TP Link router won't download Kindle books (or work with certain apps)

Redgie

Redgie

Redgie

Associate
Joined
18 Nov 2008
Posts
2,430
Location
Liverpool
Update: See post 7

Strange one this... my girlfriends family have a TP Link TL-WR1043ND V1 router, brought in to replace the god-awful BT hub they were given (they're on BT Infinity) when they signed up a couple years ago. From time to time the odd app hasn't worked, most notably Pokemon Go back when it was still popular (however I've just checked and it works fine now oddly enough).

Currently though, they can't download Kindle e-books. Doesn't matter if you do it on a Kindle or through the Amazon Kindle Android app, it will just sit there not downloading and will eventually say that it failed to download. If you disconnect from the WiFi and use data or a hotspot, or another WiFi, no problem.

Things I've tried:
- Using multiple devices (none will download the book)
- Different books (no books work)
- Different router firmware (upgraded to the latest, but no change)
- Resetting the router (no change)
- Disabling WiFi security (no change)
- Connecting via cable (not an option unfortunately, short of running an Android emulator on a PC)
- Using a different router (again not an option without buying a new one)
- Set to Google's DNS server (no change)

Theories:
- Could the router's lack of support for IPv6 have anything to do with it?
- I have nothing else, saying "theories" was optimistic


Any help would be greatly appreciated. In all my years in IT this isn't one I've come up against!
 
Last edited:
PPPoE advanced settings has an MTU option, according to the manual. Drop it to 1460 and see if the performance improves.
 
Caged said:
PPPoE advanced settings has an MTU option, according to the manual. Drop it to 1460 and see if the performance improves.
Click to expand...

You're absolutely right, there was an Advanced button hiding the option. Changed to 1460 but no change, rebooted the router to make sure (it said I didn't need to) and hey presto, it works! Reverted and rebooted, broke again, 1460 once more, reboot and it works, so definitely the MTU that fixed it.

I did some testing to find the ideal MTU, but only had a Mac to hand and the tutorials for doing it via Mac aren't so great. I may do it on Windows, or may simply leave it at 1460.

Any chance of an explanation as to how you arrived at 1460, and the reasons for it only affecting limited apps?

Thanks again :)
 
Have you tried setting a manual DNS on the router to see if that helps as well? 8.8.8.8 is Google's one and does the job.

And may seem very unlikely, have you checked to see if parental controls are off?
 
Orcvader said:
Have you tried setting a manual DNS on the router to see if that helps as well? 8.8.8.8 is Google's one and does the job.

And may seem very unlikely, have you checked to see if parental controls are off?
Click to expand...

Yep tried that, forgot to add it to the OP but have now, thanks for reminding me :)

See previous post however, MTU appears to have fixed it (though I'm still looking to understand why :D )
 
Redgie said:
Yep tried that, forgot to add it to the OP but have now, thanks for reminding me :)

See previous post however, MTU appears to have fixed it (though I'm still looking to understand why :D )
Click to expand...

Just thrown the problem into Google and it seems people have had the same issue with Kindles. Someone changed it to 1480 which also worked.
 
Whoops, completely missed that bit.

MTU is basically the size of the packet, the bigger the MTU the more efficient data transmission is. But not all routers can handle the MTU size and can cause issues. A more detailed description is here: http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/definition/maximum-transmission-unit

1460 was probably picked because it's not that far off from the usual default 1500. Although I can't see why it stops your Kindle downloads yet everything else works...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom