Troubleshooting Kindle wifi restricted to browsing the Amazon store ?

[tovare]

Not sure if this is pure coincidence yet, but I tried to surf a few web-pages over wifi and then registering, but now a couple of hours later I can only reach the amazon store.

I keept getting: "web browser is unable to display this web page", but now it just hangs.

Is the traffic forced through an amazon proxy or DNS, which is overloaded by millions trying out their brand new kindle ? ... or something more sinister ?


(My wifi connection which I'm using now to write this, is hopping along nicely at 17 MBit)

I am able to browse other sites, including MR, on my K3 in WiFi. Might try resetting your K3 to see if that fixes the problem. You did get it registered, correct?

[tovare]

Originally Posted by jswinden

I am able to browse other sites, including MR, on my K3 in WiFi. Might try resetting your K3 to see if that fixes the problem. You did get it registered, correct?

Thanks, my bad. Resetting it made everything work fine again long enough to get a partial rendering of the bbc homepage, then back to inoperability. I guess it's just the 'experimental' part which is hitting me.

Yes, the kindle has been registered.

[ylsul]

I've noticed that the webkit browser can be cranky. I had multiple reboots of my kindle on the first day before I realized that doing a reboot from the menu would fix things. Hope a bugfix will make the browser more stable.

I'm sure there are many pages that are too much for the K3 to handle. I suspect anything with Flash or a lot of advertisements (meaning images) will slow it down. There is a setting to toggle between basic (text only?) and experimental browsers. Good luck.

[tovare]

A full reboot from the menu got things moving again, but now I managed to crash the kindle for the first time...haha.

I guess for a stable kindle-experience it's best to pretend the browser isn't there :-)

[TinyApps.Org]

I have the same issue.

Shared it with Amazon via email and phone - hopefully they'll have an update soon.

Update: After another reboot, the browser seems to be working normally (though some pages cause it to reboot).

[sirmaru]

I can get to all the web sites with my Kindle 3 but the sites are just too big for a proper display on the 6" screen.

I tried a mobile version of wikipedia, wapedia, but could not type words into their fields.

Thus, it is useless for me for most sites.

I can use it for the Amazon store and wikepedia. In wikepedia I must zoom in and then go to article mode. That is the most I can do with the experimental browser.

[Solicitous]

How are people going with downloading mobi files from websites? I'm finding through Calibre content server it works fine, but if I use Calibre2opds or put the ebooks in a directory listing on the webserver the browser on the Kindle appears to try and open the file (hence a page full of garbage) rather than prompt me to download it.

Is there a little trick needed in the html page for the Kindle to recognise the file as one to be downloaded?

[vermontcathy]

Originally Posted by Solicitous

How are people going with downloading mobi files from websites? I'm finding through Calibre content server it works fine, but if I use Calibre2opds or put the ebooks in a directory listing on the webserver the browser on the Kindle appears to try and open the file (hence a page full of garbage) rather than prompt me to download it.

Is there a little trick needed in the html page for the Kindle to recognise the file as one to be downloaded?

I've got mobi and prc files uploaded to my google docs, and once I found the right mobile version of the site to use, it downloads them fine.

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by Solicitous

How are people going with downloading mobi files from websites? I'm finding through Calibre content server it works fine, but if I use Calibre2opds or put the ebooks in a directory listing on the webserver the browser on the Kindle appears to try and open the file (hence a page full of garbage) rather than prompt me to download it.

Is there a little trick needed in the html page for the Kindle to recognise the file as one to be downloaded?

The web server you use has to send the correct mime types for the files.

[susan_cassidy]

You could try adding type="application/octet-stream" to the href tags.

Edited to add: Kovid is probably right, you might need a special mime type in the server config. On mine, I just added the application/octet-stream, and at least the browser prompted me as to whether I wanted to save it, but depending on your server, etc. ymmv.

[SteveEisenberg]

We need a list of web sites well suited to the Kindle 3.

The one I go to most is:

mobile.nytimes.com

A few months from now, when the New York Times is planning to change its business model, this will probably go away or deteriorate, but for now it is good. And not just the home page, but also the full article links.

I read in one review that gmail.com was a problem, but plain text emails are working for me, both reading and sending.

On some other web sites, I am using my PC to pick up what I want to read with Instapaper. That works great except that the many notices coming from Amazon are annoying. Yes, for the 50th time, I know that Amazon won't send me stuff to me for free until I am in WiFi range. Does anyone yet know how to suppress notices?


Article Mode isn't as good as expected, although works with Wikipedia.

I didn't expect great web browsing without a monthly fee, and the device meets expectations.

[Solicitous]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

The web server you use has to send the correct mime types for the files.

You are a legend, fixed the problem straight away. Now I can use the Kindle to download files direct from my webserver. I didn't even think about mime types (ex sys admin losing his skillset quicker than first thought).

Thank you!!