Anyone else having sync3 wifi issues?

[FISHTAIL]

its always nice to talk to someone that understand networking,
but i am telling you, the sync3 firmware is all sorts of jacked up. in my case scenario it wouldnt let me connect unless i put the 2.4 network on AUTO to allow it to connect.
then in my specific case scenario i isolated the issue to channel 11 (dont ask me why, ask FORD dev).

either way per ur request here is my specific set up:
WPA-2-Personal.
MAC address filtering
27 client DHCP list with reservation
12 characters complex password (Lower,Upper,number,special character).

when i got my car i went through all that you are describing right now and the ONLY thing that worked for me was setting the 2.4 to AUTO chanel assignment, connect, grab the MAC and set everything back to what it was .

now, the way i see it. we can write here all of our years of knowledge in networking in details, or u can go to ur router, set it to AUTO attempt to connect ur car and continue from there.
u dont need to change anything on ur NEST or any client as you are doing this FOR TESTING ...
. ya know

It's interesting you mentioned channel 11...because I know that's what this network is on. Channel 1 is clear in my area too, and my wireless G network is down there. I'll try flipping them. All my nearby neighbors that I can see are using channel 6.

Our setups are similar, though I turned off the MAC address filtering on this router because I live out in the sticks..if someone wants to come in and hack that network so they can hack my thermostats to shut my A/C off then they have way too much free time. Plus, this is where I let visitors connect and I get tired of pulling MAC addresses off of everything to let them on for the weekend.

I still don't get why letting the frequency shift fixed the issue unless it resolved some kind of antenna signal strength problem with the Sync setup. It's not like it can leverage multiple channels simultaneously like some of the companies do to advertise increased throughput when you buy like hardware.

How much signal strength do you have at the car? And once you got the car to register the network you were then able to revert back to the original channel you were set on and it continued to work? That's just weird man...really weird. I'm almost wondering if this is all related to signal strength...channel 11 is the highest frequency in the band...I wonder if the transmitter on the sync system is really that weak and the router is getting a corrupted request.

Now I want to understand why this is doing what it is. Did you check your router logs when this was failing to see if the router was complaining about anything? I might try that tonight...I hate writing off issues to RF.

Regarding that last bit, I would actually like to learn what you know..lol. I'm a software engineer (ie, developer), not a network guy. I know enough about networks to get around (because the software I work with deals a lot with running across multiple nodes), but it's not in my day to day wheel house to fuss with router configurations.

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[FordIVTteam]

Awesome. So this resets the wifi module only? Or does it also reset all the radio presets? Just curious.

Also, see my previous comment. Is what I dug up about password length true?

The reset only resets the module so you won't lose any radio presets. I haven't heard anything of the passwords needing to be less than 10 characters, but have you tried changing it just to see what happens?

Cara

 

[m.a.s.e]

It's interesting you mentioned channel 11...because I know that's what this network is on. Channel 1 is clear in my area too, and my wireless G network is down there. I'll try flipping them. All my nearby neighbors that I can see are using channel 6.

Even more reason to give it a try, PS who uses G anymore? all my clients are N and AC. i blocked mixed mode and shut down A/B/G all together in my scenario.

Our setups are similar, though I turned off the MAC address filtering on this router because I live out in the sticks..if someone wants to come in and hack that network so they can hack my thermostats to shut my A/C off then they have way too much free time.

LOL. Toche'

Plus, this is where I let visitors connect and I get tired of pulling MAC addresses off of everything to let them on for the weekend.

you are a much nicer man then I am, i do not allow people to access my network, if they do need on the rare occasion i disable MAC filter and open by Guest Network with 24 hour lease.

I still don't get why letting the frequency shift fixed the issue unless it resolved some kind of antenna signal strength problem with the Sync setup. It's not like it can leverage multiple channels simultaneously like some of the companies do to advertise increased throughput when you buy like hardware.

My guess is that the Sync 3 software is designed with too frequetst channel hopping to allow a "stable" connection. and if u set to a specific one the software is not designed to properly "Scan" but uses the last known it had. if thats the case it will explain why it wasnt connecting but then it does. u cant know which channel is currently being used by the software. its bad design.

How much signal strength do you have at the car? And once you got the car to register the network you were then able to revert back to the original channel you were set on and it continued to work? That's just weird man...really weird. I'm almost wondering if this is all related to signal strength...channel 11 is the highest frequency in the band...I wonder if the transmitter on the sync system is really that weak and the router is getting a corrupted request.

When i connected originally i had the WRT1900AC with WRT firmware on it. Signal strength was 4 bars (GUI), i never measured DB. now i have the new EA9500. strength was never an issue for me in my house. i live in texas in a 3500 sqft house.

Now I want to understand why this is doing what it is. Did you check your router logs when this was failing to see if the router was complaining about anything? I might try that tonight...I hate writing off issues to RF.

if my theory is correct and it is infact a channel issue, then the design for channel hop is the RCA (Root Cause Analysis). as mentioned the WRT was originally the router, i had the logs but since upgraded so don't have them anymore. in my current EA9500 i left alone the 2.4 on AUTO since the EA9500 have 3 Bands. my Sync3 is the ONLY client i have running on 2.4 all the rest of my in home clients are running AC and some are on N and so i put them all on the 2 5GHz networks.

Regarding that last bit, I would actually like to learn what you know..lol. I'm a software engineer (ie, developer), not a network guy. I know enough about networks to get around (because the software I work with deals a lot with running across multiple nodes), but it's not in my day to day wheel house to fuss with router configurations.

I myself work as a Manager of the Tier 3 Systems Engineering group at a company called "VMware".... i have like you good networking experience but not in depth leaf switches core site config level, but enough to know the Sync3 firmware needs a major update.... hopefully the next OTA will fix some bugs.

 

[FISHTAIL]

Even more reason to give it a try, PS who uses G anymore? all my clients are N and AC. i blocked mixed mode and shut down A/B/G all together in my scenario.

LOL, yeah...about that. I have some legacy stuff around that still gets online. I build a libuntu box for the kids to play with (old P4 setup) that needs it. Plus our old ipods, older gaming consoles, and some older laptops that still get occasional use.

you are a much nicer man then I am, i do not allow people to access my network, if they do need on the rare occasion i disable MAC filter and open by Guest Network with 24 hour lease.


My guess is that the Sync 3 software is designed with too frequetst channel hopping to allow a "stable" connection. and if u set to a specific one the software is not designed to properly "Scan" but uses the last known it had. if thats the case it will explain why it wasnt connecting but then it does. u cant know which channel is currently being used by the software. its bad design.


When i connected originally i had the WRT1900AC with WRT firmware on it. Signal strength was 4 bars (GUI), i never measured DB. now i have the new EA9500. strength was never an issue for me in my house. i live in texas in a 3500 sqft house.

The gui on mine shows 1 bar, so that might be part of the issue. My house is of a similar size, but the car is in the driveway. The garage is full up with foxbodies, so the S550 gets to live outside with the wifes Explorer and my old dodge ram. My phone has no issues streaming video over wifi while IN the car, so I suspect the antenna on the sync system is crappy. Both of my routers are currently in the basement. I've been considering moving one of them up into the office to boost signal strength for that network on the 2nd floor and allow my wife to plug in with a cat 5 cable for her laptop when she needs to work from home.

As for guests...it's usually the inlaws, and they come over to watch the kids frequently when they are sick on zero notice. My MIL is always hauling some new PC or tablet or something over, so I would rather not keep track of all her devices. I just shove her on the network away from any other computers so she can't hurt anything. Not that she really could anyway, I only have one windows box and it's never powered up. Everything else is Linux or Mac.

if my theory is correct and it is infact a channel issue, then the design for channel hop is the RCA (Root Cause Analysis). as mentioned the WRT was originally the router, i had the logs but since upgraded so don't have them anymore. in my current EA9500 i left alone the 2.4 on AUTO since the EA9500 have 3 Bands. my Sync3 is the ONLY client i have running on 2.4 all the rest of my in home clients are running AC and some are on N and so i put them all on the 2 5GHz networks.


I myself work as a Manager of the Tier 3 Systems Engineering group at a company called "VMware".... i have like you good networking experience but not in depth leaf switches core site config level, but enough to know the Sync3 firmware needs a major update.... hopefully the next OTA will fix some bugs.

"VMware" eh? I may have heard of such a thing. lol. I'm a government contractor, been working for the same small company for 13 years now writing software. I've done hardware control, real time processes that relied on shared memory, lots of data in/data out stuff, some web programming, some gui work etc. I get to work on all kinds of stuff, but mostly code in C these days.

 

[m.a.s.e]

LOL, yeah...about that. I have some legacy stuff around that still gets online. I build a libuntu box for the kids to play with (old P4 setup) that needs it. Plus our old ipods, older gaming consoles, and some older laptops that still get occasional use.




The gui on mine shows 1 bar, so that might be part of the issue. My house is of a similar size, but the car is in the driveway. The garage is full up with foxbodies, so the S550 gets to live outside with the wifes Explorer and my old dodge ram. My phone has no issues streaming video over wifi while IN the car, so I suspect the antenna on the sync system is crappy. Both of my routers are currently in the basement. I've been considering moving one of them up into the office to boost signal strength for that network on the 2nd floor and allow my wife to plug in with a cat 5 cable for her laptop when she needs to work from home.

As for guests...it's usually the inlaws, and they come over to watch the kids frequently when they are sick on zero notice. My MIL is always hauling some new PC or tablet or something over, so I would rather not keep track of all her devices. I just shove her on the network away from any other computers so she can't hurt anything. Not that she really could anyway, I only have one windows box and it's never powered up. Everything else is Linux or Mac.



"VMware" eh? I may have heard of such a thing. lol. I'm a government contractor, been working for the same small company for 13 years now writing software. I've done hardware control, real time processes that relied on shared memory, lots of data in/data out stuff, some web programming, some gui work etc. I get to work on all kinds of stuff, but mostly code in C these days.

I'm afraid to leave my stang outside

Why won't you get a second router to set as a bridge to extend your range like u said. I have no doubt in my mind the ford wifi antenna sucks, they don usually put much effort in inside car technology....

You can also maybe get a second router network just for the g clients and 2.4 network to segregate your traffic and assign internal ips but nat the traffic via the main router public ip. Or you can build a vm inside ur main machine and route all traffic through that vm and have more control over traffic and assignment with a simple network management software. Just a few ideas.... That way u can set Mac filtering on main network while keep older devices and guest traffic via another...

 

[m.a.s.e]

Oh... and I HATED c++

 

[HizliBullet]

try using ur phone as a hotspot to hook up to the internet

 

[FISHTAIL]

I'm afraid to leave my stang outside

Why won't you get a second router to set as a bridge to extend your range like u said. I have no doubt in my mind the ford wifi antenna sucks, they don usually put much effort in inside car technology....

You can also maybe get a second router network just for the g clients and 2.4 network to segregate your traffic and assign internal ips but nat the traffic via the main router public ip. Or you can build a vm inside ur main machine and route all traffic through that vm and have more control over traffic and assignment with a simple network management software. Just a few ideas.... That way u can set Mac filtering on main network while keep older devices and guest traffic via another...

Already partway there. I have fios, and my actiontec is my G router. The Cisco handles the N and dual band N traffic. The Cisco sits inside the DMZ of the Actiontech, behind it's own firewall. Never bothered to go further than that though, since I'm so far out and we never leave computers on so there isn't anything anyone could really get into. Even the one machine we use for finance work has all the finance info saved on removable drives...so even if that machine were left on the media with the important info on it isn't physically attached. It's the Cisco I've considered moving up a floor, but I just haven't had the time to run the wire.

I'm not a big C++ fan either. I enjoy coding in Java though when I get a chance. But mostly I get to deal with C, which is fine with me.

The only VM's I run at home are windows VM's. Specifically XP VMs on my mac and one Ubuntu machine for the tuning software I use with TwEECer in the fox.

 

[FISHTAIL]

try using ur phone as a hotspot to hook up to the internet

I was considering that on the way home actually.

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