How successful are you in connecting into Wifi from your Model S

[wayner]

I am getting weird results when I try to connect into the WAP's in my house with my Model S while it is parked in my garage.

First off, when it is scanning it finds a lot of SSIDs, more than I have ever seen in my house. I live in a low density neighbourhood with a 100' wide lot and I normally only see my own WAPs/routers plus the nearest neighbor. But my MS sees networks that my laptops, iPhones and iPads do not.

But it doesn't seem very successful in connecting to these networks - even to networks that show more than 1 bar. At times it will make the initial connection but then it will drop the connection after a while. Or it will say that it is connected to wifi but it doesn't seem to be able to pull any data. And one of my WAPs, which is in the bedroom right above the garage, will never consummate a connection with the MS, although my iPhone and iPad have no problem making a connection from inside the car.

Anyone else have similar results? Any suggested solutions other than putting a WAP in the garage?

Any downside to this situation, especially the "phantom" connection where it says it is connected to wifi but isn't able to pull any data? I guess this may affect my ability to see the charge level and remotely turn on climate, etc.

Maybe Tesla should have put an Ethernet connection on the HPWC:tongue:

 

[wayner]

My car continues to exhibit strange Wifi behaviour. I have an LTE hotspot. Last night I connected the Tesla to it. This morning it wouldn't connect to the hotspot at all, my phone and iPad seemed to connect to it without problems. So the Tesla wifi looks really finicky - I will try to reboot my panel to see if that helps.

 

[randompersonx]

The reason why you can pick up a bunch of wifi signals that your phone or laptop can't is because the car is large enough to have a sensitive antenna. The reason why you can't connect is because the antenna in your base station is probably not as good, so the base station can't hear your car.

In my case, the car is parked outside and has no chance of working with my wifi because the house is concrete, insulated glass, and metal (like most homes in florida), which shields the wifi quite well. I gave some thought to setting up an access point for that area, but since I am trying to sell my house, I will probably not do it until I get settled elsewhere.

 

[LetsGoFast]

I'm not totally sold on that. My iPad picks up a stronger signal inside the car in the garage than the car does. Of course reported signal strength on wifi is pretty much a complete fiction anyhow.

 

[GaryREM]

I had fairly inconsistent results in the garage. Finally added an access point in the garage and now get consistently strong connections and consistent connection to that access point.

 

[wayner]

@randompersonx - That makes sense.

I guess the other thing I could do is to add a larger/better antenna(s) to the WAP nearest the garage. I also pick up a ton of SSIDs, even when driving on a large highway which is several hundred feet from the nearest building.

 

[Pate]

I have given up hope getting my car connected to WiFi. It sees only one bar from my garage (in a separate building from where my router is), which not surprisingly fails to connect. But even when I drive my car as close to the router as possible, it tries to connect for a while and then says "unable to connect". I even purchased a WiFi repeater, but installing that to the same building as where the router is makes the signal still not strong enough for the garage, and installing it into the garage makes the repeater not be able to connect to the router.

In the end I decided I don't need WiFi. It is just a bit annoying having to click on the "Not Now" button every single morning, when the car has picked up the WiFi signal it never can actually connect to.

Edit: Oh, and I was one of the first to receive 6.1 firmware, so there really seems to be no need for WiFi.

 

[David99]

My experience is similar to what other have reported here. It finds a lot, but it's not good at connecting. I also set up a repeater just for the car and it sometimes just won't want to connect. And then other time it does quickly. When it comes to getting the latest firmware, I found that the car will download it no matter what.

 

[wayner]

What is the best place inside the car to place a wifi hotspot? Yesterday I was able to connect but today it just won't establish a connection with mine - I was keeping it plugged in and sitting in the tray by the USB ports.

By the way, the tesla doesn't seem to be able to tether to the hotspot via USB - this is a Netgear/Sierra 763S.