iPad Kindle 'Tap to Retry' unable to download books and descriptions - caused by Norton ConnectSafe

On a home broadband connection one simple way to keep the kids away from dodgy websites - pornographic or security - is to use Norton ConnectSafe. Its a free service and just requires a small change in setup on your internet router. Essentially you use their DNS server settings so if a computer tries to connect to a website with suspicious content, you get redirected to Norton's safe page.

Just had reports in the past couple of weeks of a Kindle device failing to download books and descriptions and reporting that the WiFi wasn't working properly. Then the iPad Kindle app stopped downloading books, just reporting 'Tap to Retry'.

Both worked ok on the WiFi shared off my mobile phone, so it had to be the home broadband setup that was at fault.

The fix was to update the router with the latest DNS server settings from Norton ConnectSafe. So the old settings were 198.153.192.50 and 198.153.194.50.

The latest DNS servers that Norton recommend to use are:
     199.85.126.20
     199.85.127.20

As soon as this was updated and the Kindle/iPad network connections renewed (or device rebooted) then they started downloading again. Success!

Just to note there are additional DNS server changes, depending upon what level of filtering you require ...
     199.85.126.10  (was 198.153.192.40)
     199.85.127.10  (was 198.153.194.40)
     199.85.126.30  (was 198.153.192.60)
     199.85.127.30  (was 198.153.194.60)

More details and instructions can be found on the Norton ConnectSafe Configure Router page.

Lenovo Z370 laptop Atheros AR9285 wireless not connecting to networks

Strange problem with two identical Lenovo Z370's (well one pink, one black). The pink one always connects, the black one sometimes fails to connect - it just reports a generic connection failed error. Tried reinstalling drivers, deleting wireless settings, removing anti-virus/security.

It also fails on other wireless networks, so its not down to the router. Both laptops had dentical drivers - the AR9285 v9.1.0.314 dated 12 Aug 2010 (Windows 7 64 bit) which is the latest that Lenovo list for that model. I also tried imaging the laptop from pink to black - but same problem, which started me thinking it was a hardware fault.

However before I went down that route I spotted an updated HP driver for the AR9285, which seemed to go as high as 9.2.0.444 for the EliteBook 6930p. Having a good search around the Lenovo site uncovered a 9.2.0.115 dated 24 Nov 2010 for a Lenovo G470 (also available for the IdeaPad Z570)
http://consumersupport.lenovo.com/uk/en/DriversDownloads/drivers_show_4134.html
I had to run the installer twice (first time uninstalls) and then the laptop connected immediately.

Wireless connects reliably now.

Samsung P10 laptop won't connect to WPA wireless security with SEW-2001M adapter

The standard Samsung driver on the P10 laptop using Windows XP didn't have an option to specify a WPA password to connect to a wireless access point, it was WEP only. It would see the network name but when you connected it didn't even prompt for a password, just went off for a think and came back saying the connection had reset and it was refreshing the network name list.

If you looked in the advanced properties and manually tried to create a wireless profile it only had Open, Shared and WEP as security options.

I uncovered a Samsung driver that updated from the original 7.42 to 7.6 but that was still way back when in 2002 and still no WPA support. There didn't seem to be anything newer and the only support download Samsung offered was a picture editor (way to go Samsung!). I did spot a mention linking the SEW-2001M to an Agere chipset so I followed that line of thought and Googled this site

latest Agere driver for Samsung SEW-2001M

ignore the most recent v8.22 driver - doesn't work with the Samsung - but jump straight to downloading the 7.82 driver. That one works and includes WPA encryption support :-)

To install, extract all the files from the downloaded ZIP file and put them somewhere handy like the desktop or make a C:\DRIVERS directory. Then go into Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager. Expand the network adapters and right-click on the Samsung wireless adapter, choose Update driver and point it to the earlier desktop/directory where you extracted the files to.

Love it when a plan comes together :-)