Can’t connect to my WiFi hotspot

[Mario Veras]

As the title says, I can’t connect my car to my iPhone’s WiFi hotspot. I’ve tried rebooting both the phone and the car to no avail. The car detects my phone but when I select it, it times out saying there’s no internet. However, my iPhone hotspot works fine with other devices. My car connects fine to a regular WiFi router but refuses to connect to my hotspot. It used to connect to it a few months ago but I need it now to download an update. Any ideas?

 

[ATPMSD]

By default the iPhone hotspot operates on the 5 GHz band, the Tesla can only connect on the 2.4 GHz band.

You can switch between 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands in the iPhone’s Personal Hotspot settings:

1. Open Settings on your iPhone (12 or later with iOS 14.0.1 or later.)
2. Touch “Personal Hotspot” in the root list.
3. Slide the “Maximize Compatibility” toggle to the ON position.

 

[Mario Veras]

That’s not really true. I have connected to my home’s router on the 5Ghz channel and the 2.4Ghz channel as they have two separate names and I can select them from the car.

However, when I went to my iPhone and selected to maximize compatibility, the Tesla immediately connected to my hotspot. Not sure what the Maximize Compatibility option does but I appreciate the tip. Thanks!

 

[Mike1080i]

That’s not really true. I have connected to my home’s router on the 5Ghz channel and the 2.4Ghz channel as they have two separate names and I can select them from the car.

However, when I went to my iPhone and selected to maximize compatibility, the Tesla immediately connected to my hotspot. Not sure what the Maximize Compatibility option does but I appreciate the tip. Thanks!

Yep, my car supports 2.4 and 5 GHz. It's been a while since I tried it, but my car does not appear to support WPA3 encryption, at home or my android phone's hotspot. I have to use WPA2-Personal. I am not familiar with iOS, but that might be something to check.

 

[ATPMSD]

Yep, my car supports 2.4 and 5 GHz.

A lot of the newer routers auto switch between 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz. If the SID for the 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks are the same it auto switches.

 

[ATPMSD]

Not sure what the Maximize Compatibility option does

It changes the hotspot from 5GHz to 2.4 GHz

 

[ATPMSD]

That’s not really true. I have connected to my home’s router on the 5Ghz channel and the 2.4Ghz channel as they have two separate names and I can select them from the car.

Look very carefully at the router setup, you may find you actually have three networks running. One at 2.4 GHz and one at 5GHz with the same SID, and then a third with a difference SID. I found this out by accident on my router. This would explain the ability to connect to the 5GHz network since you are really connecting to a 2.4GHz network. The fact that you could not connect to the iPhone at 5GHz sort of bears out that the car cannot connect at 5GHz.

But….Tesla can be just plain weird, so as long as it works for you, Great!

 

[Mario Veras]

I specifically configured my router to have separate SSID names for the different channels it has. The 5Ghz SSID only uses 5Ghz. The 2.4Ghz SSID only uses 2.4Ghz. It also has a 6Ghz channel but the car won’t see that one. When downloading Tesla updates the car downloads much faster when I connect to the 5Ghz SSID. Not sure how much more evidence is needed.

Now, I don’t believe it supports 802.11a which is a 5Ghz only standard. But it definitely supports 802.11n which can run on both bands. I know this because if I set my 5Ghz channel to compatibility mode (a,n,x) then the car connects. But if the 5Ghz is configured for performance mode (a and x only) then the car won’t connect. Either way, it supports 5Ghz, just not the newer protocols.

 

[fholbert]

I specifically configured my router to have separate SSID names for the different channels it has. The 5Ghz SSID only uses 5Ghz. The 2.4Ghz SSID only uses 2.4Ghz.

Why?

When you get father from the Wireless Access Point it's going to switch to the slower 2.4 band. 2.4 has more range. Keep them the same for a smooth transition.

 

[Mario Veras]

Why?

When you get father from the Wireless Access Point it's going to switch to the slower 2.4 band. 2.4 has more range. Keep them the same for a smooth transition.

I’m not interested in a smooth transition. In fact, I don’t want devices to switch bands. I prefer to manually control which band devices connect to. So devices that need lots of bandwidth I rather them stick to 5Ghz. When I had the same SSID I would have trouble streaming from my TV because some times it decided it wanted to switch to 2.4Ghz even though the 5Ghz signal was strong. After I separated the bands, I’ve not had that issue anymore. Other devices that use less bandwidth, like my thermostat, I keep them at 2.4Ghz.