Already PM'd FordIVTeam - but just in case someone else has done this successfully and can help. I have a USB Modem and want to use Ford's WiFi router in the vehicle with it. I have ATT 313U.

Before I go much further, multiple tmes I get referred to this article. How to Turn Your Vehicle into a Wifi Hotspot | SYNC Help | Official Ford Owner Site This is not what I want to do.

I plug in the modem and the lights on it tell me it is on and working. How do you get Sync to login and use it. I can conect my laptop to the WiFI network but there is not internet connectivity. The DNS server is ktp.ford.com and I can't figure out where to change that out either. Anyhelp would be appreciated.

 

Beginning to think that the USB modem isn't supported. Now I am getting the no device inserted messages...

Read up on it and there are VERY few USB modems that are supported. In fact, most phones will not support WiFi sharing via bluetooth either. Which is sorta OK since my phone has a bulit in and approved WiFi hotspot anyways...

I hate using the phone as the hotspot though.

 

The ATT 313U is a USB device that requires software to be installed. It requires a physical connection to a laptop or computer so the software can operate the device. Plugging this unit into the truck USB port will not work. The truck USB port will provide power but no software install to actually operate the device.

You need something like the AT&T Unite Pro AT&T Velocity. They are mobile hot spots. The truck can connect to them via the radio but doesn't help since these are moble hotspots.

You can connect a smartphone to the truck via bluetooth and then use the truck "wifi" to act as a mobile hotspot to access the your phone plans data.

Might be wrong, but seriously doubt you will get the ATT 313U to work as you are wanting.

 

Larry you are correct. I thought the MFT device was a little smart than that and apparently it is not. Just like the APPS part of the settings makes you think that you could add APPS to the device and you cannot.

Unfortunately, none of our fairly new smart phones or tablet (that has cell data) will allow the sharing of that data via bluetooth. They do however have their own mobile hotspot program so I can just do that. I was just trying to be "fancy".

 

I use my phone..and then the select few that I allow has wifi.


I use it a lot when we are traveling.


Downside is it eats the battery life so you need to plug it into a charger.

 

Hey everyone!

Here are the devices that have been tested and known to work with MFT:

Mercury - USBConnect Mercury (AT&T)
Sierra Wireless - USB 598 (Sprint)

We do recommend using your phone connection for this feature though.

I hope everyone has a great holiday weekend!

Rebecca

 

I just have a Verizon Wireless Novatel Mifi type hotspot wifi/router that I have permanently installed in my truck and it always on to supply 4glte wifi service to various personal/work devices that I have authorized by mac address to work with the masked SSID.

Be prepared to manage your data plan with your carrier as media content (streaming audio from various sources) does work very very well, but can chew through a lot of data. I often just connect back to libraries of media content on my web server.

The device that is supplying the input to the Ford Sync Audio system is then connected via the hard USB cable so that the content embedded art and tags all show on the content menus on the Sync Audio system. If connected by only Blue tooth, those features are generally not available.

I have used it at times with an external antennae on the roof, but the external antennae does not seem to increase the available verizon signal that much when I may be in fringe service areas. Not sure if I have a faulty antennae, faulty hotspot external antennae connection of it is just the way it is. The antennae is supposed to offer an additional 9db gain.

 

I did extensive testing in our fleet with external high gain antenna vs. Built in and we found the same thing. And we even used dual antennas and powered antennas in our testing. And this was logged data with a cell phone engineer.

Thanks for the help and replying Rebecca.

 

I've used 2 different hot spots supplied by AT&T. Both of them work well as hotspots, but are stone-dumb about charging and overheat/shutdown easily. I would REALLY like to find something that I could plug in and forget. Looks like I'll have to see if Novatel has anything that works with AT&T.

A device inside your vehicle with an internal antenna probably has close to 15 dB of loss compared to an antenna mounted on the roof of your vehicle. I suspect that the antenna port connection in the devices is very inefficient. Cellphone companies have always been cellPHONE companies. Two-way radio systems engineers look for losses in the 0.5 dB (decibel) range in their antenna systems. Cellular/wireless phone system engineers routinely design 8-10 dB losses into their antenna systems to combine transmit power or split receive signal. For reference, the difference between 10 and 100 watts is 10 dB.

For the city, these types of losses don't matter, because towers have to be very close together to handle capacity. Out in the wide open spaces, however, coverage, not capacity, is the issue. Since most of the customers are in the cities, you know how the story ends...

 

doesn't everything eat the battery? TorquePro, Waze, hotspot, ...