BlackBerry® PlayBook™

[Tkavil]

I have tried the most basic settings all the way down to WPA-Personal encryption with a common 1-word password and it only works for seconds before I begin to have problems. 

[Lost_at_Sea]

I notice that some of you get your signal from Rogers, some from Fido (owned by Rogers). Your ISP provider knows what equipment you are using and can tell if you are using the PB through your cell phone. Do you think they are throttling your service? Rogers was fined recently for throttling service to other ISP providers who get their signal from Rogers. Also I see someone is getting their signal from AT&T. We all know what they think about operating your PB through your cell phone without buying a data plan? Check with your friends and compare notes on the various ISP providers.

[notam]

Lost_at_Sea,

Those are interesting issues re throttling service.  Actually, I do not have a cellphone data plan - just voice and text from Fido.  (I have corrected my mistake of listing Fido as my ISP when in fact it is Cogeco.)  I suspect the WiFi signal is weaker at peak use times, but have no evidence for this.  An app that monitors WiFi signal strength would be useful, as those little green/white shock waves don't provide a quantitative indication.

My Sony Ericson cellphone is WiFi enabled; I have it on and connected.  The signal strength bars on the cellphone are showing a weak signal strength, as is the "shock wave" indicator on the PB.

[Tkavil]

I am pretty sure that Rogers publicly announced that they were halting all throttling practices on their network by March 2012, I am pretty confident that they were true to their statement as my torrents have seemed to skyrocket in speed.

[notam]

OK, on the subject of WiFi signal strength, you never know what you can learn by snooping around.  Do as follows:

Connect to your WiFi signal.

Tap the gear in the upper right screen corner.

Tap Wi-Fi.

Tap the signal strength icon with the question mark on the lower left of the screen.

Tap Device Information.

Tap Wi-Fi Information

see "Signal Level"

In my case, on Saturday at 8:00 am, the signal strength is -46 dBn

Perhaps by checking this regularly, I can find out if the signal strength really does vary by day and/or time of day. 

[Lost_at_Sea]

ISP's know a lot about you, your equipment, your habits. They can slow down traffic to a specific tower, they can slow down traffic to a specific site, they can slow down traffic to a specific device. They can run your service like a yoyo. They can slow you down at specific times of the day. They don't however throttle your bill at the end of the month.
If your equipment runs fine but suddenly your PB goes ape for no reason at all, it is time for you to start keeping a written record of your service, such as time of day, day of week, device being used. From what I have read on this an other forums, there is cause to be concerned about why your PB suddenly and for no reason crapped out.
The CRTC (Canadian Radio Television Commission) has found evidence of throttling Internet Service by Internet Service Providers. It is also happening south of the border. If we sit on our hands and not do something about it, we will lose an excellent device that seems to scare the hell out of the ISP's, Phone Companies etc.
We will have to get Apps that graph our Internet speed, that would be a good start.
Personally, I haven't had any problems with my PB, but it pains me to see that some people are really being jerked around and it would be great to find out why.