I've been searching through the manuals and playing on the system to try and figure this myself but to no avail!

 

I can connect to the the WiFi hot spot with no issues, but I can't seem to share the internet. Now it could be that it's not designed to share the internet from a phone like I thought it was, but I could've sworn I read somewhere that it shares the internet from the device connected via USB.

 

Can a fellow Briskodian please shed some light on this as I'm kinda tearing my hair out over it?!

Not having got a MIB2 unit, my understanding was that if the MIB2 is the hotspot then the internet is shared from that, i.e you need a SIM card in the head unit.

 

I could be wrong though.

Hmmm yeah, that's what I'm starting to think/worry. I mean, it's not the end of the world because it'd only be for my passengers if they wanted/needed it, but it would be nice if I could enable it. Just trying to get my head round everything it can do, especially as I'm a self confessed geek, I like to know everything! lol

 

On a side note, using Apple CarPlay with the Columbus nav is fantastic! Just needed to get that off my chest... haha!

A lot of cars have hotspot features, but tbh you might as well just use your mobile phone hotspot feature. Lot easier to use.

Yeah I know what you mean, but because I'll be plugging in every journey anyway because of Apple CarPlay it'd be nice if it just automatically made the hot spot from there.

Hopefully someone can shed some light on this for certain for me!

On our Columbus i have the car hotspot set

up. My phone connects via Bluetooth to the Columbus unit. The Columbus then broadcasts a wifi hotspot that anyone can can connect to. Is good for using a tablet in the car that neds wifi for Internet connectivity. This is on a MY16 vRS.

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Wifi in a car is an interesting concept, I am amazed to read above that the implication is that it could re-broadcast the WiFi signal as a hotspot.  It makes me wonder how you would pay for the WiFi signal that you received - there must be a paid for SIM in the equation somewhere.  However, if the system can make use of a WiFi system broadcast from another SIMmed up device then surely another good option would be a 3 Mobile MiFi unit?  FWIW I've got one for our home Wifi equipment if we are out and about and decided we want the internet and they are rather good things. 

On our Columbus i have the car hotspot set

up. My phone connects via Bluetooth to the Columbus unit. The Columbus then broadcasts a wifi hotspot that anyone can can connect to. Is good for using a tablet in the car that neds wifi for Internet connectivity. This is on a MY16 vRS.

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So effectively Bluetooth tethering?

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Wifi in a car is an interesting concept, I am amazed to read above that the implication is that it could re-broadcast the WiFi signal as a hotspot.  It makes me wonder how you would pay for the WiFi signal that you received - there must be a paid for SIM in the equation somewhere.  However, if the system can make use of a WiFi system broadcast from another SIMmed up device then surely another good option would be a 3 Mobile MiFi unit?  FWIW I've got one for our home Wifi equipment if we are out and about and decided we want the internet and they are rather good things. 

 

The OP wants to use his phone as the internet provider & connect this to the Columbus.

The Columbus then acts like a hotspot/router (allowing passengers to connect to the Columbus) which then shares the internet connection from the drivers phone.

 

 

These days I'd expect it to be quite a normal function especially for vehicles used as taxis, airport transfers, for parents who don't give "unlimited" access withtheir childrens phone contracts etc etc.

I think it either needs a sim card in the car itself or an Android phone that support RSAP (Remote Sim Access Protocol).

So effectively Bluetooth tethering?

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Exactly, which begs the question of what's the point as you can set this up directly from the phone.

It's not so much Bluetooth tethering. The car just takes over control of the sim card via Bluetooth but the actual data connection is made with the car's built in modem. Using the phone's modem and transferring all data over Bluetooth would really slow the internet down.

Hmmm it sounds as that it's being limited by my iPhone, as are a lot of things lol! Ah well, like I said, it wasn't a deal breaker for me but it would've been nice to have

Thanks for all the replies guys!

Exactly, which begs the question of what's the point as you can set this up directly from the phone.

I don't like to leave my phone hotspot running all the time so it works well for me. As soon as get in the car it connects via Bluetooth and then if I have a tablet with me then that just connects to the car wifi connection.

On the Columbus display there is a small wifi icon with an even smaller number that shows how many devices are connected.

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I moved from  a Skoda Superb Mk 2 to Mk 3 and assumed like you that it would be possible to use my phone's bluetooth connection to transfer mobile data to the car and then allow others (kids) to share my mobile data on long journeys.

 

In the new car I set up my phone as before and got no internet connection even though the wifi connection was active. It turns out that it simply not possible to set the new car Columbus head unit up the same way as the old one.

 

The only way to make it work slightly the same is to set your phone so you have a mobile hotspot created, connect the columbus unit to your phone mobile hotspot, switch on the columbus unit hotspot and then connect the other devices to the columbus hotspot.

 

You then have an internet connection off the car wifi. It feels like a step backwards but it works.

 

FYI I installed an android app called Autoset that can be set up to activate the wifi hotspot when my bluetooth connection is made between the car and the phone. I then set another one to switch off my wifi hotspot once the same bluetooth connection is disconnected.

 

If anyone does work out how to make it work without having to use the phone mobile hotspot then please do post here as the above solution isnt as good as it was in the old set up I had.

 

Hope this helps anyway