PMID 4311 And Wi-Fi

[elektrik]

To all of those who have the PMID 4311 with networking issues:

I decided to get one for my daughter, knowing full-well about some of the wi-fi issues you all were experiencing (she wanted a cheap MP3 player that she could play games with (Ala' 'iPod' Touch)) so I went and got the Emerson branded version (same thing mostly).

I was able to get Wi-Fi working on this system with a few tricks on my router (I have AT & T U-verse in case anyone's curious). Keep in mind I did the below steps with the PMID wireless OFF and made sure that any wireless connections to my current router were 'forgotten' (because the one I had didn't work for some reason):

1. I changed the Wireless channel on the router to channel 6 (I heard somewhere that the Polaroid tabs seem to do better with channel 6).
2. I then renamed the SSID from what it was to a new name.
3. I reset the router.
4. I turned wireless access on the PMID 4311. When I saw the new SSID, I typed the correct passkey and everything was fine.

I'm not saying all of the above steps will work for everyone-for all I know, just changing to channel 6 did the trick, however this should give you all something else to try if you can.

For reference, my Router/Modem is a 2wire 3801HGV

[rvp2]

You, can also go into the router and input the mac addres. for the device. And put it on the allow side on the uverse 2wire. That, worked for me on my emerson and digix tab.

[cherylharrell1961]

I'd love to try this but I have no idea if the wifi I am connecting to is a free one floating around the neighborhood or one on my moms cable net. She has Comcast but I have no idea if my cousin and his computer friend put wifi on it or not. It connects to a Netgear wifi connection but it goes out sometimes and sometimes it says out of range. The Shoneys closest to here has the worst public wifi I have ever encountered. It doesn't work worth a hoot on my pmid 701I and is worse on this one. Go figure when they connect just fine in other places.

[matt]

I'd love to try this but I have no idea if the wifi I am connecting to is a free one floating around the neighborhood or one on my moms cable net. She has Comcast but I have no idea if my cousin and his computer friend put wifi on it or not. It connects to a Netgear wifi connection but it goes out sometimes and sometimes it says out of range. The Shoneys closest to here has the worst public wifi I have ever encountered. It doesn't work worth a hoot on my pmid 701I and is worse on this one. Go figure when they connect just fine in other places.

Hmm I think you could make a crude parabolic shape out of tin foil to amplify and direction the free signal. Walk the block to find the strongest signal and ask if your neighbors mind sharing.

Or if your mom has only a wired broadband you could find a cheap WiFi router to daisychain from your moms router using a bit of cat 5 Ethernet cable. My brother found one at target for 25$ to get WiFi from his Ethernet LAN setup in his office.

[cherylharrell1961]

Thanks so much for the info. I should see about getting a cheap wifi router and trying to figure out how to hook it to her cablenet.

[matt]

Thanks so much for the info. I should see about getting a cheap wifi router and trying to figure out how to hook it to her cablenet.

Just in case... get the model # and encryption key on your moms router, then check for available WiFi nodes in settings that match.
If you're living with her it should be the strongest signal and at the top of the list. Try to connect with that key it should be a label on the router.wep or WPA type encryption. You can also Google the make and model to see if it has WiFi built in.

If she is on the lowest tier plan the throughput may not be enough for streaming movies,but other functions should work if a bit slow.

[elektrik]

I'd love to try this but I have no idea if the wifi I am connecting to is a free one floating around the neighborhood or one on my moms cable net. She has Comcast but I have no idea if my cousin and his computer friend put wifi on it or not. It connects to a Netgear wifi connection but it goes out sometimes and sometimes it says out of range. The Shoneys closest to here has the worst public wifi I have ever encountered. It doesn't work worth a hoot on my pmid 701I and is worse on this one. Go figure when they connect just fine in other places.

Don't know how adventurous you're feeling, and I can't say definitively that I've tested it, but I posted a tweak from XDA that can be installed-I have it on my 701C ICS stock and I SWEAR the wireless performs better (based solely on my subjective opinion)....

[cherylharrell1961]

Thanks to Matt for the info. I'll have to check that out.

Can the XDA tweak be used on the pmid 701iX10 or the pmid 4311? If so I'd love to try it on those.

[elektrik]

Thanks to Matt for the info. I'll have to check that out.

Can the XDA tweak be used on the pmid 701iX10 or the pmid 4311? If so I'd love to try it on those.

Yes. Apparently it works with many ROMs. In the case of my 701C I just chose the factory ICS (which is what I had).

With that said, you're on your own if you don't have a factory ROM or pick the wrong one ;-)

[cherylharrell1961]

I think I have figured out my wifi problems on my pmid 4311 are with the wifi around here. On my pmid 701i I noticed I have trouble connecting to the wifi. It connects to the wifi better than the pmid 4311 tho. I ws next to my moms computer and router and could not connect with either tablet. So I suspect the wifi I am logging into maybe some kinda free wifi in the neighborhood. I tried out both tablets on the wifi at Shoneys and their wifi is horrible. I tried the pmid 4311 on the wifi at IHOP and it worked well. It was slower to me than my pmid 701i but I figure that maybe cuz it is a smaller tablet and maybe less power to it. So at least I know the wifi works well when you have a good connection. Maybe later on I need to see when I can get my cousins computer guru friend to fix my win xp puter to see if he can get it set up for wifi.

[matt]

Some other open WiFi can be found in government bldgs. Libraries, schools, city halls. Try McDonalds, coffee shops, book stores. If you can get access Google free WiFi for lists of nodes in your area. Its possible that your moms computer could be configured as a WiFi hot spot if it even has WiFi built in. Don't remember the xp that well. I was using dial up back then.