Thursday, September 27, 2012

Help for Kindle Owners

I suppose we should have seen it coming, but now that we have Kindles students seem to think we actually know something about them.

I had a student drop by yesterday after spending an hour with ITS and not figuring out how to connect to the campus WiFi.  We are NOT a Kindle help desk, but there's no reason why we can't point students in the right direction.  So...If a student asks for help getting their fancy new Kindle online, I'm happy to help if I'm here, or you can give them these directions, which are adapted from http://its.truman.edu/documentation/index.asp?docId=419:


Please note that when first starting the Kindle Fire, you will be presented with a list of Wi-Fi networks to choose from, however, NCC_Wireless may or may not not be listed. Please skip this step for the time being and then use the following directions to connect to the NCC_Wireless network.  (If the student has already tried to set up the network, they may need to factory reset the Kindle to get started over.)

NOTE: Currently only the Kindle Fire tablet supports secure wireless connections out of the box. Older Kindle models will need to be plugged into a computer (with a USB cable) to update their software prior to connecting.

Directions:
  • On the home screen, press the Gears icon in the top-right corner of the screen.  (For the new Kindle HDs, pull down the menu from the top of the screen and then...)
  • Press Wi-Fi.
  • Make sure Wireless Networking is turned on.
  • From the list of wireless networks, press NCC_Wireless.
  • You are presented with a number of options. Select the following:
  • For EAP method, select PEAP.
  • For Phase 2 authentication, select MSCHAPV2.
  • For CA certificate, select (unspecified).
  • For User certificate, select (unspecified).
  • For Identity, enter your NCCusername.
  • For Anonymous Identity, leave this box empty.
  • For Password, enter your password.
  • Press Connect.

If you are unable to see the Connect button, press the keyboard icon located in the lower-right corner of your screen. This will hide the keyboard so you can see the Connect button.
Kindle Fire is now connected to NCC_Wireless. When you are within range of the network your Kindle Fire will automatically reconnect.


Don't forget to let the student know that we are not experts, but that we think this will get them started--no guarantees!