Ranger built in Hot Spot

[Monty]

Finally activated the Ranger on-board Hot Spot and all the family phones can see it - No problems. The problem is that the Ranger's "Scan Wifi" feature cannot see the Hot Spot. Just don't make sense. Anyone got any gotcha's to help out an old school kinda guy!

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[SandBaja]

As long as you can connect the family phones and apps on sync then you should be done. Pg 407 of the manual gives limited guidance plus web link.
https://owner.ford.com/support/how-tos/sync/sync-3/apps-and-connected-car/wifi-hotspot-setup.html

 

[outdoorphotog]

I was trying to figure out the advantage of the wifi. I have a dataplan on my phone, but what could be useful by having the wifi in the truck?

This is the first vehicle i had with any tech in it so perhaps i am far behind the times.

 

[shred5]

I was trying to figure out the advantage of the wifi. I have a dataplan on my phone, but what could be useful by having the wifi in the truck?

This is the first vehicle i had with any tech in it so perhaps i am far behind the times.

You can hook up anything that does not have cell like tablets or laptops.

I do allot of trips and several people can stream off it.

It has its own data plan.. I think I was paying 20.00 unlimited on my Colorado..

It is a hotspot.

Granddaughter and Sandy stream movies on their tablets on long trips.

 

[outdoorphotog]

You can hook up anything that does not have cell like tablets or laptops.

I do allot of trips and several people can stream off it.

It has its own data plan.. I think I was paying 20.00 unlimited on my Colorado..

It is a hotspot.

Granddaughter and Sandy stream movies on their tablets on ling trips.

I see, that makes sense to me.

 

[phutchin]

I was trying to figure out the advantage of the wifi. I have a dataplan on my phone, but what could be useful by having the wifi in the truck?

This is the first vehicle i had with any tech in it so perhaps i am far behind the times.

I have a dataplan with my phone as well but I still went with the unlimited plan for the truck. Anecdotally, I feel like the truck's cell signal is generally stronger than my phone gets and can make it through some dead spots that my phone usually loses signal. My guess is that the antenna is larger since it doesn't have to fit in your pocket.

 

[Monty]

Nobody has addressed my thread Issue. That is that the built in modem cannot be seen by the Ranger's wifi Scan function. Which doesn't make any sense. What about it guys..any thoughts?

 

[JaysOnTheEDGE]

Nobody has addressed my thread Issue. That is that the built in modem cannot be seen by the Ranger's wifi Scan function. Which doesn't make any sense. What about it guys..any thoughts?

My truck wont see it either, as a test i took a spare router i had and made it the same wifi name and passkey as my trucks hot spot. Went out to the truck and connected it to the trucks wifi scan function once it connected i shut the router off and and power power cycled sync and the wifi scan didn't reconnect to the hotspot wifi.

I though the wifi scan only used for sync updates though? and isn't the truck connected to the modem already as the myfordpass feature works to lock,unlock, and remote start the truck. isn't a cellular connection required

 

[CoastieN70]

Nobody has addressed my thread Issue. That is that the built in modem cannot be seen by the Ranger's wifi Scan function. Which doesn't make any sense. What about it guys..any thoughts?

I may be incorrect ( because I'm never wrong ) but if the trucks modem and WIFI both run through SYNC, then it would make sense that SYNC would not allow the type interaction you are trying. Kinda like putting a "Y Connector on and outdoor spigot and connecting both ends of a hose to that "Y Connector."
Just my take on it...

 

[SandBaja]

I suspect it because it is internal (part of sync, either cable connected or built in) and the scan only reads external wifi.

 

[shred5]

You have to set the wifi hot spot up so you can connect to it. There may be a default SSD and PW already set but I do not remember. But it is in the settings somewhere.. You need to set up a ssid and pw. You may have to enable wifi too I do not remember. Once you do you then have to set it up through att to use it. Once your tablet or laptop connects to your wifi hot spot and you open your browser it will redirect you to att website to set up the 3 free months.

If were not in the middle of a ice/snow storm I would go out and check exactly what needs to be done...
Might be able to set up the hot spot through my pass app too..

 

[J Haggerty (RADAR1)]

I was trying to figure out the advantage of the wifi. I have a dataplan on my phone, but what could be useful by having the wifi in the truck?

This is the first vehicle i had with any tech in it so perhaps i am far behind the times.

Another advantage if you have a different carrier is if you are in a dead spot with your carrier, the built in WiFi using AT&T might still have coverage.

 

[svache]

Another advantage if you have a different carrier is if you are in a dead spot with your carrier, the built in WiFi using AT&T might still have coverage.

That is, if you have a different carrier lol

 

[JaysOnTheEDGE]

i love the truck hot spot i'm a mobile technician and it is so nice having the ability to connect my laptop on the go without looking for free wifi all the time. i just wish there was a way it could stay on after the key is out even if it was just for 30 minutes or so.

 

[GT5050]

Finally activated the Ranger on-board Hot Spot and all the family phones can see it - No problems. The problem is that the Ranger's "Scan Wifi" feature cannot see the Hot Spot. Just don't make sense. Anyone got any gotcha's to help out an old school kinda guy!

I assume what you are trying to do is to hook the Ranger up to its own hotspot, like you would hook it up to your home’s wifi, for software updates and such?

The answer is it can’t be done and the vehicle will not recognize its own wifi network as you’ve found out. But my understanding is that it’s by design - not sure why. I am pretty sure that the wifi updates are designed to be downloaded when the vehicle is stationary and it will keep receiving updates for a period of time even after the vehicle is off. However, the hotspot only works when the engine or at least accessory power is running, and in most cases there would be very little overlap of the two. Either the vehicle is running and moving, or stationary and off. So as it’s currently set up there would be no benefit to hooking the truck up to its own wifi for updates.

I’d like to believe that in the future Ford will simply leverage the modem itself for pushing updates to the car, but wifi updates started with Sync 3 and there were many Sync 3 vehicles built in prior years that weren’t equipped with modems like almost all of the current lineup is...

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