Wifi in car

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philly_ev

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 19, 2013
Messages
47
Question about the wifi. I can see that the car is able to connect to WIFI networks, but I am curious as to what this is used for. I thought it would be for SYNC updates, but the last update needed to be done via flash drive.

Secondly, has anyone been successful in connecting to their wifi network? My wifi network uses WPA2, and I cant seem to enter the password into SYNC. When I try, the numbers or letters aren't able to be selected (they are grayed out).

I haven't installed the new SYNC yet - maybe this will be resolved in that?
 
1. Originally My Ford Touch was to have a web browser on the screen (which would be disabled at speeds greater than 5mph). But due to all the issues with MFT that feature was dropped really early.
2. MFT can also act as a hotspot in the car--I'm not sure if it will re-share the WiFi internet access. I know you can get some USB modems and turn on the WiFi hotspot so the passengers can use internet going down the road (I doubt the FFE's internal cellular modem's internet access can be shared).
3. The 3.6 update allows you to type in numbers and letters but the field length is limited (my wifi password is too long and I could not connect up).
 
jmueller065 said:
2. MFT can also act as a hotspot in the car--I'm not sure if it will re-share the WiFi internet access.
I believe it does re-share. And, I think this is, in fact, the only "reason" to connect the car to wi-fi. That said, you can imagine that the feature is only really usable when the car is motionless (or perhaps driving in a circle around the access point).

AFAIK, the wi-fi connection it not used for anything. Not for software sync updates, or traffic updates, or MFM communications. Those are all handled over the cellular data connection. In short, the wi-fi hookup it is not very useful. I haven't bothered with it.
 
Just wanted to agree. The Sync that was originally in my 2013 FFE was able to take the WIFI password and was able to connect but the latest version won't take enough characters!

I'm not sure what connecting to home network will accomplish. I assume it would be faster communication than default connection.

Two steps forward, one step back...
 
I likewise haven't been able to connect the FFE to my home wifi network, as it won't accept enough characters (26) for my WEP passphrase. I am on the latest update, 3.6 Guess there is no fix for that. How close does a phone have to be to the car to use MYFORD Mobile and do things like start and warm up?
 
Ignore the WiFi issue. Essentially, it serves no logical purpose (that function isn't unique to the FFE, it is in other Focus with My Ford Touch).

Your phone can be anywhere in the world as long as it has a connection to the internet. I'm not joking, you could be in Japan and remote start your car in the US with the app. The internet connection can be through WiFi or cellular phone.
 
JEKEEVJ said:
How close does a phone have to be to the car to use MYFORD Mobile and do things like start and warm up?
As EVA said, your phone isn't directly communicating with the car, and so doesn't have to be anywhere near it. You can be anywhere on the planet with your phone (with a cell connection, and internet capability) to access the "remote" features of your FFE, which could also be anywhere on the planet (with a cell connection, and internet capability).

As it always does, your phone communicates only via your cell provider (in this case, to access the internet) in order to reach the MFM servers, and the servers in turn issue commands to your car via the car's on-board cellular data connection (that's what that little antennae on the top of the car is for).

This is the same process that takes place when you use the MFM website to remote start or remote unlock your car. Your computer isn't communicating directly with your car either... the communication take place over the internet.
 
When I first brought the car home and was looking through all the menus, I too noticed the wifi setting. I was able to have it connect to my wifi because my guest network has a very short password.

For my own reasons, my guest network has a very easy to remember and easy to type in password for my guests.

However, as everyone else has stated, I haven't found the wifi access good for anything.
 
I was playing with the networking features the other day myself. Was able to easily connect to my WPA2-AES network.
As has been stated, the car acts as another NAT/DHCP service to effectively create it's own small WEP/WPA2 encrypted network.

Like jmueller065 said, the idea is to create a wifi hotspot in the car to share internet access from a compatible USB cellular modem, or via a cellular connection from your phone using Bluetooth PAN.
Sadly it doesn't appear the Bluetooth PAN option works with my iPhone 5. I'm still on AT&T's unlimited data plan, and I know they don't let me use hotspot features... so I'm not sure if it's an iOS or AT&T limitation.

Seems like a cool, albeit unused, feature.
 
I joined the thread today because I could not connect to my wifi at home. I did in the past, though as most said, Why?

Consider this: you are in a rare situation where either you are allowed a limited number of connections, or you want to do in car networking of items - it will use one wifi as one connection then DCHP your devices. Or you are say on a cable wifi connection then DCHP connection your other non cellular devices.

It also helps protect your devices from the public network you might be connecting to.

It's neat and works rather well, however we just don't have a big time use for it. My grandson has a somewhat deaf wifi device he enjoys so connecting to the car improves his connectivity.

It's also easier to have multiple devices make one connection to the car and then make one connection to the wifi hotspot...

Food for thought. You still probably will rarely use it.

Now back to why I am not able to connect... is it because of the modem upgrade to 3G? Mine was upgraded... Hmmm...
 
I don't get it... you park at home (so the car can connect to your home wifi) and then you sit in your car connecting and using your devices?

Wouldn't you rather be in your house using your devices?
 
WattsUp said:
I don't get it... you park at home (so the car can connect to your home wifi) and then you sit in your car connecting and using your devices?

1. SYNC3 supposedly automatically checks over Wi-Fi for system updates. I don't know when it checks, but it would be good to have Wi-Fi available when it does.
2. You're not always at home when you charge. A public charging station with Wi-Fi access is a very nice place to watch YouTube/Netflix on a tablet. (And I finally found a way to overcome the 1s audio delay you get over Bluetooth/USB: I bought a cheap FM transmitter.)
 
Originally, why did Ford add the WiFi connection? Because it probably came free on some computer board they bought. And then they thought it would be some amazing marketing ploy. Remember when some car maker (think it was Chevy) was all so so cool because their car was a hotspot and you could connect all your devices inside the car to that one car WiFi connection?

So Ford probably went down the path half baked. Put the cheap thing in first. Then figured out it was expensive to put in a cellular modem. And that nobody would pay Ford for the data service inside the car. So we had this lame piece of uselessness left over from a good idea gone really bad.

Don't know about Sync3 - it would surprise me if Ford could figure out or would want to do over the air updates to the car. Shoot that would be like too much the right thing to do, and it would cost them a ton of money, and their dealers wouldn't be able to charge to update the firmware for people scared of USB sticks and updating themselves.

I think the WiFi thing, at least in Sync 2 cars is a thing that serves absolutely no purpose.

As Wattsup said - why the heck would you connect a hotspot to the car and then connect your devices to the car? Hotspots ALL allow multiple devices connected to them. And when you're sitting at home, why would you connect to the car instead of directly to your home network? If you have a limited number of connections allowed by your router - go spend $20 on an extender- or you have the wrong router and need an upgrade.

And to the OP - added security? I don't think Ford built in any kind of security on the car network. It isn't any more secure than the hotspot you are connecting to the car.
 
EVA said:
Originally, why did Ford add the WiFi connection? Because it probably came free on some computer board they bought. And then they thought it would be some amazing marketing ploy. Remember when some car maker (think it was Chevy) was all so so cool because their car was a hotspot and you could connect all your devices inside the car to that one car WiFi connection?

So Ford probably went down the path half baked. Put the cheap thing in first. Then figured out it was expensive to put in a cellular modem. And that nobody would pay Ford for the data service inside the car. So we had this lame piece of uselessness left over from a good idea gone really bad.

Don't know about Sync3 - it would surprise me if Ford could figure out or would want to do over the air updates to the car. Shoot that would be like too much the right thing to do, and it would cost them a ton of money, and their dealers wouldn't be able to charge to update the firmware for people scared of USB sticks and updating themselves.

I think the WiFi thing, at least in Sync 2 cars is a thing that serves absolutely no purpose.

As Wattsup said - why the heck would you connect a hotspot to the car and then connect your devices to the car? Hotspots ALL allow multiple devices connected to them. And when you're sitting at home, why would you connect to the car instead of directly to your home network? If you have a limited number of connections allowed by your router - go spend $20 on an extender- or you have the wrong router and need an upgrade.

And to the OP - added security? I don't think Ford built in any kind of security on the car network. It isn't any more secure than the hotspot you are connecting to the car.
Remember: MFT/Sync 2 originally was Microsoft. All that came for the ride because its windows (networking, etc.). There was even plans to have a browser in the window but as the project got more and more behind and buggy more and more features were "decontented" such as the browser, hot spot.

The hotspot feature did work but you had to buy a separate USB cellular modem (e.g. the customer's $$) MFT would recognize it when you plugged it in and provide a hotspot for the car (thus providing a hotspot when connected to wifi isn't/wasn't the original intended idea--in fact I don't think that works because you're changing the wifi driver's mode to a hotspot; once you do that it cannot sync up with a wifi network).

Sync 3: There was an intent for you to get software updates via WiFi connection on sync 3, but again...it doesn't work.
 
jmueller065 said:
Sync 3: There was an intent for you to get software updates via WiFi connection on sync 3, but again...it doesn't work.

According to owner.ford.com, my system was updated on May 26, three days after I brought it home from the dealer. It seems that OTA updates are working, or they are lying about the installed date.
 
ghiebert said:
jmueller065 said:
Sync 3: There was an intent for you to get software updates via WiFi connection on sync 3, but again...it doesn't work.

According to owner.ford.com, my system was updated on May 26, three days after I brought it home from the dealer. It seems that OTA updates are working, or they are lying about the installed date.

It is also possible that Ford's database was updated 3 days after you brought it home.
 
The 2017 model is supposed to do Sync 3 automatic updates over the Wi-Fi. I let my 2017 FFE connected to my home Wi-Fi just in case there is a software push. Other than that I haven't seen much use for Wi-Fi on my FFEs.
 
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