Getting Your Kindle to Play Nice With an Apple Airport Extreme Wifi Network

I have had three Kindles, and none of them have been able to reliably sustain a connection to my home’s wifi network. My setup is as follows:

* Airport Extreme
* Kindle and Kindle Paperwhite

After many hours of research, I believe I have found the solution.  You need to disable wireless “n” on your 2.4 Ghz band, and make sure the Airport Extreme is running firmware 7.3.1.

1.  Open your Airport Utility (configuration software for the Airport Extreme).

2.  Downgrade your firmware. Click your Airport Extreme and note the window that pops up and what your “version” is.  Hold the keyboard’s “option” key and click that version number.  You should see a list of available firmware versions.  Click the one that says 7.6.1.  Your Airport Extreme will be busy for a minute updating itself.AirPort_Utility

3.  Now, go disable wifi “n” on your Airport Extreme.  Click the “Edit” button.  On the next screen, click the “Wireless” tab and then “Wireless Options…”AirPort_Utility-2Screenshot_8_30_13_2_08_PM

In that screen select the “Radio Mode” drop-down.  Select the option for 802.11a/n – 802.11b/g.

Screenshot_8_30_13_2_08_PM 2

Some research on Apple’s site uncovers that this will disable “n” wireless for your 2.4 Ghz band, but keep it for the 5 Ghz band.

It’s frustrating that having a Kindle makes me have to disable my fastest wifi and use old router firmware, but I’d rather be able to use the Kindle than have the faster wifi.

If anyone knows a better way, I’d appreciate a note in the comments!

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