Amazon Silk browser Created Problems with Kindle Fire

Several complaints were posted on Amazon’s community forums by Kindle Fire users that said they experienced Internet connection problems. The users said problems included inability to connect to the Internet, in spite the fact that they are able to connect to Wi-Fi with their devices; they also experienced troubles with access to browse the Web due to speed fluctuations.

The problems were reported earlier this week and according to a thorough technical review of the problems encountered and the evaluation from the forum posts there were other probable causes that led to these issues. BetaNews hypothesized a likely breakdown between Amazon’s Silk browser and their cloud support web services plus their local ISP connection, which probably had caching problems.

It was definitely not a Wi-Fi issue because if it was, Kindle Fire would not have any successful connection. In this case the posts said they had Wi-Fi connection but not with Internet. This clearly suggests a network problem such as IP failure.

Kindle Fire basically uses cloud services to speed up its mobile Internet browsing just like what Amazon’s Silk architecture does. Amazon says it works by making on-the-fly choices whether to direct incoming or outgoing web traffic.

In instances where the web only works on the cloud and if there appear to be limited or no connectivity and in times of total failure then Kindle Fire will appear. Some users, however, complained that they find it very difficult and frustrating to get a stable connection from their home Wi-Fi network. They said they never had connection problems with other devices like the number of time-outs they get from Kindle Fire.

What is even more frustrating for some users is its unpredictability as it just comes and goes. This problem has been associated with many ISPs trying to cache content especially those that are frequently accessed by users. The analysis of some experts is that Kindle Fire’s application may not be compatible so it messes up the whole cloud architecture.

What Kindle Fire may be doing in cases of cache server failure is to continue to have the connection issues until such time that the cache finally expires. This is exactly why there are times when the connection is okay and then suddenly it fails.

A user said, “I seem to be having an issue where my Fire can connect to my router, but my internet’s speed immediately plummets down to where it can only download at 1.0 kb/s. As soon as I make my Kindle forget my network the speed jumps right back up.”

Amazon has not released any official statement yet regarding these problems. Kindle users are left to figure out what needs to be done. Some say they updated their Kindle to the latest version, 6.1 or 6.2 to fix the issues; others suggested that the physical server needs to be re-set.  The forums, however, still say that even these strategies do not work efficiently. There is even a rumor that says it could be due to a breakdown between Amazon’s cloud, Silk and the ISP.

These issues will continue to be around and in the meantime Kindle users are left to find solutions on their own until Amazon finally releases their official statement.

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