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How much data is Wi-Fi transferring?

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AnxietyRanger

Well-Known Member
Aug 22, 2014
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How much is the Wi-Fi transferring for you?

I have been measuring my Model X + Wi-Fi for around ten days now and witnessing steady but small transfer rates:

Receive: 3.1 MBytes/day
Send: 0.7 MBytes/day

The car is parked at the Wi-Fi for most of the day and night. As mentioned, Tesla talks of music service caching (Future in-car services and music caching through Wi-Fi?), but obviously not at these rates.

I don't use the online services in the car much, nor has data sharing been on during this time, so that certainly explains some of the smallness of the numbers.

Curiously I am also not getting any software updates (as has happened before when using the Wi-Fi), so no 17.17.4 for me. I will probably give up on the WI-Fi, since Wi-Fi has hurt more than it has helped here.

I do check the mobile app perhaps 0-2 times a day, if it is not turned off for some reason. I have also turned off energy saving etc., but they do not seem to have any effect on the transfer rates.
 
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Here is some history (12 or so hours) for my Model S (will do the Model X when the wife gets back from dropping the kids off). Tiny amounts of data (statistics courtesy of a Unbiquiti WiFi AP / Switch / Secure Gateway setup - highly recommended).

** Edited to note that I had not driven the S in the last 24h so perhaps that impacts data traffic **

stats 2.JPG


stats 1.JPG


stats 3.JPG
 
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Many thanks @VOTS01!

It seems for ~12 hours you stats were around:

Receive: 2.0 MBytes
Send: 1.1 MBytes

When mine for ~24 / ~12 hours were (averages calculated from around 10 days of data):

Receive: 3.1 MBytes / 1.6 MBytes
Send: 0.7 MBytes / 0.4 MBytes

So in a similar ballpark, but mine having data sharing off could explain the difference or daily variances.
 
In addition to whatever is being downloaded directly from the mothership, it's possible that a page you have currently loaded in the web browser may be refreshing periodically. A while back, I was watching the DNS traffic from the car and noticed it hitting a bunch of Google servers at regular intervals, about once a minute. Turns out it was because I had visited Google News and left that open in the browser, even though the app wasn't visible at the time I left the car.
 
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In addition to whatever is being downloaded directly from the mothership, it's possible that a page you have currently loaded in the web browser may be refreshing periodically. A while back, I was watching the DNS traffic from the car and noticed it hitting a bunch of Google servers at regular intervals, about once a minute. Turns out it was because I had visited Google News and left that open in the browser, even though the app wasn't visible at the time I left the car.

Good point!

I don't think I have had anything of refreshing nature open in the web browser, but that is certainly something I need to check as well.
 
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Thanks @VOTS01! Great info.

FWIW, @Solarman004, most of my 10 days was with Always Connected off and Energy Saving on, but a portion I tried with Always Connected on and Energy Saving off did not seem to alter the daily figures in any dramatic manner. The sample is not big enough to say there couldn't be a difference, but if there was, I did not see it.
 
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Turning the Wi-Fi off and rebooting the small and big screens didn't change anything firmware-wise, even after a few days. Eventually turning the Wi-Fi back on and rebooting both the screens jumpstarted the communications - suddently the lackluster 3.1 MBytes/day downloads and 0.7 MBytes/day uploads jumped by 440 MBytes of new download and 12 MBytes of new upload.

While these steps may or may not have gotten anything to do with the update availability itself, it is noteworthy how much more the Wi-Fi was suddenly doing. Without the Wi-Fi reading I could not have told the car started the download immediately, but by watching the Wi-Fi it was obvious something was going on.

Rebooting the screens/computers may or may not have helped, who knows. It seems like it might at least force some "call mothership" availability check that otherwise might only happen from time to time?