UniFi WiFi connection issues, any ideas?

[DJP31]

This is puzzling both me and my IT guy. My old Model S which only supported 2.4ghz connected to my office UniFi wifi without a problem.

My new MS won't connect, giving the error as per attached pic. The only difference is the new car supports 5ghz. We have checked the channel is between 1-11, there's no splash page, the passwords are the same as before. The UniFi has two AP's running as a mesh.

IT guy has set up two separate SSID's with different names, one on 2.4ghz the other 5ghz. The car rarely finds either of them, and is inconsistent about finding our usual wifi. It will find others, and happily connects at home or if I use my phone as a hotspot.

It's hardly the end of the world but is very frustrating, especially when nothing in the network has changed.

I'm not a techie but try my best, go easy on the answers please

 

[Krokkodillo]

Its a bit odd, having two separate ssid should work fine with backwards compatibility. Maybe try to merge 2.4 and 5ghz into one ssid?

 

[DJP31]

Its a bit odd, having two separate ssid should work fine with backwards compatibility. Maybe try to merge 2.4 and 5ghz into one ssid?

Apparently the UniFi kit does that automatically and something called band steering. It wouldn't connect then either, which was where the advice to establish two SSID's came from.

 

[MrBadger]

You didn't say whether your IT guy had deactivated the appropriate circuit using a contactor to prevent the electrons flowing then 10000ms later, reenergise the circuit to 230v -6%/+10% using said contactor

 

[Krokkodillo]

It looks like UniFi is using custom popup to connect to your WiFi, try to connect to it from a laptop to see if you get a custom popup in a browser (obviously forget the WiFi beforehand).

 

[rotor2k]

Isn’t that error very clearly reporting that the wifi connection has a captive portal? (Like when you connect to a public wifi network and they force you to accept the terms and conditions before you can do anything). It’s called Hotspot in UniFi parlance - that needs to be off. I have UniFi at home and it works fine, single SSID, my M3 always connects on 5GHz (weakly, but happily). Band steering is notoriously finicky and you should get your guy to turn it off - it causes more problems than it is worth. He should also configure a single ssid as this allows wifi clients to choose the best channel for the conditions (5GHz is great when you are very near the access point, 2.4GHz for everything else). He should he setting the 2.4GHz channel transmission power to medium or low, and 5GHz to Auto or High. Tell him to turn off the fancy “Advanced - only enable this if you know what you are doing” section, it is a lot more trouble than it is worth. I know it is tempting to turn on everything that says “fast” and “advanced”, but wifi is an extremely fickle thing, each client presents unique challenges, and the more you deviate from plain vanilla, the more issues you run into.

A few more things for him to check (the DTIM Period tweak makes a big difference for modern devices, also note all the things that are switched off are switched off for a reason):

 

[DJP31]

It looks like UniFi is using custom popup to connect to your WiFi, try to connect to it from a laptop to see if you get a custom popup in a browser (obviously forget the WiFi beforehand).

Thanks for this, no pops up other than the usual p/w request. Other devices have successfully connected to the new SSID's so it's definitely the car.

 

[Jason71]

If you get really desperate you can always get another router to use as a buffer. I have a cheap portable one I take with me on holidays connect it to the hotel wifi then create my own network in the room that everything can connect to.
I know it shouldn't be needed but it you really need the car to connect for some reason its a viable workaround.
Samsung Galaxy S phones have this capability as well since the S7. Last time I checked they were the only phones which do have wifi sharing

 

[LukeUK]

For what it's worth, I have a Unifi network at home and my M3 connects fine, albeit on 2.4 Ghz, which is kind of expected, given the distance.

 

[hmy7k]

My MP3 connects to mu Unifi network fine, I have two separate SSID's too.

Have you got the guest portal set up, it may be asking the car to login to access this?

 

[LongRanger]

If UniFi is using mobile broadband (via its own SIM card) to provide data, I had this issue recently through my router where I had swapped SIMs to another network, manually set the APN profile - then when I swapped back it was still trying to use EE’s APN instead of Vodafone.

If you aren’t using mobile broadband then obviously ignore the above, if you are then double-check APN settings for Mobile/WAN.

 

[DJP31]

@Jason71 I’m defo not desperate as the car connects at home quite happily, it’s more the fact that it won’t connect when the old car did, and nothing has changed apart from that.

Thanks to others for contributions, they’ve all been looked at. A right old mystery

 

[Js1977]

What router are you using? would it by any chance be a BT one?

 

[DJP31]

What router are you using? would it by any chance be a BT one?

No, it's my office network with a leased line and all sorts of gubbins I don't understand.

 

[nexusone]

Enabling/disabling of bands is also on a per AP basis, not an SSID basis. Unifi such a mixed bag in so many ways. Make sure the the SSID is bound to all the APs, and that each AP is properly configured for each SSID. Here at home I also have multiple SSIDs. It works fine. Make sure it is NOT configured as a guest (this is a defined network type in unifi). Make sure it is doing standard password/key authentication and not asking for a username or using a captive portal.

Lastly: your IT guy sucks. Keep him away from anything important to you. This is really basic networking.

 

[DJP31]

Enabling/disabling of bands is also on a per AP basis, not an SSID basis. Unifi such a mixed bag in so many ways. Make sure the the SSID is bound to all the APs, and that each AP is properly configured for each SSID. Here at home I also have multiple SSIDs. It works fine. Make sure it is NOT configured as a guest (this is a defined network type in unifi). Make sure it is doing standard password/key authentication and not asking for a username or using a captive portal.

Lastly: your IT guy sucks. Keep him away from anything important to you. This is really basic networking.

Thanks for your input. He's been brilliant for 20 years so I'll ignore the last piece of advice.

 

[DSolie]

Have your IT guy create a new wireless network, with a stupid easy PW and all guest controls turned off. Make sure there is no guest/splash screen to accept terms to sign-in to your wireless network. Troubleshoot from there.

Our UI network at work and mine at home have ZERO issues connecting to our UI network. CKG2+, USG and multiple UAP-AC-Pro's in the deployment.

 

[UnknownName]

I had this same issue today with a brand new Model S, and after about 2 hours was able to fix it.

The Unifi setting is "Protected Management Frames" (PMF), which are by default set to "Required" in a new Unifi Wifi network. You've got to set this to "Optional" or "Disabled" in the wifi settings configuration in Unifi. This setting applies to both 2.4ghz and 5ghz networks.