Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

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

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
That seems counterproductive if their goal is to push out updates over Wi-Fi and the updates are sent overnight while the car is sleeping.

The updates are pulled by the car. When the car wakes up it checks if there is a new update waiting, if there is, it can pull in down from Tesla via Wi-Fi. If the car is connecting with 3G Tesla can decide to defer the download to another time when the car connects over a WiFi Link.
 
Hi,

I've had the same issue. What I had to do to get things working was allow 802.11b on my access point (Apple Airport). I have a feeling the NIC in the car is only 802.11b. It's made by a company called Parrot but that's all I've been able to figure out. If I figure out the model, I'll post it.

-- Andy

It has been a while since I opened my wifi server and of course the Tesla would not connect. The server was set to 802.11n only. When I changed the setting to allow it to connect on the other protocols too, the Model S connected and has each time I return home since. Andy, I suspect you are right that the car connects on "b" only. As a result it runs slower than it might optimally, but faster than over the cell telephone network. My very unscientific tests suggest the web browser is now much faster...
 
Had some fun with my SSIDs while I was debugging my WiFi connection issues.

Screen Shot 2013-11-27 at 6.22.36 PM.png


I did manage to get the car to connect to my Apple Airport Extreme (4th Generation) but only when configured in Bridge mode to my Comcast cable Internet and not when configured for PPPoE on my AT&T DSL internet. No idea what the difference is.
 
Has anyone found that Tethering is not truly available as advertised as when you put it in drive the car automatically reverts to 3G?


Edit.................

I found when connected to a stationary source, it reverts to 3G when in drive. If connected to a mobile source then it stays connected after putting the car in drive.
 
Last edited:
Many thanks to everyone for the tips.

My car would connect, then disconnect after a couple of minutes. Then when I would try to reconnect I would get an error saying password was incorrect. I rebooted the center console and it would connect then disconnect again.

I changed the security from WPA to WPA2 AES + TKIP and it seems to stay connected now. I have a very old WRT54GL router.
 
Good to see this thread. I also have not been able to get Model S connected to house WiFi, even though recognizes signal, will not accept password. And iPhone connection works fine. I have not bothered with it once realized after many attempts it would not accept password (very simple 9 letters) to connect. Have 12,000 mile service scheduled at Dania Beach SC next week (mine is Signature model) and thought maybe they could help out. Question-what is advantage of connecting with house WiFi? Did not have it for 12 months and didn't miss it.
 
The antenna for wifi on the MS must not be very good or is located in a terrible position. Less than 30ft away from an access point and I get one bar on the MS. The AP shows the MS at 20% signal (shows percentages and not dBm). My iPhone and other devices, while sitting in the MS, are at 90%.
 
I'm a +1 on the unable-to-connect to WiFi party. My iPhone can connect to our network while I'm sitting in the car, and the car sees the network just fine... but it won't connect after I enter the password.

My network setup is very straightforward - have Cable internet, with a using a Linksys WRT-54GL with Tomato firmware as my router (which does the DHCP). Tried enabling B+G mode, tried WPA2 Personal AES, WPA2 Personal TKIP, WPA2 Personal TKIP+AES, and even WPA Personal. Tried switching channels. Added larger antennae. Increased signal strength... No love.

My password has upper/lower case letters, and symbols like & ...but others have said that symbols are okay. The car will also tether to my phone, so I know the WiFi in the car does work.

Has anyone with the Tomato firmware figured out the trick? Thanks!
 
Static DNS causes WiFi connectivity problem

Using a Linksys E1200, Model S would recognize my home network, but not accept the password (all other devices - iPhone, iPad, TiVo, home computer, security camera system, WiFi thermostat - connected fine). Here's what finally worked for me: In my router configuration, I had reserved a static DNS (erroneously thinking I was reserving a static DHCP address for my home security camera system). Once I removed the static DNS setting, it connected fine.
Screenshot 2014-02-16 21.56.18 annotated.png
 
Welcome Rodbert!

In my router configuration, I had reserved a static DNS (erroneously thinking I was reserving a static DHCP address for my home security camera system). Once I removed the static DNS setting, it connected fine.
Setting a static DNS entry to an IP address that is not a DNS server will block all connected devices from looking up domain names. That would prevent the car from resolving teslamotors.com (or whatever domain name Tesla uses to verify connectivity). Not surprising it doesn't work.
 
Using a Linksys E1200, Model S would recognize my home network, but not accept the password (all other devices - iPhone, iPad, TiVo, home computer, security camera system, WiFi thermostat - connected fine). Here's what finally worked for me: In my router configuration, I had reserved a static DNS (erroneously thinking I was reserving a static DHCP address for my home security camera system). Once I removed the static DNS setting, it connected fine.
View attachment 43492

Try a valid DNS server like 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4 (Google DNS)
 
I had the same problem with the car not accepting my password. I was running 802.11 N with WPA2-PSK security mode along with AES encryption. To resolve the issue I just changed to using 802.11 B/G/N wireless mode. No other settings were changed. Btw, I use a EnGenius ECB350 AP/Bridge.