Kindle Fire Having WiFi Issues?

Amazon’s Kindle Fire is arriving at many a home this week, and as expected with a launch of this magnitude, there are a few bugs yet to be squashed. Some users are reporting issues with wifi reception, and others say that the device shuts off its wireless when you turn the display off.

We’ve had some connection issues with our own unit, and many commenters on Amazon’s support forums are reporting spotty connectivity, disconnections, or an inability to connect in the first place. Some users report that the issue can be fixed by tweaking settings on the router: changing to static IPs instead of DHCP-assigned addresses worked for one, and a full restart of the router worked for another. A customer service rep has recommended the latter, while resetting the Fire as well, but this is a pretty standard remedy (turn it off and on again).

There’s currently no official word from Amazon on this matter, and it’s not clear how many devices are actually affected. It’s unfortunate that one of the Fire’s big features is that a PC is totally unnecessary, yet for many it seems the first thing they’ll have to do is side-load an update that fixes the wifi.

Another user reports that the wireless connection shuts off when you turn off the display. If you’re listening to internet radio or the like, this is obviously a big problem. I suppose it’s a comfort that there are plenty of users who have not had the chance to experience this problem, because their wifi doesn’t work in the first place.

I have no doubt Amazon will make this right, but it’s still a pain to have these troubles at launch. Readers, are you having the same problems?