# K3 wifi and OS X internet sharing



## obijohn (Dec 26, 2010)

I can't seem to connect my K3 WiFi to my Macbook Pro via Internet Sharing. First, let me say that I've been sharing my AirPort connection on my MacBook (Snow Leopard 10.6.5) for over a year with all kinds of devices, using it as my primary wifi hotspot. I have no problems connecting to the wifi network with my Android phone, two different Blackberrys ("-ies" ?), a PSP, a Wii, two Windows laptops, and even a Mac G4. In other words, my OS X Internet Sharing is definitely set up correctly.

Before anyone thinks it's an "ad-hoc network" issue, Internet Sharing on OS X does *not* create an ad-hoc network, it's a true hotspot. Plus, I do not get the "ad-hoc not supported" warning on the Kindle, it just fails to connect.

I've tried changing the encryption from WEP 40-bit to 128-bit and even tried no encryption at all (which I don't want to do) but neither setting allows the K3 to connect, so it doesn't appear to be encryption-related.

Anyone have any suggestions?

EDIT: Forgot to mention that I have connected the Kindle wifi at another hotspot, so the wifi on the Kindle itself is working.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

obijohn said:


> it's a true hotspot.


Why do you say it's not an ad-hoc network? Sounds like one to me.

Mike


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## obijohn (Dec 26, 2010)

jmiked said:


> Why do you say it's not an ad-hoc network? Sounds like one to me.
> 
> Mike


Well, first of all, as I stated the Kindle does not tell me that this is an unsupported "ad-hoc" network, which it does when I try to connect it to my Droid hotspot. It just doesn't connect successfully.

Second, in OS X, there are different methods of creating a connection to share. One is a "computer-to-computer" or "ad-hoc" connection: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/8339.html

The other is by creating a bridge with Internet Sharing, which is seen by other devices as a regular wifi hotspot/router:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=mac/10.6/en/8156.html


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## corkyb (Apr 25, 2009)

jmiked said:


> Why do you say it's not an ad-hoc network? Sounds like one to me.
> 
> Mike





obijohn said:


> I can't seem to connect my K3 WiFi to my Macbook Pro via Internet Sharing. First, let me say that I've been sharing my AirPort connection on my MacBook (Snow Leopard 10.6.5) for over a year with all kinds of devices, using it as my primary wifi hotspot. I have no problems connecting to the wifi network with my Android phone, two different Blackberrys ("-ies" ?), a PSP, a Wii, two Windows laptops, and even a Mac G4. In other words, my OS X Internet Sharing is definitely set up correctly.
> 
> Before anyone thinks it's an "ad-hoc network" issue, Internet Sharing on OS X does *not* create an ad-hoc network, it's a true hotspot. Plus, I do not get the "ad-hoc not supported" warning on the Kindle, it just fails to connect.
> 
> ...


I remember some people having problems connecting the ipad, I think, to their wireless router and they had to change security to WPA, if memory serves. I have a Macbook Pro and airport and my security is WPA2 and I had absolutely no problem setting up my iphone nor my Kindle 3. I have no clue what these things mean and just hope that my network is secure.
Paula


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## obijohn (Dec 26, 2010)

corkyb said:


> I remember some people having problems connecting the ipad, I think, to their wireless router and they had to change security to WPA, if memory serves. I have a Macbook Pro and airport and my security is WPA2 and I had absolutely no problem setting up my iphone nor my Kindle 3. I have no clue what these things mean and just hope that my network is secure.
> Paula


This is not the problem either. I doubt you are talking about Internet Sharing under OS X anyway, since OS X only supports creating an Internet Sharing connection using WEP (yes, this is stupid, and yes, people have been begging for Apple to support WPA/2 for Internet Sharing for a couple of years now). I've successfully connected the K3 to a WEP router, so the security setting isn't the problem. As I stated earlier, the *only* device I have that cannot connect to it is the K3.

It seems other people are having this problem too:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/tag/kindle/forum?cdThread=TxCF9Y9D12ZND3

Still no solution.


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## ElkAintMoose (Jan 6, 2011)

I'm not sure if this solution will work for everyone or not, but here's what I tried today that worked. I had an iPod Touch that could use Internet Sharing with my MacBook, so I checked the settings the iPod was using, and here's what I found (and entered into my Kindle manually):

IP 10.0.2.2 (I assigned my Kindle 10.0.2.3)
Subnet 255.255.255.0
Router 10.0.2.1
DNS 10.0.2.1

The Kindle connects to my "MacBookNet" shared internet connection just fine, apparently. I can connect to other "normal" wi-fi networks, and then reconnect to "MacBookNet" with no problems, as well.

Hope that might be helpful!


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## obijohn (Dec 26, 2010)

Wow, that sure seems to be the trick! Since I have several devices connecting to my MacBook, I assigned the IP of 10.0.2.252 fairly far up the chain to avoid getting a duplicate.

OK, here's what I think is happening. It turns out that there is something going on with the OS X Internet Sharing DHCP server that apparently has never been fixed. If you do a search for "os x" + "internet sharing" + "self-assigned ip" you will see thousands of threads of people reporting something going on with the DHCP server when Internet Sharing is enabled (although many don't realize it's a DHCP issue when complaining about it). The "self-assigned ip" message is what an Apple device will report when it connects to one of these shared devices with a broken DHCP server. This happens when someone is sharing their connection with one Apple computer and trying to connect to it from another Apple computer, and the first shared computer's DHCP server has failed. Other devices just won't connect, or will report "limited connectivity" or something similar, or sometimes they will connect but can't seem to fetch anything from the internet, but since all Apple computers report this "self-assigned ip" message when this happens, it's the best way to search for the issue.

Some people say that rebooting fixes it -- some people say it doesn't. Some people say that deleting your internet plist settings fixes it -- some people say it doesn't. Some people say that setting the shared device to have a manual IP will fix it -- some people say it doesn't. I've been using it for over a year almost every day, and I can verify that nothing seems to fix it reliably, and just trying any of the above fixes will get it working again -- until it decides to stop. It may work for a month, then stop. It may work for a day, then stop. It is just random as hell, and maybe that's why Apple hasn't fixed it.

So, anyway, I feel confident that the blame here goes to Apple for never fixing this Internet Sharing DHCP issue that's been reported constantly for over 6 years now. Apologies to my Kindle for thinking it was your fault.


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## jamesbell4 (Sep 21, 2011)

If the above doesn't work, there is an internet connection sharing Plist setting you can try


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