasing or ordering a sample" screen comes up, so it's literally a few seconds some times.  I didn't realize how lucky I am, I guess, although I have occasionally found that emailed documents can take a long time, occasionally over an hour although usually only a few minutes.


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## Vegas_Asian (Nov 2, 2008)

Takes about a minute for me...but I live in a big city


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## Cowgirl (Nov 1, 2008)

In the Phoenix area mine downloads in about 30 seconds.


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## Sofie (Dec 30, 2008)

> Takes about a minute for me...but I live in a big city





> In the Phoenix area mine downloads in about 30 seconds.


Ya, ya, rub it in! . If someone were to look through my windows, they would see me holding my Kindle by open windows, the doorway, etc. I walk around the house and when I get full bars, I stop and try to download. Sometimes my Kindle is propped up in the window if I'm waiting for a download to get better reception. The things we do for books.
Seriously though, I love the Whispernet feature no matter how long it takes to download.


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## sebat (Nov 16, 2008)

Bluebell said:


> Ya, ya, rub it in! . If someone were to look through my windows, they would see me holding my Kindle by open windows, the doorway, etc. I walk around the house and when I get full bars, I stop and try to download. Sometimes my Kindle is propped up in the window if I'm waiting for a download to get better reception. The things we do for books.
> Seriously though, I love the Whispernet feature no matter how long it takes to download.


A tinfoil hat might help your reception.


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## Vegas_Asian (Nov 2, 2008)

Bluebell said:


> Ya, ya, rub it in! . If someone were to look through my windows, they would see me holding my Kindle by open windows, the doorway, etc. I walk around the house and when I get full bars, I stop and try to download. Sometimes my Kindle is propped up in the window if I'm waiting for a download to get better reception. The things we do for books.
> Seriously though, I love the Whispernet feature no matter how long it takes to download.


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## Sofie (Dec 30, 2008)

Hmmmm. A tinfoil hat? I did just buy an extra roll of Reynolds Wrap. I better get working on my hat!


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## Vegas_Asian (Nov 2, 2008)

You may need one of these in your front yard:








or one of these depending where you live


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## Cowgirl (Nov 1, 2008)

Yep...I have one of those palm tree cell towers about 5 miles from my house!!


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## Vegas_Asian (Nov 2, 2008)

There is a pine tree one near my house and a palm tree tower near my old school. they don't blend in the desert


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## stevene9 (Nov 9, 2008)

You want great whispernet reception, here's what you do. First you erect a 100 foot tower. Then you install a 20 foot dish antenna and, here's the important part, you put a NASA grade signal booster on the antenna. It is similar to the ones used by NASA to communicate with the Mars probes. You will probably have to dramatically upgrade your electrical grid to fully power the thing. But once its all done you will get 5 bars on the Kindle reception scale.  

Steve


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## thejackylking #884 (Dec 3, 2008)

Bluebell said:


> I live smack dab in the middle between St. Louis, MO and Springfield, IL. It's an hour drive both ways to get to Barnes & Noble (my personal favorite) or Borders, if I want a choice. Luckily there is a Borders about 30 miles away in Edwardsville, IL. and the nearest Sprint coverage.


Where do you live bluebell I grew up in close to that same area. Greene county as a matter of fact.


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## mwvickers (Jan 26, 2009)

I gave up on trying to use Whispernet.  My house is in a small valley-like area, is surrounded by trees, and has a metal roof.  If I try to turn on Whispernet, my Kindle laughs at me.  LOL


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## sebat (Nov 16, 2008)

Vegas_Asian said:


> You may need one of these in your front yard:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


LOL...Guess I need to look up more often. I have yet to see one of these.


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## Sofie (Dec 30, 2008)

> Where do you live bluebell I grew up in close to that same area. Greene county as a matter of fact.


Jackylking,

I live in Macoupin County.

Bluebell


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## MonaSW (Nov 16, 2008)

Vegas_Asian said:


> You may need one of these in your front yard:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


We have both of those around here. A palm in Hayward and the other one along the freeway (can't remember the city). Talk about odd when you first notice them.


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## Anju  (Nov 8, 2008)

I don't have whispernet so don't use it but it takes less than 5 minutes to download a book to the computer and then I can move it at my convenience - like when I am not on KB


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## MamaProfCrash (Dec 16, 2008)

My whispernet will come on, have five bars, and it still takes about 5 minutes for my books to download. On top of that, it takes a fully charged battery to 1/4 charge. I am on the verge of calling customer support because this strikes me as wrong.


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## mwvickers (Jan 26, 2009)

ProfCrash said:


> My whispernet will come on, have five bars, and it still takes about 5 minutes for my books to download. On top of that, it takes a fully charged battery to 1/4 charge. I am on the verge of calling customer support because this strikes me as wrong.


Mine takes about five minutes or so, but it doesn't drain the battery. I would call about that.


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## Mikuto (Oct 30, 2008)

ProfCrash said:


> My whispernet will come on, have five bars, and it still takes about 5 minutes for my books to download. On top of that, it takes a fully charged battery to 1/4 charge. I am on the verge of calling customer support because this strikes me as wrong.


It takes Whispernet about a minute to go from 0 bars to 5 bars for me, and it always seems to take a chunk of battery life with it. I'm not surprised though, wireless connections tend to be very taxing. I had to send my Wii back after it died from WiiConnect24 being left on.


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## marianneg (Nov 4, 2008)

ProfCrash said:


> My whispernet will come on, have five bars, and it still takes about 5 minutes for my books to download. On top of that, it takes a fully charged battery to 1/4 charge. I am on the verge of calling customer support because this strikes me as wrong.


Do you have 1x or the "good" connection?


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## MamaProfCrash (Dec 16, 2008)

I have a full five bars and it looks like a good connection. I tried lsat night right after I charged Tavar and had mixed results. It update to the new firm ware. Then whispernet stopped working. For about an hour I was getting a message that whispernet would not connect. Then it starte working again and I was able to download a book in about 30 seconds. 

Weird. I am going to keep an eye on it.


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## Wisteria Clematis (Oct 29, 2008)

My husband and I both have kindles. Mine gets four bars and downloads a book in 2 or 3 minutes, his kindle can be sitting right next to mine and only get one bar. He has to roam all over the house, stand by a window, etc. but once he gets more bars the books download pretty quickly. He travels a lot however and does not have any problem getting bars when he's gone. It seems like every kindle might have its own individual quirks.


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## marianneg (Nov 4, 2008)

ProfCrash said:


> I have a full five bars and it looks like a good connection.


Right, but you can have 5 bars at 1x and still have slow downloads. Next time look to the left of the bars. There's a vertical line, and at the top is either a symbol that looks kind of like this ((.)), or something like (1x). The 1x is the "less-good" signal.


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## MamaProfCrash (Dec 16, 2008)

I have the ((.)) . I have never seen the (1x). I would know what that meant because there are times I get that on my cell phone.


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## crebel (Jan 15, 2009)

Content removed due to TOS Change of 2018.


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## marianneg (Nov 4, 2008)

ProfCrash said:


> I have the ((.)) . I have never seen the (1x). I would know what that meant because there are times I get that on my cell phone.


Well,


Spoiler



poop


, there goes my theory!


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## MamaProfCrash (Dec 16, 2008)

It was a good theory. I am going to keep an eye on it and see if it is just behaving differently when I am in different parts of the house. The battery did not drop at all yesterday when I turned whispernet on. I did that right after I finished charging. Perhaps the battery drain was a case of it had been 3 or so days and so the battery was going to drop from full to 3/4 and whispernet caused it to drop further.

I have seven more months on my warranty, I can afford to monitor the situation a bit. 

Thanks for the thoughts, theories, and suggestions.


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