# Kindle 3 issue with WPA2



## Braumin

I'm the proud owner of a Kindle 3 as of 2pm today! (The 27th of August if you can believe that!  Launch day and I am not even in the USA - Go Amazon)

I'm having one issue though, and hoping others can share their experiences as they come in.  I have a WPA2 protected wi-fi network, with a 62 ASCII character random password.  I have a couple of laptops, a wireless printer, a Zune and a Zune HD which all use this network just fine.

The Kindle will just not connect with such a strong password.  I did some testing, and with my password the maximum I can use is the first 17 characters.  Anything over that and it will not connect.  If I generate a different password, the maximums are different.

Also, just to warn people getting the password on the Kindle is a huge PITA.  It has no option for copy/paste or connection to a PC to configure it, so you have to type it by hand.  It also blocks all characters except the current one from view, so you can never double check your password before you submit (so it looks like this: ΘΘΘΘa) and if you typo, you just have to start all over again.

I retyped my password about 20 times so pretty sure that was not the problem.  It was very consistent that 18 characters would not work, but 17 would.

I'm a network admin for a large organization so it's not like I don't know how to configure my router or something.

Anyone else have a secure wi-fi password which does not work?  I know the K3 just came out, but hopefully someone else has some feedback.


----------



## Pushka

I have a 10 number wep key on our router; I have managed to connect multiple devices but as I havent yet received the k3, I cant check if I will have any issues either.  Good luck and hope some others can help you out soon.


----------



## CaroleC

Braumin, sorry to hear of your trouble getting your password in.

I connected to my WPA-2 protected wi-fi network a few minutes ago. My password is considerably shorter than your 62 character password. Mine connected on the first try, and took me about 2 seconds (seriously).

If the Kindle won't accept 62 characters, then I don't really know what you can do about your password other than shorten it (and it sounds like you want the protection of a longer password or you would have made it shorter to begin with).


----------



## Jeff

My K3 connected right away with a 10 character key.


----------



## Pushka

Thanks Jeff!


----------



## Grimlock

I had no trouble connecting with a 63-character ASCII WPA2 key.


----------



## Sandpiper

Ooooooh.  I ordered a K3 WiFi-3G.  (Should have it Monday or Tuesday.)  I am so not techie.  I know I have short enough password to my network.  Network is DHCP?  I hope I don't have any problems.  Will I?  

ETA:  I may or may not have a problem with my WiFi.  After reading more of this thread, so happy I ordered K3 with 3G.  It will be here Monday.  It's here in Chicagoland now.


----------



## me930

I too am having the same issue.

I use a 64 character ASCII key for my wireless password.  Despite many painful attempts to enter this password on two separate Kindles (my own and my wife's), I have not been able to successfully connect to the network. 

I am reluctant to reduce the password strength for security reasons, and for the fact that I would then need to change the preferences on all my other wireless devices (as well as those used by family friends when they visit).

Is there any setting that we're missing, or is the Kindle just unable to use strong passwords?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!


----------



## VictoriaP

This is why I can't muster enthusiasm over the wifi capabilities.  I spent six hours triaging my father in law's network over the weekend--too many people have no idea at all how to work on their networks even before something like this comes along.  We're going to get post after post like this, or with people who find they can't connect to the hotspot at their local coffee shop, etc.  3G, at least on the Kindle, just works!

To the OP-- who doesn't fit at all into the category of those who don't understand wifi security!   --unless there's something in the Kindle manual that specifically states password length, this is probably a situation where it's time to contact Kindle support.  If there's an actual limit, they need to document that for everyone.  If there's no limit, then you may have a defective device.  The fact that the maximum length changed with different character strings is kind of intriguing...


----------



## lindnet

Mine would not connect at first.  I retyped the password several times to make sure I had it right.  I went into the Setup a Network (or something like that), looked through all the options, didn't change anything, and when I went back out of that, it connected.  

I seem to have a vague recollection of someone else saying it kept telling them it couldn't connect and then all of a sudden, it was connected.  Does it maybe take a really long time??  I don't know, but I didn't change anything, didn't enter the password again after it had told me it couldn't connect, and it just connected.


----------



## Cindy416

I hope you can get your issue resolved soon. I have a WPA-2 protected wi-fi network, and connected to it very quickly using my 10 character password. Good luck.


----------



## Pushka

VictoriaP said:


> To the OP-- who doesn't fit at all into the category of those who don't understand wifi security!


Um, I understand wifi security fully and just installed it from scratch at my work this week. The valid concern is whether the kindle understands it.


----------



## geko29

I have a WPA-2 Personal network (Sonicwall TZ-180) protected by a 25-character passphrase containing lower and uppercase letters, numbers, punctuation, and special characters.  My K3 connected on the second try--I'm pretty sure I typoed the first time.

Also was able to connect to the 12-character passphrase (lower and upper, numbers, special characters) WPA2 network at work (Cisco Aironet 1130) on the very first try.


----------



## VictoriaP

Pushka said:


> Um, I understand wifi security fully and just installed it from scratch at my work this week. The valid concern is whether the kindle understands it.


LOL! Yes, that's why I suggested it's time to call Amazon--it could well be either a limitation, or an actual hardware issue in the OP's case. But plenty of people are going to have problems that are either user error or network compatibility, and while you or I or the OP may be able to solve such things on our own, a *lot* of those people won't know how to fix things like that on their own. As I said, I spent six hours on my in laws' issue this weekend--how much would that have cost if they'd had to call their by-the-hour technical support for their router?

Many people will be fine. Many won't. The latter will not be happy. As I said, this is why I'm not enthused about the wifi option--I tend to be called on as free tech support. Doesn't mean it's a good or bad feature, I just can't get excited about it! 

I wonder how many routers they tested for compatibility? Looks like the new Kindles are not wireless-n compatible, so people better have backwards compatibility enabled on their routers. And that's just one of a hundred or more configuration issues that could potentially impact use. Glad I'm not in Kindle support right now!


----------



## Kindlechick

I ordered the 3g for that very reason.  How frustrating.  I don't have my K3 yet, but I have the same problem with my iPhone.  My husband and son have the iPod Touch and connected with our loooong password with no problem.  My iPhone 3 will not allow the long code.  I just use 3g with my K2.  I can't be bothered with all those awful wifi issues.  I have low frustration tolerance.


----------



## akpak

I can connect mine with a WPA2 password, but ours is much shorter than yours.

You could do what I do when I have to connect my DSi: Disable the security completely for a few minutes so the DSi can join the network (it hates almost ANY kind of security, WTF Nintendo?), connect to Nintendo and disconnect. Then I re-enable the wireless security, which on my router saves its settings from before.

If you really can't just go with a shorter password, this might be an option, since if you're like me, you don't really need the Kindle to be online ALL the time.


----------



## Seamonkey

This sounds so much like my experience. I hadn't had to connect a new device for months but knew the network name and password. The Kindle detected my network and several others nearby, but wouldn't take the password. Then it wouldn't detect, so I'd restart and then it would see the network.

Spent time with three different techs from Time Warner HS wireless since they set up the cable and the network. After time and talk we verified that yes, indeed I knew the name of the network and the password. (10 character)

And then, after the call, where they did nothing and I did nothing except look stuff up.

I was able to connect. And today when I turned on wireless, it connected with no problem and no entery of password.

My network is DHCP WEP 64 bit security encryption.



lindnet said:


> Mine would not connect at first. I retyped the password several times to make sure I had it right. I went into the Setup a Network (or something like that), looked through all the options, didn't change anything, and when I went back out of that, it connected.
> 
> I seem to have a vague recollection of someone else saying it kept telling them it couldn't connect and then all of a sudden, it was connected. Does it maybe take a really long time?? I don't know, but I didn't change anything, didn't enter the password again after it had told me it couldn't connect, and it just connected.


----------



## Seamonkey

The tech at Time Warner told me it took a year to get the right coding to work with iphones but they can do it now.

And that later versions of windows have been poison to work with too.

But after the initial balking, so far it is working fine with the K3.

Now, the 3G from my home.. the AT&T definitely isn't getting the signal strength/bars nearly as strong as my other kindles (DXUS, K2US and K1) got with sprintnet.


----------



## CAR

I used a 40 character WPA2 password, no problems at all. Connected up right away. I thought 40 was hard to type in and keep track of, as it scrolled pass the end of the screen. Could not imagine typing in 63 characters.  

Chuck


----------



## BruceS

If you have a very long password and have troubles, another solution may be the one I use one my PC's that I want protected.

Leave your primary network with the long key and connect a separate router to it on a different subnet with a shorter key.

You should then be able to connect to the second router with no problems.

I haven't received my K3 yet, but I use this solution for the PC's on which I keep financial records. They can still access the internet with no problems, but they cannot access any of the devices on the other subnet.


----------



## Braumin

Not sure why they felt the need to blank out the previously inputed characters while you are typing them in.  I can see after the fact so your key is not exposed to the world, but it sure makes it hard to double check while entering.

I'll play around with this some more this weekend when I get some time.  I had to hard reset my Kindle (locked up) so perhaps that had something to do with it.

62 characters might seem like a lot, but this is the first device I could not just copy and paste it in from a text file, so previous to this it was not much of a burden.  The issue with changing my key is that I have to redo all my other wireless devices.

I'm glad to hear that Grimlock was able to connect with a 63 character key.  That gives me some hope.  If I can't get this sorted I will call support.


----------



## KeRaSh

Well it is's not just the K3 that blanks out the previous characters. Touchscreen smartphones also do this. It's pretty common.
My K3 connected to my WPA2 secured network on my 3rd attempt. I'm pretty sure I had no typos on my first two attempts to enter the 16 characters key.


----------



## Braumin

I've re-typed my password about 30 times.  Every time it won't connect.  I set it right on top of my router too in case it was signal strength.

Pretty sure it has buggy wi-fi software.  I see some other reports of people not able to connect as well on these boards.

I'll have to call support but I have a wedding to go to today so maybe tomorrow.


----------



## CAR

Well I went back and counted the the number of digits on my WPA2 password and it was 63 characters long after all  

My Wifi connection to the FIOS Actiontec router has been rock solid, as matter of fact even when I reboot the Kindle it comes back on as connected to Wifi.

Couple suggestions that might help would be to reboot the router and Kindle. Also what can get you very easy with keys is the number "0" vs the letter "O".

Good Luck hope you get it fixed soon.  

Chuck


----------



## KimberlyinMN

I had a problem with our 63-character passcode. I tried and tried and tried.  My fix was to copy and paste the code into Word and change the font type to Cambria. My problem was that the lowercase "L" and the number one looked identical.  The Cambria font makes a good distinction between the two.  Once I figured out the correct code, I only had to enter it once.


----------



## CoolMom1960

Sorry to hear you all are having issues.  Soemtimes the certain firewalls can be an issue.  When we used Norton I would have to turn the firewall off to add the printer.  God Forbid I had to restore. 

We have AT&T UVERSE my kindle found our network and everyone with in a 3 block radius of my house it was still finding networks when I selected our network.  Typed in the passphrase and bang worked like a charm.


----------



## Patricia

I can't connect to my wi-fi    But I can sometimes connect to a neighbor's  

Guess I'll call customer service tomorrow.  I've tried everything.  I've already ordered a wi-fi 3-G just in case.  I should have gone with that to begin with.


----------



## Braumin

Believe it or not, through some pretty huge trial and error I have figured out what the issue is. Hopefully someone else can test this to see if it is just me or not.

My passphrase has a quote in it " ASCII code 034

If I replace that special character with something else, it connects.

I did this test - can someone please try it and let me know how they make out?

First, I made my WPA2 password *aaaaaaaa* on my router
I then connect my kindle using this password and it works.

I then change the password to *aaaaaaa"* on my router
I rescan the kindle, enter the new password, and it will not connect. This happens 100% of the time for me. Can someone let me know if they have the same issue? If it is just me, I will get a new kindle. If it is not, I'll call support and let them know what I found.


----------



## NiLuJe

Yay for not escaping quotes....


----------



## mrainey

I received a Kindle Latest Generation yesterday and twice tried typing in my 59-character WPA2 password (what a chore).  No connection, two strikes, I was almost out.

I tried the previously mentioned trick of pasting the password into Word and selecting a font type (Consolas, for me) and font size that made it hard to mistake the characters.  I type them in again, VERY carefully.

Home run.  It works.


----------



## Patricia

I found out what my problem was.  I'm a wi-fi rookie.  This morning I tried disabling the network lock on my software.  I immediately had a message notifying me of a new device on my network.  I enabled the lock again and the kindle is working fine, so far.  I don't remember doing this for my laptop, but whatever works.  I love the wi-fi!


----------



## Lisa M.

Still unable to connect to our WIFI. I have successfully connected other devices to our WIFI so I know what I'm doing, but still nothing. Thank goodness I got the WIFI/3G, I almost just got the WIFI.


I'll try again tomorrow.


----------



## Pushka

Mine was sorted very quickly so I think those with issues should contact CS.


----------



## NiLuJe

No issues either here with a 16 ASCII chars WPA2 key.


----------



## holmes4

I also have a long WPA2 password - over 20 characters.  The problem I had is that the Kindle would refresh the list of available connections before I finished typing it all in!  Also, I apparently had trouble with the tiny keys and mistyped it more than once.  But I persevered and eventually succeeded.


----------



## BOOKERT

I spent about 45 minutes last night with tech support answering questions regarding my K3 3G/Wi-Fi problems.  They said the report will be forwarded to the development team for review and possible remedies.

Description  

I have a Linksys WRT54GS wireless router set to G band, DHCP server, WPA2-AES security w/58 character passphrase (numbers & lowercase letters), Non Broadcasting SSID on a Comcast Motorola Surfboard cable modem.  

Rock solid--no problems with network.  I just turn on the SSID broadcast in the router configuration the first time I connect a new device, such as a laptop, and select  my network from the list of detected networks and enter the passphrase.  I use copy and paste the 58 digit passphrase so I don't have to manually type each time I add a new device.  The laptops then connect, and I go back to the router configuration and turn off the SSID broadcast.  The laptops then connect automatically when the operating system boots up.  I use Win XP and WIN 7.

Kindle 3G/Wi-Fi Configuration

With the K3, I turned on the Linksys router SSID, then turned on the Kindle Wi-Fi and the network was detected after 2 scans.  I used advance settings, typed network name, DHCP (default), WPA2 security, 58 character passphrase (numbers & lower case letters) and hit connect.  The K3 switched over from the 3G network to my Wi-Fi network and everything works fine.

Problem 

When I turn off the Linksys router SSID Broadcast, the K3 will not detect my Wi-Fi network and therefore defaults to 3G wireless.  When I rescan for  Wi-Fi wireless networks, my network is still not detected and the K3 stays in 3G mode.  

If I turn the SSID Broadcast back on and have the K3 rescan for Wi-Fi networks, then it automatically connects to my Wi-Fi network without any problems.

Solution

For my situation, I do not want to turn on my router SSID Broadcast or shorten the security passphrase.  Therefore, I will use the K3 in 3G mode until Amazon comes up with a firmware fix.  If I had the K3 Wi-Fi only model, I would not have this option.

With an open Wi-Fi hotspot such as at Starbucks or similar, I expect the K3 to connect with no problems.

If your K3 is not connecting to your wireless network after you have entered your password, then take a look at your Wireless Router configuration and take note of the following:


Turn on the wireless mode on the K3. 
Now, go to the wireless scan page on the K3 and select "enter other Wi-Fi network".  
On next screen select "advanced".  Then enter Network Name from router notes above.  
Connection Type: DHCP is highlighted by default-(very common on home networks).  
Security type--as copied above.  
Password/Passphrase--EXACTLY as was shown in router configuration page.  
Then select Connect. 

Look at top right corner of K3 screen next to battery indicator and the Wi-Fi symbol should show and you are connected.  
Try to be in the general vicinity of the router when connecting, as the K3 signal sensitivity may not be as strong as your wireless laptop or other device.  From now on the K3 should remember your Network Name and Password when you turn on the wireless and automatically connect to your network.

Hope this helps!


----------



## Tom Diego

I'm still amazed that people think that they have to have some super multi-digit alpha/numeric/symbol password on their home wi-fi network.  It's a waste of time!  Same thing for hidden SSIDs and MAC address filtering.  It's just not worth the trouble!

Newsflash:  no one is interested in your home wi-fi network!  You could have a password of "password" and no one will probably ever bother to guess what it is.

Pick something simple.  A previous street address has numbers, upper and lower case alpha characters and symbols, the space and the period.  Something like "123 Main St."  It's 12 characters, easy to remember, not hard to type, and no one has any idea how uncomplicated it is!  You people are just torturing yourselves!

My neighbor has used his home phone number for years (without the dashes even) and no one has ever broken into his Wi-Fi network.


----------



## Pushka

Tom Diego said:


> I'm still amazed that people think that they have to have some super multi-digit alpha/numeric/symbol password on their home wi-fi network. It's a waste of time! Same thing for hidden SSIDs and MAC address filtering. It's just not worth the trouble!
> 
> Newsflash: no one is interested in your home wi-fi network! You could have a password of "password" and no one will probably ever bother to guess what it is.
> 
> My neighbor has used his home phone number for years (without the dashes even) and no one has ever broken into his Wi-Fi network.


I guess if people work from home their work might require a higher level of security. Had to laugh at your 'password' password. My 23 year old son left our work password (for his email account) at password. It did get hacked, our server was hacked into through this gateway, and the first we knew of it, Amazon of all places, was sending us an email saying we had been hacked and they would take action if we did not bring our server down in 24 hours as our domain name had been used for phishing scams - you know, click on this link to verify account settings! . Then we got all these emails from people who had been 'spammed' by us calling us crooks. Amazon could see that we were a legitimate business but that the hackers had been at work.

I agree about home networks, someone would have to sit in our driveway to access it.


----------



## Tom Diego

Pushka said:


> I guess if people work from home their work might require a higher level of security.


If that's the case, their company should use VPN.


----------



## Ann in Arlington

I would suggest you tell your kindle to 'forget' your network. . .and then try again. . . .this time, don't have it look; just tell it the SSID -- there's an option to set up, which I think you've found -- and see if that doesn't sort you out.  Honestly, I did this for our network and I was connected faster than it took me to type this just now.


----------



## KimberlyinMN

Tom Diego said:


> Newsflash: no one is interested in your home wi-fi network! You could have a password of "password" and no one will probably ever bother to guess what it is.


You'd be surprised at how often home networks are hacked. In addition to identity theft, we are also trying to protect all of our computers.


----------



## Jeff

For anyone worried about hackers: Cisco has an application called Network Magic that monitors all network devices and warns of any unauthorized attempt to connect. It also has a method of tracking intruders - although I've never needed it.


----------



## Tom Diego

KimberlyinMN said:


> You'd be surprised at how often home networks are hacked. In addition to identity theft, we are also trying to protect all of our computers.


I'm sure you would be surprised how little it actually happens, but I'd like to see the statistics to which you are referring. Of course we're trying to protect our computers, but everything I mentioned is false security as most of it is not necessary. My entire career was spent in IT. I'm retired but still do consulting. At one point I was trained as a network specialist, I spent years doing networks and Wi-Fi networks among many other IT functions. I've never seen a home network broached if even _simple_ precautions are taken. Most people don't know squat about networking so they believe every scare story they hear. It's mostly unfounded.


----------



## tomatogirl

Ann in Arlington said:


> I would suggest you tell your kindle to 'forget' your network. . .and then try again. . . .this time, don't have it look; just tell it the SSID -- there's an option to set up, which I think you've found -- and see if that doesn't sort you out. Honestly, I did this for our network and I was connected faster than it took me to type this just now.


Agreed. Our router (linksys, don't remember the model) is set to not broadcast the SSID, I just input the name and password and was connected on my first try. At least in my case, my K3 has had no problems immediately picking up the network every time.

Not that I need to justify my choices, but I don't broadcast the SSID for a good reason: My condo is in a large complex, and one of the few that faces a road that's near a major highway exit. There are always people sitting in their cars parked outside with laptops looking for and using WiFi. I'd rather not let them know I'm here.

Also: Tom Diego, what you're saying might well be true. But what's wrong with using the security tools we have at hand? It's not hard to do.


----------



## asicign

I never could get my Kindle to accept my 10 digit WPA password.  I ended up switching encryption to WEP with the same password, and that worked fine.


----------



## Braumin

WEP is a broken encryption system - don't use it.

To Tom Diego:
I'm not sure why you seem upset enough to comment about long passwords. This is our choice to protect our network. It may not happen often, but considering the trivial amount of work required, I am happy to use a long random password. I set up devices with copy and paste (other than the Kindle which you have to type by hand) and it literally takes seconds.

Coming up with the password is even easier. Just visit https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm and then copy and paste the password into your router. If you don't trust Steve Gibson of GRC.com, simply go to the site a couple times and merge some of the passwords together.

I appreciate that you used to be in IT, but I am also in IT and in my opinion, security is important. Not sure where you worked, but we take it seriously.

It is a trivial matter to lock down wi-fi with WPA2 and a long password. The only current way to hack WPA2 is a brute force attack. You may think that any old password is fine, but a dictionary attack can be done very quickly. Why not take the extra 5 minutes of set up time to make that brute force attack impossible? My personal information is important to me.


----------



## Braumin

No one has seemed to respond to my question from before - does anyone have a WPA2 password with a quote in it? ( " )
If so, and it works, I will ask for a replacement Kindle since that character will not work for me.

Thanks!


----------



## KimberlyinMN

I think Tom's on vacation in Hawaii.


----------



## littlejoe

As someone else guessed, I believe it is the quote character " that causes the problem.

Here is what my 63-character key WAS:
"/pOW~>Ma:}QsXJ-8oo=_>N(mnk+ls&<>A~]8!q+1Y=$+1fZcor<LY"1`t&p^B`

Note that there's a couple of embedded quote characters in there. I typed this thing MULTIPLE times being extremely careful, and the Kindle3 kept barfing at me. THEN the freakin' thing froze up. Had to do a hard reset, then update the software, and then after about 10 minutes it booted up. Then back to the pain.

I have - I don't know - a dozen (?) devices on our wireless network. Laptops, netbook, MAC, desktop, BlackBerry, Android phones, wireless printer ....ALL of these have been fine with the above password. But the good folks at Amazon screwed up on the Kindle3.

I tried setting the password to just 11 characters, but I did still have a double quote in there. Didn't work. Now with no double-quotes in the password, it works. I still use uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, special characters ...it just seems to be unable to handle the double-quotes.

If it weren't that this is my WIFE's Kindle, I probably would have smashed it.


----------



## Braumin

I got this to work.  Not sure what the deal is, but I had to manually set up the connection.  If I broadcasted my SSID, and then entered the password, it would not connect.

Still that doesn't explain why the " did not work when my password was aaaaaaa"

I am on the latest software update now, but I got this working a couple days before that.  Manually entering my SSID, and choosing WPA2, seemed to work.

Glad to hear someone else was having issues with " since I was beginning to think I was crazy.


----------



## Tiersten

It is because the WiFi key is stored quoted so if you've got a quote in there as part of the password, it messes up.

Something like:

WiFiKey = "abcabcabc"

If you've got a " in then you end up something like:

WiFiKey = "abcabc"abc"

Where it now thinks the key is actually abcabc instead of abcabc"abc

I assume that Amazon will fix this in a future revision of the firmware as it isn't a difficult fix to do.


----------



## yenome

I discovered just now that numbers in your wireless network password must be entered via the SYM menu rather than Alt + (top row characters), if that helps anybody. The only error message I was getting was "Kindle failed to connect to network," so I just tried some different things and hit upon that.


----------



## Floyd M.

I just got a new Kindle keyboard unit and I cannot get it to connect. my WPA2 password is only 12 characters long, and the router works fine with my Roku and my wife's laptop, but I have tried over and over, and spent nearly 2 hours on the line with Kindle and the router mfr support people, who keep sending me back and forth between them, but no luck.

Has anyone else had this kind of problem?

I am going to send the damn thing back! maybe I will just get the $79 model and try that.


----------



## Morf

Take a look at our FAQ on wifi here:

http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,73465.msg1183665.html#msg1183665

If that doesn't help, post back (I suggest you start a new thread rather than resurrecting an old one) and tell us exactly what steps you are taking and exactly where it goes wrong.

I doubt that you'll have any more success with the basic Kindle that with the Keyboard.


----------

