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Kindle Fire may have connectivity issues caused by Silk browser

Kindle-fire-no-signal
The Amazon Kindle Fire has been quite a popular tablet since its release, with many lining up to buy it, quick sales, and even rapid development. Unfortunately, now that the tablet is being put through rigorous use, consumers have begun reporting a problem with WiFi that seems to be related to Amazon's Silk browser.

According to many reports, some Kindle Fires will connect to WiFi, but can't access the internet or get dismal download speeds. Because the wireless chip appears to connect properly and without problems, most think the problem is not with the device's hardware, and is instead a symptom of its integration with Amazon's cloud.

One theory is that the Amazon servers that Kindle Fire traffic is routed through are malfunction, causing the device to be unable to access the internet. A more specific idea is that the Silk browser may try to find a cached webpage that isn't there, which will cause it to appear to be disconnected from the internet. Slightly more complex is the idea that certain ISPs caching policies are conflicting with Amazon, and causing the Fire to malfunction. 

It is unclear whether this problem only presents itself when browsing with Silk or when fetching data at all, but any of Amazon's Appstore, video, or music services would likely be affected by a server error as well. Most reports say that the problem is intermittent, but others have only been able to fix the problem by resetting their router. Some say updating to the latest software works as well, but many also saw no improvement.

This bug doesn't seem too widespread yet, but hopefully Amazon figures out whats wrong and fixes it soon.

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Aaron Orquia

Aaron Orquia is an associate editor at Pocketables. He has been using Android and Linux since he bought his first computer years ago, and his interest in technology, software, and tweaking both to work just right has only grown stronger since then. His current gadgets include a OnePlus One, a Pebble smartwatch, and an Acer C720 Chromebook.

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