Connecting to WiFi?

C

Chibana

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2009 Mazda RX-8
Has anyone had any luck with connecting his/her 2014 Mazda3 to a WiFi network? I tried at home multiple times and now I just tried at work with no luck. At home the signal may have been too weak in the garage, even with the door to the house open, but here at work where I park, the signal appears to be pretty strong. Still no luck. In both locations the system stopped listing available networks after I tried a couple of times to connect unsuccessfully, which was annoying. Turning off WiFi and turning it back on didn't bring back the list. It's my understanding that at least some types of updates can be done if the car is connected to the Internet via WiFi.
 
My phone is tethered to the car. Far as what you are able to do with the wifi I'm not exactly sure yet besides traffic data and gas prices.
 
I connected mine to wifi. Took a few times (good signal / WPA2 PSK for wifi).
After a few minutes, I got weather and gas price info showing up.
So it's mostly useless to me :)
 
I thought I read somewhere that certain updates (Gracenote, maybe infotainment updates?) could be done over WiFi? Maybe I'm just having a brain fart.
 
I connected mine to my home WiFi. But considering traffic comes over XM, I can't for the life of me figure out why I'd connect to WiFi. So I turned it back off. :)
 
Traffic comes over XM? I had read it comes over your phone if you have mobile hotspot functionality (and I don't). My free XM subscription doesn't even include Sirius TravelLink and all that like my Focus subscription did. Are you sure it comes over XM?
 
Fuel prices also works with a tethered phone as does weather and detailed traffic. So far havent really gotten the detailed traffic to work yet
 
I believe that tethered phone has to have the mobile hotspot feature, correct? Mine does not. Work did not want to pay for that.
 
Will a verizon mifi device work? I could just leave that in the car all the time plugged in for wifi. my phone doesn't have the tethering feature as I still have an unlimited plan from AT&T and they won't let you use tethering unless you give up your unlimited data and pay them more :(
 
Yeah my carrier (att) has tethering blocked on the note 2 but I run my own custom firmware with it enabled. As long as I dont download anything big it wont be noticed. Its limited to just the car, which doesnt pull much data.
 
correct: traffic comes over HD radio. You need good signal as it gets the images one square/rectangle at a time. i.e. I had some situation where the part of the map I cared about was not visible (gray).
It's not clear how much is integrated with the nav system, as nav can do some detour in case of traffic jam / accident it seems...
 
Has anyone been able to determine if the WiFi connection remains alive when the car is off - for example when parked in the garage and connected to a home wireless network? Ideally it would be a seamless transition from a smartphone mobile hotspot while on the road to the home network.
 
civuck said:
Has anyone been able to determine if the WiFi connection remains alive when the car is off - for example when parked in the garage and connected to a home wireless network? Ideally it would be a seamless transition from a smartphone mobile hotspot while on the road to the home network.
Click to expand...

The WIFI connection turns off when the car is off
 
That's unfortunate - what a blown opportunity.

It's staggering how much the Auto companies "just don't get it" when it comes to connectivity to their products in 2013. They are so far behind other industries in that regard, it's not funny.
 
Given the fact that it would run down the battery, I think anyone coming home from a week long trip might be very unhappy if their WiFi stayed on the whole time, and their car needed a jump start after getting off the plane.
 
npaladin2000 said:
Given the fact that it would run down the battery, I think anyone coming home from a week long trip might be very unhappy if their WiFi stayed on the whole time, and their car needed a jump start after getting off the plane.
Click to expand...
That's a consideration for sure - but I would expect any implementation would be "power supply" aware meaning it would disable itself if the power source was getting low. Given the smart design of devices like the iPad that need very little power to maintain a wifi connection while sleeping, I think a car battery would be ample for extended periods before it would have to disconnect.
 
Gracenot Update

Chibana said:
I thought I read somewhere that certain updates (Gracenote, maybe infotainment updates?) could be done over WiFi? Maybe I'm just having a brain fart.
Click to expand...

In the 2014 Mazda3 this is listed as 'Music Database Update'. You cannot update by Wifi. The file must be to large. You have to download it and update through USB only.
 
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