Glo I give up (wifi failure)

[oj829]

One of the best features of the Glo was the WiFi: I could download books from Dropbox over the web browser, for example. But WiFi hasn't worked in months. I've spent hours and hours and hours but I can spend no more. (Factory Reset tonight, and desktop update the night before, were my last hopes.)

Nor can I recommend this product to anyone, unfortunately.

I have 7+ various tablets in the house from Samsung to Archos to B&N to Vizio, and not one of them -- not ONE of them -- fails to connect to the same Verizon DSL router which my Glo won't speak to.

And 3.8.1. doesn't fix it. I hate sounding like one of those whiners for whom nothing is good enough, but for crying out loud, WiFi not working?? Really? I'm better off with my much-maligned Archos???

[PeterT]

Can you at least describe your configuration? Hidden SSID by any chance?

[oj829]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Can you at least describe your configuration? Hidden SSID by any chance?

Both, actually. A hidden SSID and a range extender for the living room with a different network name. This POS connects to neither.

[PeterT]

Frankly I'm not sure if i want to bother trying to help when you come in with an attitude like POS.;....

http://kobo.intelliresponse.com/answ...obo%20eReader?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by oj829

Both, actually. A hidden SSID and a range extender for the living room with a different network name. This POS connects to neither.

Out of a slightly morbid curiosity, why are you using a hidden SSID? They are close to the, if not the, most useless "security" idea ever. Check a utility called inSSIDer. Then check out Kismet and AirCrack. An article on the How To Geek discusses hidden SSIDs as a security option. Check out http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/28653...y-more-secure/.

Much like one company I did some work for that used MAC addresses as the only security message to limit access to their wireless network. A script kiddy living near their office building cloned a MAC address and had full access to their network which he promptly used to download porn torrents until their ISP complained about exceeding their bandwidth limit. What you can do with a Pringles can, a spool of wire and sheer stupidity.

Perhaps you should consider the existence of a PEBKAC issue?

Regards,
David

[oj829]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Frankly I'm not sure if i want to bother trying to help when you come in with an attitude like POS.;....

http://kobo.intelliresponse.com/answ...obo%20eReader?

I went through that whole page. Nothing it said helped. Which, you know, is fine. I have tablets/readers without SD slots, I have devices with MTP-only on the USB, now I have one without a network connection. [shrug]

I simply cannot enter my SSID and passphrase one more time. Please do not take it personally or believe I'm stamping my feet and demanding service of you. I think it's okay to call the current situation a POS.

[Mutisk]

I know mine's problem was not getting access to an internet url. If you have a firewall or something blocking it will just shut down the wifi radio as soon it register the error.

My first clue was that it's IP address was still showing in my router, after that I could narrow it down to be assigned the same IP every time. Then while having a flood ping at the address I could get a few replies. And I got much more if the main internet was severed (my router times out in some hundred seconds)

Finally I redirected all the traffic from the kobo and analyzed it with wireshark to find out what it actually was doing.

It's tricky to debug, getting a telnet console helps a lot. But for that you need at least wifi for a short while. Should you get it, you can kill nickle to stop it from disconnecting (and everything else) until a reboot.

Edit: And yeah, hidden SSIDs are bad, ugly and wrong.

I can't possibly walk you trough all the possible steps to take and hope this post can at least serve as an inspiration to continue looking for clues. The more you find the more likely that we're able to help too.

[oj829]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Perhaps you should consider the existence of a PEBKAC issue?

You know, if even one of my Vizio, Archos (2), Kobo Arc, Samsung, or BN (3) tablets had even one problem with the hidden SSID in my bedroom, or the non-hidden extender SSID in the living room, I'd spend the quality time rejiggering and troubleshooting.

When 1 - and only 1 - out of 8 devices is a problem, then, IMHO, the P is not B the K and C.

[oj829]

Originally Posted by Mutisk

My first clue was that it's IP address was still showing in my router, after that I could narrow it down to be assigned the same IP every time. Then while having a flood ping at the address I could get a few replies. And I got much more if the main internet was severed (my router times out in some hundred seconds)

Sounds vaguely like the amount of time I get, too, judging by how long I can keep pinging the Glo from the router before it disconnects.

But unlike my other wireless devices, the router reports the Glo as receiving a static IP, like my desktops, rather than one assigned by DHCP. (And it is assigned an address within the router's DHCP range.) And lease expiration or router reboot causes a DIFFERENT "Static IP" to be assigned to the Glo. So I can't really do a bunch of Port Forwarding to a defined host. The Glo's "Static IP" is not static.

It's tricky to debug, getting a telnet console helps a lot. But for that you need at least wifi for a short while. Should you get it, you can kill nickle to stop it from disconnecting (and everything else) until a reboot.

Yeah, I'm out. I buy from the Kobo website because of indie bookstore loyalty, de-DRM, and put my titles on Dropbox. I just now have to tether to a desktop Dropbox host. [shrug]

It really used to work so beautifully.

Maybe next H/W gen.

[oj829]

Originally Posted by Mutisk

Edit: And yeah, hidden SSIDs are bad, ugly and wrong.

So I hear. That's just how I feel about the Glo's networking capability.

I appreciate your time, truly, but I'm not redoing a bunch of home networking shit because of one stupid device out of 8. It's simply not in the cards.

[Mutisk]

Originally Posted by oj829

You know, if even one of my ... 8 devices is a problem, then ...

Logic fail right there. Hidden SSID might well work in 19 cases of 20.

But people here have already enlightened you that it's a false "security" that's prone to cause you problems in the future. Yet that you show no willingness to try their ideas is disappointing.

[oj829]

Originally Posted by Mutisk

Logic fail right there. Hidden SSID might well work in 19 cases of 20.

But people here have already enlightened you that it's a false "security" that's prone to cause you problems in the future. Yet that you show no willingness to try their ideas is disappointing.

Cost/benefit. It's not there.

[oj829]

I did accomplish one thing tonight. My Glo is back to v2.1.2. Boy does that feel like a long long time ago now.

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by oj829

So I hear. That's just how I feel about the Glo's networking capability.

I appreciate your time, truly, but I'm not redoing a bunch of home networking shit because of one stupid device out of 8. It's simply not in the cards.

How in earth dies changing from a hidden to non hidden ssid make you change anything but the router....

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by oj829

But unlike my other wireless devices, the router reports the Glo as receiving a static IP, like my desktops, rather than one assigned by DHCP. (And it is assigned an address within the router's DHCP range.) And lease expiration or router reboot causes a DIFFERENT "Static IP" to be assigned to the Glo. So I can't really do a bunch of Port Forwarding to a defined host. The Glo's "Static IP" is not static.

Most routers have a way to reserve an IP from the DHCP pool for a PC/device. That gives the effect of a static IP. As Kobo has no way of manually setting the IPs, this is what I have done so that I have a known IP all the time.