Not able to connect Tesla's Wifi to home network?

[Cottonwood]

Wimpy WiFi

I did a little test today comparing my Apple MacBook Air sitting in my lap in the drivers seat of the MS to the MS WiFi. I just upgraded my home WiFi network to the Ubiquiti UniFi system. With that, I can measure the Tx Power of the WiFi clients at the Access Point. I have an access point about 25 feet from the MS, one floor up through a wood joist floor.

Below are snapshots of the signal quality from both the MacBook and the MS. The signal strength from the MS is 13 dB weaker than the MacBook; that is 20 times less power from the MS, which is pretty wimpy!!! I did the test with the MacBook in the car to be fair. When I tried again with the MacBook outside of the car, the MacBook signal strength went up another 3 dB or another 2x in signal strength. Tesla really needs to pay more attention to the WiFi implementation of the MS.

On top of that, the MS is using the older, slower Wireless-G standard, rather than the current Wireless-N standard.

 

[ruby110]

@Cottonwood: I've only seen the MS connect at g but someone else said he is connecting using n only. So I am puzzled.

 

[Cottonwood]

@Cottonwood: I've only seen the MS connect at g but someone else said he is connecting using n only. So I am puzzled.

My access point offers N and G. My MS only connects with G, but then again, I am VIN 0037. What is your approximate VIN? Maybe they have updated the WiFi controller in more recent production.

It would be nice if they improved WiFi RF performance, also. I have a workable (but weak) WiFi connection with the access point only 25 feet away. If Tesla really wants to save on Cellular Data costs by using customer WiFi, then they should work on this!

 

[ruby110]

@Cottonwood: My VIN is 437xx and I can only connect to my Apple Airport devices with g but I think AmpedRealtor said his router is set to n only. I don't know which brand or even if I remembered correctly that it was AR.

edit: found this in the other Tesla forum.

AmpedRealtor | AUGUST 29, 2014
I've found that my Asus router's automatic channel and channel width selection causes the Model S not to connect. My router is set up as N-only, so no b/g, and car connects on 2.4 GHz band. Try setting a fixed channel and channel width, that may be all you need. Also make sure you are running a 2.4 GHz network, the car won't connect at 5 GHz.

 

[MindBender]

No single-quotes in WiFi passwords allowed

This weekend I finally took to time to figure out why my Tesla cannot connect to my Apple Time Capsule. I changed the password a few times, leaving out some of the safety features I put in. I isolated the problem to the use of single-quotes in the password (or passphrase). Removing them allowed me to connect to my home WiFi, albeit with a less secure password (and a whole forum knowing I use single-quotes in passwords ;-) ).

In computer environments single-quotes are special characters, and need to be escaped if used like normal characters. I suspect this isn't implemented (properly), making it likely there are other characters causing problems in WiFi passwords. Other examples are \, <, >, |, " and `.

I have changed back my password to secure version, because having my Tesla connected to my home network doesn't offer any features worth lowering my password security. My Tesla is the first WiFi toy not handling my secure WiFi password correctly, and I do have a lot of WiFi enabled toys.

 

[digitaltim]

@MindBender - How about enabling the "guest" network on your Time Capsule and connect your Tesla to that SSID? My guest network is wide open - no close neighbors to worry about borrowing my bandwidth and it makes it easy for people visiting the house to get on WiFi but logically segmented away from our devices.

 

[MindBender]

@MindBender - How about enabling the "guest" network on your Time Capsule and connect your Tesla to that SSID? My guest network is wide open - no close neighbors to worry about borrowing my bandwidth and it makes it easy for people visiting the house to get on WiFi but logically segmented away from our devices.

Hm, good suggestion; I haven't thought about that. But I wonder if that will actually shield my intranet from guest access, because I'm not using my Time Capsule as a router, just as an access point. But it's worth a try, even with lots of neighbours around.

 

[Chuck Lusin]

I just installed an old EnGenius ENS202 AP, 5 feet above the cars, and now I can get all the WIFI bars. Even still the AP shows a -50 dBm reading, at 5 feet!

I went with Security Mode: WPA2-PSK, encryption: AES, Wireless mode: 802.11 B/G/N Mixed, Channel TH Mode: 20/40 MHz, Channel / Frequency: Auto.

 

[Chuck Lusin]

So I get the WIFI AP in the installed garage two days ago, and bam, the 6.0 update this morning!

 

[CRinATL]

I'm seven months late to this, but in case it will help anyone, there are several ways for a WiFi network to be authenticated.

Broadly speaking (with out diving into the technical weeds) you can have:

• No password / No authentication
  • This means anyone can connect.
• A password
  • This means someone needs the password to use the network.
• A external authentication server, usually a corporate or campus network security system.
  • This means you need a username and password to use the network.

The Model S should support all three, but the third is by far the rarest of the three when you look at all WiFi use as whole. However, since I am still waiting for a VIN assignment, I am a few weeks or more away from being able to test it. :wink:

If you want more of the details let me know or have a look at Wired Equivalent Privacy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and Wi-Fi Protected Access - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

 

[BHUtopia]

For what it's worth, I'm adding my experience: My Apple Airport Extreme is in my home office and S is in the garage 25 feet away. That's as the crow flies which passes through 2 walls and some kitchen appliances. My laptop had no problem with signal in the garage so I knew it was not a dead spot. I got no connection to the S until I moved the Airport out into the hallway which was then about 12 feet from the S and only passing through the garage wall. Achieving all bars required the Airport to be in the garage. So I set up an Airport Express in the living room which sits just on the other side of the garage wall. Using the Express as a network extension, I was able to achieve all bars in the S inside the garage. It really seems to be an issue of the antenna in the S. Don't know what Tesla can do about that now. BTW, my car was built in April 2013 so maybe improvements have been made to the antenna by now.

 

[JohnMc]

Cottonwood,
Question. I have been fighting the wifi linkup on my "S vin 227xx" all weekend. I also have a Ubiquity UniFi. I put the access point about 10 ft from the car and get a 2-3/3 bars signal. Tried auto channel and fixed channel 6 with HT20 and HT40 b,g,n. Tried both wpa1 and wpa2 and open w/o encryption. Tried auto, aes & tkip encryption. All these variations work on my iphones, ipad and HP laptop w/o any problem - but not on the "S". Also have 2nd wifi linksys AP with wireless G and all devices work fine with it also - but not the S. No joy with any setup. Password is all lowercase with 1 digit. Think password length could be an issue? Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

[Cottonwood]

Cottonwood,
Question. I have been fighting the wifi linkup on my "S vin 227xx" all weekend. I also have a Ubiquity UniFi. I put the access point about 10 ft from the car and get a 2-3/3 bars signal. Tried auto channel and fixed channel 6 with HT20 and HT40 b,g,n. Tried both wpa1 and wpa2 and open w/o encryption. Tried auto, aes & tkip encryption. All these variations work on my iphones, ipad and HP laptop w/o any problem - but not on the "S". Also have 2nd wifi linksys AP with wireless G and all devices work fine with it also - but not the S. No joy with any setup. Password is all lowercase with 1 digit. Think password length could be an issue? Any suggestions?

Thanks

Sorry, I am not sure how to help.

I have a password over 12 characters in length, all my UniFi Access points in auto-channel mode, and it worked the first time. Because the base UniFi AP is less than $70, and I already had hardwire EtherNet in the garage for monitoring my Solar System, I just put an access point in the garage 15 feet from the car. The MS is pretty deaf when it comes to WiFi, so a close Access Point is important.

A note on versions: I am running UniFi Access Point firmware 3.2.1.2601, UniFi Controller 3.2.1, under MacOS 10.10 and my MS is an early Sig running 6.0.

 

[Lerxt]

Does anyone have an update on this? I am struggling to connect my new Model S to my home network. I have a new Asus router with 2 bars of signal and all bands and standards on. My Model S has firmware version 6 and it won't connect to the network as it won't connect when the ( simple ) passcode is entered.

 

[Robert.Boston]

Does anyone have an update on this? I am struggling to connect my new Model S to my home network. I have a new Asus router with 2 bars of signal and all bands and standards on. My Model S has firmware version 6 and it won't connect to the network as it won't connect when the ( simple ) passcode is entered.

Did you see this note upthread? It may be that you have to disable certain features on the Asus router.

 

[Lerxt]

Thanks for the response.

I have:
set my channel bandwidth to 40MHz ( from 20/40MHz )
set a fixed control channel
my wireless mode on the 2.4GHz network is auto ( fixed options are legacy, and N only)
password is 8 numbers and letters with one capital

I also set up a guest network on the 2,4 band and set an eight digit numerical password.

It won't connect to either...

 

[rtz]

Maybe more specialized equipment is needed? http://3gstore.com/

 

[HansBe]

Does anyone have an update on this? I am struggling to connect my new Model S to my home network. I have a new Asus router with 2 bars of signal and all bands and standards on. My Model S has firmware version 6 and it won't connect to the network as it won't connect when the ( simple ) passcode is entered.

Just got my MS today - and was struggling with setting up my wireless access as well. As i have been a system engineer for years - i was quite used to these kind of troubleshootings. Nothing helped though.

Read this entire tread in the forums - and tried the setting on my wifi accesspoint to allow b+g+n networks to connect.
That was the only change - and now the car connects to the wifi - albeit with a very low signal (my cellphone has full signal strength to my wireless network from within the car!).

My accesspoint is not running a DHCP service - that is handled by my windows server - didnt change that.

Hope this might help you as well - good luck

 

[Made in CA]

Thanks!

This weekend I finally took to time to figure out why my Tesla cannot connect to my Apple Time Capsule. I changed the password a few times, leaving out some of the safety features I put in. I isolated the problem to the use of single-quotes in the password (or passphrase). Removing them allowed me to connect to my home WiFi, albeit with a less secure password (and a whole forum knowing I use single-quotes in passwords ;-) ).

I just picked up my Model S and could not connect the wi-fi. I found your post and - sure enough - I was also using a single quote in my 802.11G Wi-Fi password. I removed it. I am not too concerned about wi-fi security. No one lives close by so I would notice someone trying to poach my signal.

Anyway - thanks for taking the time to post this. You saved me a lot of frustration!

 

[vrykolas]

I just picked up a model X.
I was not able to connect to wifi, where all my other devices work fine.

I tried several things, but eventually setting the wifi AP from N-only to B/G/N model worked and now it connects with no problem.

Weird. Not sure of wifi specs on latest Tesla's.