Kindle Help?

[I. J. Parker]

I think I can get more straight talk here than from the Amazon site. I'm having trouble getting my Kindle to do anything.  Apparently it wants a WiFi connection.  The wifi connection offered wants a password. How am I to know its password?  I'm with AOL and Verizon Fios.  Does that mean I don't have WiFi?  (Sorry.  I expect those are stupid questions, but I'd like this thing to work now that I bought it and bought two books for it.)  Thanks, guys.

[Pepper Smith]

Do you have a WiFi connection at home?  If you can hook up a computer wirelessly to your internet access, you have WiFi.  If not, you're probably picking up a neighbor's WiFi connection.

 

Home WiFi is often password protected so that people around the access point can't use it without the permission of the owner.  (This prevents people from breaking into your computer, and keeps others from using your internet connection for downloading child porn, which the police will trace back to you since it's your internet connection that was used.)  If you don't have WiFi access, you can often find free WiFi in coffee shops and other places, where you don't have to have a password, or if a password is necessary, the coffee shop will supply you with it.

[I. J. Parker]

Thanks Pepper.  I have progressed, via talking to a Verizon tech, to having my password. I have tried several ways of typing it in.  So far no success.  It may want spaces.  The whole thing is irritating, as is the unfamiliar keyboard.  Hmm.  All the digital stuff tends to be a pain.  I haven't learned how to use my camera either. 

[I. J. Parker]

Well, my Kindle won't accept the password, so I have now e-mailed Kindle.  Frankly their support system is ridiculous, and Kindle Homepages are impossible to traverse.  If you want support, they switch you to stuff you can buy.  For shame.  If they don't get on the ball, I'll return my Kindle and all the books I bought.

[I. J. Parker]

Thanks, EvilJ.  I finlly got it done.  It all hinged on just what constituted the password.  Neither Verizon nor Amazon explains that. So I had to discover first my Network (a surprise), then my password, then what part of the lettering on the back of my router is the part they wanted.  All of this could have been avoided if Kindle had arrived with precise instructions.

All I can say, this gadget better make up for this by being useful.