Issue - "Unable to connect" when connecting to WiFi (SOLVED)

TheSteelRider

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User @CP-Mach-E reported that he had issues connecting to his home WiFi, when connecting to other access points like his phone hotspot worked fine.

Problem #2 - Wi-Fi

As soon as I got home, I tried connecting to my home Wi-Fi network. I was unable to connect. I spent a significant amount of time trying to get this to work. Nothing I did made any difference. I have two Wi-Fi Access Points in my house. I tried connecting to both of them. No luck with either one.

When I type in the wrong password, it tells me that the password is wrong. When I type in the correct password, it just says that it was "Unable to connect". This tells me two things. 1 - It is definitely communicating with the access point. 2 - I'm not typing in the wrong password.

I was able to connect the Mach-E to the Wi-Fi access point on my phone when I set the phone up as a Wi-Fi hotspot, so I know that the car is able to connect to a Wi-Fi network. Just not the network in my house. We have countless Wi-Fi devices in the house, and they are all connected just fine, so I know my home Wi-Fi is working properly. I have no idea why the car won't connect to it, but for some reason it just won't.
He brought it to the dealer, and their response
I just got back from picking up the car. The result is pretty much what I expected:

Wi-Fi
They connected it to the Wi-Fi at the dealer and concluded that it was working fine. It still refused to connect to my Wi-Fi when I got home.

I'll be spending the weekend to see if I can get the Wi-Fi working. I'm pretty sure it is an DHCP issue. I'll update the thread as I find out more.
The issue ended up being an incompatibility with DNSmasq running on the user's Synology NAS.
Good news. I finally got my Mach-E connected to my Wi-Fi.

My suspicion was correct. It was the DHCP server that the Mach-E didn't like. It appears as though there is an incompatibility between the Sync 4 software and the DHCP software that is running on the Synology NAS (Synology uses Dnsmasq for its DHCP server).

I disabled the DHCP server on my NAS and configured the DHCP server on my Ubiquity EdgeRouter X. Once I did that the Mach-E connected right away.

While I was troubleshooting the issue last night, I discovered in the Synology DHCP server's log files that it was assigning an address to the car (i.e. an ACK was being sent), but for some reason the Mach-E just wasn't accepting it.

Now I just need to figure out how to let Ford know about the incompatibility. Not that it matters to me anymore. I'll just keep using the DHCP server on my router, but it would be great if Ford could fix it so that nobody else runs into the same issue.
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TheSteelRider

TheSteelRider

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If you are troubleshooting WiFi connection issues, you can find your Sync4 system's MAC address on the "About SYNC" page. You can then go to your router, DNS server, etc. and investigate whether your network is seeing the MAC address.


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agoldman

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I hope this is just an issue with synology router and not a simple Synology NAS iused for backup storage. Lots of people like myself have sunology home NAS units.
 

methorian

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I hope this is just an issue with synology router and not a simple Synology NAS iused for backup storage. Lots of people like myself have sunology home NAS units.
It was simply an issue with the Synology DHCP service that person was using. Nothing to do with having a Synology NAS on your network.
 

CarboFE

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I am having the exact same problem with my FE that I picked up yesterday. I get "Unable to connect" error message when I try to connect to home WIFI, but it will connect to my iPhone as a hotspot.

Everything else, including my ChargePoint EVSE, connects just fine in the same location.

I'm not network savvy at at all, but I do know that I have multiple Ubiquiti access points, including one in the garage itself.

Could someone more knowledgeable give me some guidance as to what to tell my "network guy" to point him in the right direction?

Thanks.
 


methorian

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I am having the exact same problem with my FE that I picked up yesterday. I get "Unable to connect" error message when I try to connect to home WIFI, but it will connect to my iPhone as a hotspot.

Everything else, including my ChargePoint EVSE, connects just fine in the same location.

I'm not network savvy at at all, but I do know that I have multiple Ubiquiti access points, including one in the garage itself.

Could someone more knowledgeable give me some guidance as to what to tell my "network guy" to point him in the right direction?

Thanks.
Not sure I can give guidance as to what to tell your networking guy, other than that you have a device that doesn't like your network for some reason. Maybe ask, or you'll know, do you have a "converged" Wifi network, where 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands are all on the same SSID, or are they separated out?

I have Ubiquiti/Unifi equipment myself, but I have separate SSID's for 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz. I connected my Mach-E to the 2.4Ghz band without issue. I connected it to my more "open" private network, not the one I have just for IoT devices that has some extra rules in place.

I do use a Pi-Hole for DNS as well, but that wasn't/isn't an issue for me.
 

CarboFE

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Not sure I can give guidance as to what to tell your networking guy, other than that you have a device that doesn't like your network for some reason. Maybe ask, or you'll know, do you have a "converged" Wifi network, where 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands are all on the same SSID, or are they separated out?

I have Ubiquiti/Unifi equipment myself, but I have separate SSID's for 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz. I connected my Mach-E to the 2.4Ghz band without issue. I connected it to my more "open" private network, not the one I have just for IoT devices that has some extra rules in place.

I do use a Pi-Hole for DNS as well, but that wasn't/isn't an issue for me.
Thanks. My network is converged, same SSID for both frequencies. I'm going to talk to him tomorrow and see what he thinks.
 

CarboFE

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Thanks. My network is converged, same SSID for both frequencies. I'm going to talk to him tomorrow and see what he thinks.
Had the network split into separate 5ghz/2.4ghz SSIDs, but that didn't work.

Today I spent 45 minutes on the phone with Ford customer service, who eventually told me they don't have information at their disposal to tell me. No help. Only the suggestion to contact my dealer.

I do believe she was trying to help. Said she spoke with her manager, but there just isn't any info that they can access to help. I suspected as much anyway, but wanted to have the issue logged and hopefully escalated within Ford.
 

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Had the network split into separate 5ghz/2.4ghz SSIDs, but that didn't work.

Today I spent 45 minutes on the phone with Ford customer service, who eventually told me they don't have information at their disposal to tell me. No help. Only the suggestion to contact my dealer.

I do believe she was trying to help. Said she spoke with her manager, but there just isn't any info that they can access to help. I suspected as much anyway, but wanted to have the issue logged and hopefully escalated within Ford.
Unfortunately Ford cant trouble shoot your network and it seems its your network is causing the issue here (my assumption) - may be you just tell the network guy to just come in and see whats going on or remotely connect see if the MME is even showing up in the dhcp logs. It may not be ubiquiti APs but the dhcp that is controlling the assignment.

I did have juicenet EVSE refusing to connect via the app to my ubiquiti APs as well. Took a lot of troubleshooting to connect (my point being the device trying to connect is doing something weird or not like other devices and it is mostly in these mor complex configurations)

Given your other devices are connecting, I do think Ford has a different config or something different in how it tries to connect (limitations) and hopefully puts out a list here is hwat you can try type knowledgebase response.
 

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User @CP-Mach-E reported that he had issues connecting to his home WiFi, when connecting to other access points like his phone hotspot worked fine.



He brought it to the dealer, and their response


The issue ended up being an incompatibility with DNSmasq running on the user's Synology NAS.
Hmmm DNSMasq is really more of a forwarder to a real DNS. I wonder if the IP stack on the Mach-E is looking for compliance to a a particular IETF RFC that DNSmasq does not support?
 

GoGoGadgetMachE

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Hmmm DNSMasq is really more of a forwarder to a real DNS. I wonder if the IP stack on the Mach-E is looking for compliance to a a particular IETF RFC that DNSmasq does not support?
perhaps, but dnsmasq does do DHCP as well, and several solutions - not just Synology, but also for example Pi-Hole [which uses a fork, technically] - use it for that purpose.

that said, in an earlier post on the thread we were told someone is using Pi-Hole for DNS with no issues... hey @methorian are you using it for DHCP as well?

it would be interesting to find out if this happens for others with networks that don't use a Synology router.
 

ChasingCoral

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Another user found that the Mach E would not connect to routers with a special character in the SSID. Many systems use a hyphen in the SSID. That is part of the standard SSIDs assigned by FiOS like mine.

Once Marlin is out of the shop I'll see if a new network SSID without a hyphen will help me connect Marlin to my home network.
 

methorian

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Alrighty - Wanted to clear some things up here since some may be confused.

You can absolutely use the Mach-E's built-in hotspot feature while using wireless Apple Carplay. You can NOT however use wifi on your phone (to connect to the Mach-E's wifi hotspot, or any other Wifi network) while using wireless Carplay, this is because your phones Wifi is being used to connect directly to your Mach-E to project Carplay.

I tested this just now myself. iPhone 12 Pro connected and Wireless Carplay active:
Ford Mustang Mach-E Issue - "Unable to connect" when connecting to WiFi (SOLVED) IMG_0690


Car's wifi hotspot active:
Ford Mustang Mach-E Issue - "Unable to connect" when connecting to WiFi (SOLVED) IMG_0689


Surface connected to Mach-E's wifi hotspot, while Carplay is still active from my phone:
Ford Mustang Mach-E Issue - "Unable to connect" when connecting to WiFi (SOLVED) IMG_0692



Also wanted to show that my Mach-E has no issues connecting to my home's 5Ghz network, whose SSID contains hyphens.... (It also has no issue with my 2.4Ghz network either. All Ubiquiti Unifi equipment.)

Ford Mustang Mach-E Issue - "Unable to connect" when connecting to WiFi (SOLVED) IMG_0688
 

ChasingCoral

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Alrighty - Wanted to clear some things up here since some may be confused.

You can absolutely use the Mach-E's built-in hotspot feature while using wireless Apple Carplay. You can NOT however use wifi on your phone (to connect to the Mach-E's wifi hotspot, or any other Wifi network) while using wireless Carplay, this is because your phones Wifi is being used to connect directly to your Mach-E to project Carplay.

I tested this just now myself. iPhone 12 Pro connected and Wireless Carplay active:
Ford Mustang Mach-E Issue - "Unable to connect" when connecting to WiFi (SOLVED) IMG_0688


Car's wifi hotspot active:
Ford Mustang Mach-E Issue - "Unable to connect" when connecting to WiFi (SOLVED) IMG_0688


Surface connected to Mach-E's wifi hotspot, while Carplay is still active from my phone:
Ford Mustang Mach-E Issue - "Unable to connect" when connecting to WiFi (SOLVED) IMG_0688



Also wanted to show that my Mach-E has no issues connecting to my home's 5Ghz network, whose SSID contains hyphens.... (It also has no issue with my 2.4Ghz network either. All Ubiquiti Unifi equipment.)

Ford Mustang Mach-E Issue - "Unable to connect" when connecting to WiFi (SOLVED) IMG_0688
Cool! Thanks.

So, there may still be a value to the Mach E's wifi hotspot. Whether it's worth buying or not is another matter -- maybe just on months with planned road trips.

The hyphen working may send me back to the drawing board to see why I haven't been able to connect Marlin to our home WiFi.
 

CarboFE

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Also wanted to show that my Mach-E has no issues connecting to my home's 5Ghz network, whose SSID contains hyphens.... (It also has no issue with my 2.4Ghz network either. All Ubiquiti Unifi equipment.)
I have the same equipment and can't connect yet. Have tried 2.4 vs 5, single access point, no hyphens, and still no luck.

What encryption are you using? Any other settings I should look for?
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