# What Solutions Have You Found to Get WiFi on the Road?



## barjohn (Aug 31, 2017)

Just completed a 6500+ mile road trip and could not find a way to get WiFi while traveling. I tried using my phone as a hot spot, but it will not stay connected to it and it has a hard time connecting to it at all. I tried parking close enough to the hotels to use their WiFi but could never get that to work either. It could not obtain an IP address from their server. Is it worth while purchasing a separate mobile hotspot from Verizon or At&T (or whatever carrier you use) and connecting the car to it? Will it stay connected while driving or only while parked? I obviously can't use my phone while parked overnight as the car would be unlocked. I welcome ideas that have worked for others.


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## JasonF (Oct 26, 2018)

It's probably not worth it to give the car wifi access while traveling unless you're on the roads for months at a time. If there are any updates, you can get those when you get home.


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## barjohn (Aug 31, 2017)

I just completed a one month trip and it would have been nice to have the opportunity to see improvements in NoAP not to mention helpful. I am getting ready to leave on another 3,000 mile trip and being able to test and use the latest improvements to auto pilot are always welcome. Further, when for some reason they do push an LTE update and something goes wrong you frequently really need the ability to complete the update to not have a crippled car.


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## SoFlaModel3 (Apr 15, 2017)

barjohn said:


> I just completed a one month trip and it would have been nice to have the opportunity to see improvements in NoAP not to mention helpful. I am getting ready to leave on another 3,000 mile trip and being able to test and use the latest improvements to auto pilot are always welcome. Further, when for some reason they do push an LTE update and something goes wrong you frequently really need the ability to complete the update to not have a crippled car.


It is for this exact reason that I came to the conclusion I would not ever install an update while on a road trip.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

barjohn said:


> I tried using my phone as a hot spot, but it will not stay connected to it and it has a hard time connecting to it at all.


Strange. I wonder why.
What make/model of phone do you have?
And which wireless service?


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## Bigriver (Jan 26, 2018)

I believe that in one of Bjorn Nyland’s YouTube videos, when he was traveling a lot in his X, that he would find a Tesla service center, park outside, and connect to their WiFi to get updates.


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## FRC (Aug 4, 2018)

SoFlaModel3 said:


> It is for this exact reason that I came to the conclusion I would not ever install an update while on a road trip.


On a recent road trip, I met a guy who installed an update on the road. It was not a fully successful install and he was limping 1500 miles home with limited functionality. So like you, @SoFlaModel3, I will never download an update on the road.


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## barjohn (Aug 31, 2017)

Interesting, everyone has reasons why they don't do it but no one has a solution on how to do it.


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## GDN (Oct 30, 2017)

I have an iPhone X. I've turned it's hotspot on and connected and downloaded a release, all while driving. There is no reason your phones hotspot shouldn't work, but could likely be a million reasons why it doesn't. I won't even mention phones and brands, all I only say it likely isn't an issue with the car. 

You noted not leaving your phone in the car, you can. Turn the Auto Unlock off, hide the phone and lock with your card. No reason that can't work if you really want it connected.


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## JasonF (Oct 26, 2018)

I have to reverse what I said above, because “I just returned from a (month long trip) and I’m just about to go on another one” sounds an awful lot like the exception of someone who’s away from home for months at a time. It’s practically someone who lives out of hotels!

The solution is going to take a little planning. Figure out which cell provider has the most reliable signal AND speeds at your most common stop-for-the-night spots and get a wifi hotspot from one of them, and connect the car to it. Turn it on only when you’re stopped for the night, because eventually the car will go into deep sleep, and then the hotspot will shut off for inactivity. That should be a large enough window to capture any updates.

If you would rather use your cell phone, choose a cell provider who might not have the best signal overall, but has the most stable throughout the trip. You CAN lock your cell phone in the car, just put it in the charging station and close the door so no one can see it. I would personally turn off Bluetooth before doing that to make sure a sudden BT transmission from the phone doesn’t unlock the car.


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## barjohn (Aug 31, 2017)

My phone is an iPhone XS Max on Verizon. It works just fine as a hot spot with my laptop but fails to connect or stay connected to my model 3. Why that would be the case I can't ascertain.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

barjohn said:


> My phone is an iPhone XS Max on Verizon. It works just fine as a hot spot with my laptop but fails to connect or stay connected to my model 3. Why that would be the case I can't ascertain.


I found this troubleshooting guide on Apple's website:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203302

Which Verizon plan do you have? Some of them have strange restrictions on hotspot usage.


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## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

there are also wifi sniffers in the apple app store, so you can find available (public) wifi signals that are within range. In the past I'd tried a couple, and they work fine - but I've had unlimited data on my phone(s), and rarely am without a cell signal so haven't really had a need, so haven't used them except to try it out.


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## barjohn (Aug 31, 2017)

It connects just fine to my laptop while sitting in the car. I am on VZW unlimited plan. I frequently use the hotspot for my laptop when traveling as sometimes it is faster than the local wifi hotspots.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

barjohn said:


> I am on VZW unlimited plan.


All of their plans are called "unlimited", but only some of them allow hotspot usage.
("start unlimited" does not allow hotspots).

https://www.verizonwireless.com/plans/unlimited/


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## barjohn (Aug 31, 2017)

Since the hotspot works just fine with my laptop it isn’t an issue of the hotspot


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

barjohn said:


> Since the hotspot works just fine with my laptop it isn't an issue of the hotspot


Probably not. But in the past, I remember having some weird limitations for hotspot usage. I think maybe it would only allow phones and tablets to use the hotspot, and not other computers.


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## barjohn (Aug 31, 2017)

Yes, but my laptop is neither a phone or a tablet.


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## Gatica (Oct 25, 2018)

I have had no issues using my iPhone XS Max (AT&T) as a hot spot for my Model 3, driving or parked. @barjohn maybe try changing the hotspot password and try connecting it again.


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## barjohn (Aug 31, 2017)

I did try that and tried it again yesterday. I was able to connect to it, though often it doesn't show up as a WiFi access point, but as soon as I started driving it disconnected from it. My car is an April 2018 build on 2019.28.2. Maybe one of those strange bugs that appear on some cars and not others.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

barjohn said:


> I was able to connect to it... but as soon as I started driving it disconnected from it.


I think that's normal behavior.

Try putting the car in drive first, then connecting to the hotspot. See if it stays connected when performed in that order.


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## Long Ranger (Jun 1, 2018)

barjohn said:


> I did try that and tried it again yesterday. I was able to connect to it, though often it doesn't show up as a WiFi access point, but as soon as I started driving it disconnected from it. My car is an April 2018 build on 2019.28.2. Maybe one of those strange bugs that appear on some cars and not others.


Disconnecting from WiFi as soon as you start driving is normal behavior for the Model 3. It expects that WiFi is at a fixed location, so it switches to LTE when you put it in gear. If you want to use a WiFi hotspot, you need to reconnect after putting the car in gear.


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## GDN (Oct 30, 2017)

When you drive it does turn WiFi off from what I recollect.  Once driving I tap the network icon and turn WiFi back on and reconnect to the hotspot.


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## SMITTY (Jan 24, 2019)

barjohn said:


> I did try that and tried it again yesterday. I was able to connect to it, though often it doesn't show up as a WiFi access point, but as soon as I started driving it disconnected from it. My car is an April 2018 build on 2019.28.2. Maybe one of those strange bugs that appear on some cars and not others.


If you connect to hotspot or wifi while parked, it will always disconnects as soon as you put in drive. You have to connect to wifi while driving in order for it to stay connected while driving.


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## airbusav8r (Feb 24, 2019)

Your phones WiFi antenna is not strong enough. The front of the car has a plethora of VHF/UHF waves it is emitting, the WiFi antenna is on the exterior of the vehicle. Your phone has to push a strong enough signal through the windshield, and the very strong signals causing RF interference ... hence the drop out. I found my iPhone X (Verizon unlimited, the actual unlimited) will remain connected if I leave on the dash. Why did I do this? AT&T has horrible service in the west coast mountains, the maps were not working and I needed to find a supercharger so my car used the phone with success for about 3hrs.


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## Kizzy (Jul 25, 2016)

barjohn said:


> Just completed a 6500+ mile road trip and could not find a way to get WiFi while traveling. I tried using my phone as a hot spot, but it will not stay connected to it and it has a hard time connecting to it at all. I tried parking close enough to the hotels to use their WiFi but could never get that to work either. It could not obtain an IP address from their server. Is it worth while purchasing a separate mobile hotspot from Verizon or At&T (or whatever carrier you use) and connecting the car to it? Will it stay connected while driving or only while parked? I obviously can't use my phone while parked overnight as the car would be unlocked. I welcome ideas that have worked for others.


I recently completed a month-Long road trip. Finding WiFi is difficult as many public WiFi options require you agree to terms. Currently, Teslas do not allow you to access the portal page to agree to them. A few times I was able to connect to WiFi without portals, but some networks are either broken or block VPN connections in some way (intentionally or network/bandwidth issues, as experienced with my phone)-and the car requires the VPN connection for internet access to function.

I was sometimes able to get WiFi from friend's homes. A note: the car's WiFi antenna is in the driver's side mirror, so try to aim that toward the WiFi source. Also, I have found that my car's WiFi sensitivity isn't as great as my phone's (iPhone 6s). Also, also, I sometimes suspect that my phone interferes with my car's ability to connect to the same WiFi network.

WiFi is necessary for map updates. When I was in Canada, I had some Supercharger routing issues (Nova Scotia to Ontario-anybody else seen this?), and there was a map update I was not able to download. Could it have fixed my issue?

I was hesitant to update my car's software on a trip, but my lust for new features got the better of me. I stayed in my car once and thought I'd broken a software update, but I think the car (I the screen stays on) knows that its software isn't complete as it's being updated and will report that an update is needed (freaked me out!), but the update completed successfully. The screen was unresponsive, but thankfully I did not attempt a reset.


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## Greg Appelt (Sep 27, 2018)

I pull up close to my McDonald's. They're one of the few businesses that doesn't require going to a web-page to agree to a set of terms and conditions. Most hotels and businesses require authentication via web-page instead of just entering a wifi password.


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