Could not connect to home Wifi (Ubiquiti UniFi Long Range Access Point)

[sc123]

This is a potentially related topic, but I have a new Model X, and I cannot connect to the car remotely when it's connected to my WiFi network. I have 2 x Ubiquiti UniFi AP-Pro units (FW v3.2.12.920), and I've temporarily moved one pretty close to the garage. The car can connect (and it shows several bars of wifi signal), and internet radio works, web browser works, but I can't access the car remotely from the app. If I disable WiFi, I can connect via LTE. These APs are on a 192.168.186.0/24 network.

Just for kicks I set up a separate temporary network on 192.168.123.0/24 using a new UniFi AC-LITE AP located about 10 feet from the car. No dice. I also switched that network to 10.1.1.0/24. No dice. (no dice means the same behavior - connects to wifi, and other things seem to work, but the app won't connect).

I have a Zywall 110 firewall that should (hopefully) be fairly locked down (i.e. things like uPnP are disabled). Does the car need anything unusual as far as network permissions to allow the remote connection from the app? Or does the car initiate the connection for remote access (i.e. as long as it can connect out through the firewall it's OK)?

Any other ideas for what to look at next? I haven't called Tesla (not excited to go through the "do you have your password correct" level of debugging...)

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

 

[CuriousG]

This is a potentially related topic, but I have a new Model X, and I cannot connect to the car remotely when it's connected to my WiFi network. I have 2 x Ubiquiti UniFi AP-Pro units (FW v3.2.12.920), and I've temporarily moved one pretty close to the garage. The car can connect (and it shows several bars of wifi signal), and internet radio works, web browser works, but I can't access the car remotely from the app. If I disable WiFi, I can connect via LTE. These APs are on a 192.168.186.0/24 network.

Just for kicks I set up a separate temporary network on 192.168.123.0/24 using a new UniFi AC-LITE AP located about 10 feet from the car. No dice. I also switched that network to 10.1.1.0/24. No dice. (no dice means the same behavior - connects to wifi, and other things seem to work, but the app won't connect).

I have a Zywall 110 firewall that should (hopefully) be fairly locked down (i.e. things like uPnP are disabled). Does the car need anything unusual as far as network permissions to allow the remote connection from the app? Or does the car initiate the connection for remote access (i.e. as long as it can connect out through the firewall it's OK)?

Any other ideas for what to look at next? I haven't called Tesla (not excited to go through the "do you have your password correct" level of debugging...)

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

Have you updated your firmware lately? They had a new firmware update released yesterday. Ubiquiti Networks - Downloads

I tested uPnP by turning the service off then tried to connect to my car and it was successful although the tablet I used it on and car is on the same subnet. I doubt either had an effect.

 

[K-MTG]

My X is connected to my Airport Extreme hardwired access point, my network is on the 10.0.1.3 address and my Tesla has no problems connecting to wifi, the web browser works, media works, navigation, etc.... but the app works 30% of the time when my car is on wifi the rest of the time it tries to wake up the car.

I created a DCHP reservation and forwarded ports such as 1194, 22 but that didn't help

 

[Ingineer]

The only thing the car needs to establish a connection with the mothership is UDP port 1194 for OpenVPN. If it cannot connect this, then remote access will not work. The car will not accept ANY packets in otherwise, it's outbound only, so should have no trouble traversing NAT unless you are blocking stuff.

 

[chillaban]

The only thing the car needs to establish a connection with the mothership is UDP port 1194 for OpenVPN. If it cannot connect this, then remote access will not work. The car will not accept ANY packets in otherwise, it's outbound only, so should have no trouble traversing NAT unless you are blocking stuff.

I'd be concerned about low-quality NAT routers if it's using SSL VPN over UDP. UDP NAT requires more memory for statefulness and at least in the late 90's early 2000's was a popular place to skimp when making cheap routing appliances.

 

[Ingineer]

I use a Ubiquiti Edge Router and it works flawlessly on my Gigabit connection.

 

[outie]

My X is connected to my Airport Extreme hardwired access point, my network is on the 10.0.1.3 address and my Tesla has no problems connecting to wifi, the web browser works, media works, navigation, etc.... but the app works 30% of the time when my car is on wifi the rest of the time it tries to wake up the car.

I created a DCHP reservation and forwarded ports such as 1194, 22 but that didn't help

Is the Airport extreme acting as an AP only? Do you have a main router?

 

[K-MTG]

Is the Airport extreme acting as an AP only? Do you have a main router?

One main AirPort Extreme, the others are access points which are also AirPort Extreme and expresses

 

[Bluebullet]

I was unable to connect to either my UniFi APs nor my ASUS RT-AC66U. As it turns out, the problem was with the IP of my router. I had it set to 192.168.20.1. Tesla must use this IP in the car somewhere as it would always refuse to accept an IP from that router. Changing my router IP to 192.168.30.1 allowed me to connect from both the UniFi APs and the ASUS.

Wow I can't believe this was it for me too. I was tearing my hair out trying to get it to work. What are the chances out of all the network address ranges I could have picked I picked the one Tesla doesn't like. Sadly I can't change my main router's IP due to large network with lots of static ip devices. I just added another router between my router and the access point to get the same result.

Thank you so much for this. I don't have any cell signal where I live so this will be a life saver during the winter.

 

[jeffro01]

I have a Ubiquiti AC-PRO AP in my upstairs ceiling and neither my Apple products (my entire house) nor my Model S have ANY troubles connecting to it...

Very interesting... Either way, just wanted to add a datapoint regarding the Tesla side of this...

Jeff

 

[CuriousG]

I have a Ubiquiti AC-PRO AP in my upstairs ceiling and neither my Apple products (my entire house) nor my Model S have ANY troubles connecting to it...

I have the AC LR version and while I can't say whether the Tesla has issues connecting with it, I certainly had issues recently connecting my tablet and laptop to it (even when I'm next to the AP). I'm not sure if you keep your firmware up to date, but the last software version released had memory leak issues and they issued another firmware. After I updated the firmware, the tablet and laptop was able to connect again without issue.

 

[sc123]

Have you updated your firmware lately? They had a new firmware update released yesterday. Ubiquiti Networks - Downloads

I tested uPnP by turning the service off then tried to connect to my car and it was successful although the tablet I used it on and car is on the same subnet. I doubt either had an effect.

Just to update ... I never updated my Ubiquiti firmware (I probably should ...). However once my Model X got the 8.0 firmware update all my issues magically went away and I can now reliably connect to my WiFi without any issues. They must have included some fixes in there ....

 

[K-MTG]

I know its kind of off topic but I am considering on replacing my Apple Airport Extreme router and 5 Extreme access points with the Ubiquiti AC HD. Are you guys using an Ubiquiti router? How is your experience with it? Does it work with the Tesla?

I also bought a 2nd property 8 miles away from my current home but it lacks fiber optic internet connection thus I am considering one of the long range 30 mile wifi antenna from Ubiquiti but I don't know if that will work.

 

[KaiserSoze]

I know its kind of off topic but I am considering on replacing my Apple Airport Extreme router and 5 Extreme access points with the Ubiquiti AC HD. Are you guys using an Ubiquiti router? How is your experience with it? Does it work with the Tesla?

I have two AC HD units. They both work fine with Tesla. Reception is improved over the previous Ubiquiti the AC Pros.

 

[outie]

The AC HD is meant for high density environment. Their word is that the radio beam is more vertical (narrower coverage, less interference with adjacent AP) than horizontal (wider coverage like AC-LR), with the AC-Pro in between. So make sure you know what you are getting. I have the AC-HD in my living room and AC-Pro on 2nd floor. I personally do not see the AC-LR offering wider coverage when I had them in my home (they've been relocated to other houses).

I also have the USG-Pro router and unifi 48 port Poe switch. Overkill for a home but I like the setup I currently have, so does the Tesla after I installed the AC-Pro on second floor which is on top of the garage. The range was pretty bad to the AC-HD in living room which is about 20 feet away horizontally.

No experience with their long range products so can't speak of anything about them.

 

[vandacca]

I thought the next gen routers were going to be mesh routers like the Eero.

 

[K-MTG]

I thought the next gen routers were going to be mesh routers like the Eero.

But mesh networking isn't the best for repeating wifi when you have a wired connection.

 

[vandacca]

But mesh networking isn't the best for repeating wifi when you have a wired connection.

I'm just beginning to research mesh networks, but it was my understanding that it is much better at distributing a single WiFi access point across a large area.

I've had lots of issues with repeaters using the same WiFi name, and eventually determined things worked better with different WiFi names. This apparently isn't an issue with mesh or at least with the Eero routers.

What is your understanding/opinion?

 

[chillaban]

I'm just beginning to research mesh networks, but it was my understanding that it is much better at distributing a single WiFi access point across a large area.

I've had lots of issues with repeaters using the same WiFi name, and eventually determined things worked better with different WiFi names. This apparently isn't an issue with mesh or at least with the Eero routers.

What is your understanding/opinion?

There's basically two styles of meshing and A LOT of marketing BS around it:

One uses the same radio to serve clients and repeat the signal. This is the least ideal because you effectively lose half the bandwidth per hop because time has to be divided between servicing clients and relaying to the backhaul. EDIT: and before anyone says "well half of a 500+mbit wifi connection doesn't sound bad..." it is bad. Unfortunately tablets and smartphones tend to have inferior antennas and it takes nearly 100% radio time to push 150mbit to them. So when a mesh link needs to time-divide between a smartphone and even a fast uplink, you're going to see 70mbit or worse speeds. And these days I find that most people spend their wifi time on such devices.

Others have two sets of radios that allow simultaneously serving clients and relaying backhaul. This is more ideal, but still not as good as wired. Right now the most common real world 3x3:3 AC performance with 80MHz channels is aroind 600-800 mbit single duplex while wired gigabit is 800-900mbit bidirectional. However, in reality, if you have walls between mesh points then AC will realistically deliver 200-300mbit speeds. And Eero is actually 2x2:2, which is not very ideal. Cisco and Ruckus both have 4x4:4 AC solutions that support meshing but at that point you're talking about $1000+ per node plus a $1000+ controller box. Also don't forget that there's only around 4 realistically usable 80MHz non-overlapping channels. It's unfortunately a waste to use valuable spectrum to serve as your backhaul especially if you live in a crowded area like an apartment/condo.


Bottom line: if you can run a wired backhaul that is always the best situation. But if you can't, look for a meshing solution with dedicated radios for backhaul or one that can be arranged in pairs such that one acts as a backhaul to the other.

 

[Muzzman1]

@K-MTG
Look into ruckuswireless
I deploy their ap's in all kinds of environments many times replacing Unifi and Apple.
There's no comparison.
If you want rock solid wifi. There's very few that are better and none better at their price point.