Gateway and WiFi

[woferry]

I think they've had enough trouble with WiFi (both customer's networks sometimes being hard to join, and their own WiFi implementation seeming to be a bit unstable), and 3G cellular being what it is at this point (and I think in many places not destined to last much longer) that they'd rather have as many options as possible. I'm on WiFi as my Gateway is outside and there was no easy way to get ethernet hooked-up (they didn't even suggest it), but the Gateway has fallen off my WiFi a few times, sometimes right after a FW update, once I rebooted my router and it didn't re-join, the other times seemingly unprovoked. The Gateway continued to report data to Tesla / the app over cellular when the WiFi has been down, but it breaks my internal data collection so it's left frustrating gaps in my more detailed/frequent data. Once I had to reset the Gateway, the other times I could simply join its network and rescan to get things going again, but I really do need to figure out how to get it wired so that I hopefully won't have to deal with drop-outs anymore.

 

[CWNE88]

Haha, I know exactly what you mean. You'll have to be careful though, because mine is wired (never set up Wi-Fi on it), and it had the cellular too. My mobile reception is bad here, and so the mobile connection kept coming up and down.
If the gateway is on the same wired subnet as your home network you're connecting to it from, then you'll be fine. If you have the gateway on a different network that has to be routed to from the device you're using to internally monitor it, keep in mind that as the cellular link comes up and down, it takes over the gateway's default route. This means it takes the cellular default route as the one it uses, not the default route it gets from your wired network.
It won't be a problem if it's wired on the same subnet, as there's no need to route. If you'd like this IoT thing to be separate and firewalled, then it will need to route.
The other option is to rip the SIM card out so it can't use celluar.... and that's what I did. It's a battery after all, not something I feel needs to be connected to Tesla.

 

[Redhill_qik]

Old thread, but seems relevant to my question.

Unexpectantly my pre-installation email from Tesla has a bullet item that said "We'll need a working hardline internet connection". I have a Netgear EX3700 2.4/5.0GHz wireless extender with an ethernet port and I just confirmed that the ethernet port works for device connection. I was planning on doing this anyway for the SolarEdge invertor, but I re-configured it with unique a SSID and password, so I don't have to provide the main password.

So, after the install is complete the app has been setup, inspection has been finalized and I have PTO, what are the steps to reconfiguring the WiFi?

 

[jjrandorin]

Old thread, but seems relevant to my question.

Unexpectantly my pre-installation email from Tesla has a bullet item that said "We'll need a working hardline internet connection". I have a Netgear EX3700 2.4/5.0GHz wireless extender with an ethernet port and I just confirmed that the ethernet port works for device connection. I was planning on doing this anyway for the SolarEdge invertor, but I re-configured it with unique a SSID and password, so I don't have to provide the main password.

So, after the install is complete the app has been setup, inspection has been finalized and I have PTO, what are the steps to reconfiguring the WiFi?

If you are not getting powerwalls (meaning you are only getting solar) the solar gateway (little black box) requires a hardline connection. It broadcasts a zigbee signal but it does not have wifi. They will give it to you and tell you to plug it into your network with an ethernet cable. There is no option to make this device wireless.

If you ARE getting powerwalls, its a different story. Are you getting powerwalls? The line that is saying "we need a hardline internet connection" makes me think you are not.

 

[Redhill_qik]

If you are not getting powerwalls (meaning you are only getting solar) the solar gateway (little black box) requires a hardline connection. It broadcasts a zigbee signal but it does not have wifi. They will give it to you and tell you to plug it into your network with an ethernet cable. There is no option to make this device wireless.

If you ARE getting powerwalls, its a different story. Are you getting powerwalls? The line that is saying "we need a hardline internet connection" makes me think you are not.

Yes, two Powerwalls.

 

[jjrandorin]

Yes, two Powerwalls.

Ok, so if you are getting powerwalls there should not be a requirement for wired connection. the gateway should support wired, wireless and or cellular... unless the gateway 2 device does not have the same connectivity.

To answer your question in a general sense, to activate wireless on the gateway, you can connect to the powerwalls on your local network (tesla provides information on how to connect to the powerwalls locally in case there is no internet due to a power outage) then put in the wireless information for your network on a screen in there.

For my install, I did something similar to what you mentioned (I used a wireless router as an extender on my network, ensured the ethernet ports were on, then plugged one of the cables into the router and told them to use that one). I asked them to activate all three connections. They said "you can either give us the wifi password or just come out and type it into the screen when we get to that point". I said "I will type it in", but please activate wireless, wifi and cellular on the device". They said "sure thing".

 

[Redhill_qik]

Ok, so if you are getting powerwalls there should not be a requirement for wired connection. the gateway should support wired, wireless and or cellular... unless the gateway 2 device does not have the same connectivity.

To answer your question in a general sense, to activate wireless on the gateway, you can connect to the powerwalls on your local network (tesla provides information on how to connect to the powerwalls locally in case there is no internet due to a power outage) then put in the wireless information for your network on a screen in there.

For my install, I did something similar to what you mentioned (I used a wireless router as an extender on my network, ensured the ethernet ports were on, then plugged one of the cables into the router and told them to use that one). I asked them to activate all three connections. They said "you can either give us the wifi password or just come out and type it into the screen when we get to that point". I said "I will type it in", but please activate wireless, wifi and cellular on the device". They said "sure thing".

Thanks, I'll make sure to do that.

 

[jjrandorin]

Thanks, I'll make sure to do that.

I forgot to link to the tesla instructions I mentioned in my previous post, so here you go:

Connecting to Tesla Gateway | Tesla Support

 

[Redhill_qik]

I forgot to link to the tesla instructions I mentioned in my previous post, so here you go:

Connecting to Tesla Gateway | Tesla Support

Thanks that also confirms 2.4GHz only which matches with prior posts. I'm involved in a development of technical documentation and they should really reword this sentence.

> we recommend selecting the 2.4 GHz network.

With

> you must select the 2.4 GHz network to allow the gateway to connect to your network.

Always be specific especially when other options will result in a failure.

 

[jerjozwik]

ah waaaaaa?! i can hardline my powerwall to my home net? neat. should make setting up api stuff a bit easier since i wont have to go through my subnetwork that the powerwall is currently getting wifi from.

 

[jjrandorin]

ah waaaaaa?! i can hardline my powerwall to my home net? neat. should make setting up api stuff a bit easier since i wont have to go through my subnetwork that the powerwall is currently getting wifi from.

its actually the gateway you hardline to your network. The powerwalls are connected to the gateway by some other communication method. There is an ethernet port in the gateway, once you remove the cover (gateway 1). I dont have a gateway 2 so dont know where it is on gateway 2.

 

[gpez]

its actually the gateway you hardline to your network. The powerwalls are connected to the gateway by some other communication method. There is an ethernet port in the gateway, once you remove the cover (gateway 1). I dont have a gateway 2 so dont know where it is on gateway 2.

I found my gateway's wifi is super weak and running ethernet directly to it has been the only way to get it on my local network.

 

[tommax]

I tried connecting the gateway (little black box) to with a cable to my router. When I connect through the TEG SSID and log into it that way, it says "no connection". My router settings indicated it is connected. Does that mean Tesla would need to activate my ability to have a wired connection to the gateway? Thanks!

 

[jjrandorin]

I tried connecting the gateway (little black box) to with a cable to my router. When I connect through the TEG SSID and log into it that way, it says "no connection". My router settings indicated it is connected. Does that mean Tesla would need to activate my ability to have a wired connection to the gateway? Thanks!

the little black box has nothing to do with the tesla TEG SSID of the powerwall install (zero).

 

[charlesj]

I found my gateway's wifi is super weak a....

You are not kidding. Weak and slow on my wi-fi snooper program.