MHD Wifi

F87Source

Sergeant
Oct 14, 2019
332
151
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Canada
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2017 Bmw M2
Anyone tried connecting to http://192.168.4.1 (or whatever your gateway address may be but I assume it's going to be the same for everyone) through your phone or tablet and taking a look at the settings of the WiFi-serial bridge of this device? If you were driving down the road, it seems someone could easily connect and change the AP settings for this dongle if the network is left insecure and leave you without a working device. (Edit: you may need to turn airplane mode on to disable cellular and then Wi-Fi back on for this to work)

Might be best to secure the device after you get it by changing the SSID and setting WPA2 encryption.

Can someone from MHD chime in on this? Since no instructions come with the device (after all, it does plug & play well), it seems concerning that the security of the device hasn't been talked about.
Has anyone done this? I just got mine in the mail today and was looking at doing this but didn't want to brick anything.
 
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impuls

Specialist
Jan 28, 2018
92
60
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'07 335i
Has anyone done this? I just got mine in the mail today and was looking at doing this but didn't want to brick anything.

Setting the password works fine. Not sure if it is persistent, didn't disconnect the dongle.

Leaving the dongle unprotected seems kind of dangerous to me. It can communicate with all controllers in your car and bad things could be triggered by anybody near the car.

I think all it would take is somebody knowledgeable willing to remote-crash your car.
 
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F87Source

Sergeant
Oct 14, 2019
332
151
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Canada
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2017 Bmw M2
Setting the password works fine. Not sure if it is persistent, didn't disconnect the dongle.

Leaving the dongle unprotected seems kind of dangerous to me. It can communicate with all controllers in your car and bad things could be triggered by anybody near the car.

I think all it would take is somebody knowledgeable willing to remote-crash your car.
The good thing is it can only communicate to one device at a time so if your device disconnects then you know either the adapter is faulty or of someone connected to it, that way you can address the issue.

Is there an option for wpa2 encryption? I haven't gotten a chance to play around with the adapter yet.
 

T3hD0gg

Lurker
Mar 7, 2018
16
5
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2013 335is DCT
The good thing is it can only communicate to one device at a time so if your device disconnects then you know either the adapter is faulty or of someone connected to it, that way you can address the issue.

Is there an option for wpa2 encryption? I haven't gotten a chance to play around with the adapter yet.
Yep, there is an option for WPA2. I setup WPA2 and connected to it and was able to use it just fine as if it were unprotected. I haven't tested it much since my post as I haven't been driving my car much lately but it didn't seem to be a problem. I kept the SSID the same but it's probably safe to change as well.
 

F87Source

Sergeant
Oct 14, 2019
332
151
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Canada
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2017 Bmw M2
Yep, there is an option for WPA2. I setup WPA2 and connected to it and was able to use it just fine as if it were unprotected. I haven't tested it much since my post as I haven't been driving my car much lately but it didn't seem to be a problem. I kept the SSID the same but it's probably safe to change as well.
How do you connect to it?
I went into the wifi hotspot settings and it asks for a username and password, neither the SSID on the adapter or the one generated + password will allow me to log in.
 

T3hD0gg

Lurker
Mar 7, 2018
16
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2013 335is DCT
How do you connect to it?
I went into the wifi hotspot settings and it asks for a username and password, neither the SSID on the adapter or the one generated + password will allow me to log in.
Hmm.. I'd have to see a screenshot. I don't remember being asked a username or password. You might have selected WPA2 Enterprise (if that's an option as I can't remember if it supported that). Would you mind sharing a screenshot?

You also may be on the Wi-Fi settings page for the adapter to connect to a Wi-Fi network. That seems to be an option of esp-link.
 

F87Source

Sergeant
Oct 14, 2019
332
151
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Canada
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2017 Bmw M2
Hmm.. I'd have to see a screenshot. I don't remember being asked a username or password. You might have selected WPA2 Enterprise (if that's an option as I can't remember if it supported that). Would you mind sharing a screenshot?
I didn't select anything yet, I just plugged it in and then connected to it no problem. Then when I went to change wifi settings through the access point ip address it wouldn't let me access anything unless I had a username and password.

I would love to share a screen shot but I am not near my car right now so I'll upload one when possible.

Ps: my problem isn't connect to the wifi hot spot generated by the adapter, it's accessing the hotspot generated to change the password.
 

T3hD0gg

Lurker
Mar 7, 2018
16
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2013 335is DCT
I didn't select anything yet, I just plugged it in and then connected to it no problem. Then when I went to change wifi settings through the access point ip address it wouldn't let me access anything unless I had a username and password.

I would love to share a screen shot but I am not near my car right now so I'll upload one when possible.

Ps: my problem isn't connect to the wifi hot spot generated by the adapter, it's accessing the hotspot generated to change the password.
For me to access it, I went into airplane mode yet enabled Wi-Fi and connected to the unprotected Wi-Fi network with the "MHD" SSID. Once connected, I opened a web browser and went to http://192.168.4.1/. You should see a page somewhat like the following:

Screenshot_20191025-155337.png


From there, the menu button in the top left will allow you to change various settings. As this is an old screenshot, I don't know what the full menu looks like but look for something like "Host AP" or similar.
 

F87Source

Sergeant
Oct 14, 2019
332
151
0
Canada
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2017 Bmw M2
For me to access it, I went into airplane mode yet enabled Wi-Fi and connected to the unprotected Wi-Fi network with the "MHD" SSID. Once connected, I opened a web browser and went to http://192.168.4.1/. You should see a page somewhat like the following:

View attachment 33296

From there, the menu button in the top left will allow you to change various settings. As this is an old screenshot, I don't know what the full menu looks like but look for something like "Host AP" or similar.
Do you have the orange adapter?

I have the black F series adapter so I think there's a difference, because my wifi hotspot from the get go was already encrypted by wpa2.

That may be why I can't access these settings.
 

T3hD0gg

Lurker
Mar 7, 2018
16
5
0
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2013 335is DCT
Do you have the orange adapter?

I have the black F series adapter so I think there's a difference, because my wifi hotspot from the get go was already encrypted by wpa2.

That may be why I can't access these settings.
Ah, yes that would be why. I do have the orange adapter. Sorry about that.
 
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F87Source

Sergeant
Oct 14, 2019
332
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Canada
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2017 Bmw M2
Just wanted to say I have tested the F/G series wifi adapter with Esys and ISTA+ and wanted to report it works flawlessly, and the biggest benefit is that it allows for a custom cat 5e cable which means you can chose the length you want which is a huge luxury.

I tried it with bimmercode and I couldn't get it to work with the vgate wifi adapter setting, I'll try it out with other settings when I get the chance.
 

typedRew

Sergeant
Feb 25, 2019
412
221
0
Ride
2009 335i xDrive
This is driving me nuts. I absolutely cannot use mhd app after latest update. It’s impossible to do logs or, flash or monitor for me at all

App freezes after a few seconds when opened and then refuses to open and force closes itself permanently until device is rebooted. And even then I might not get 1 minute of use out of it before the process starts over again.

@jyamona

 

Jake@MHD

Major
Platinum Vendor
Nov 7, 2016
1,593
2,058
0
Philly
This is driving me nuts. I absolutely cannot use mhd app after latest update. It’s impossible to do logs or, flash or monitor for me at all

App freezes after a few seconds when opened and then refuses to open and force closes itself permanently until device is rebooted. And even then I might not get 1 minute of use out of it before the process starts over again.

@jyamona


What kind of device is that? And what android OS version?
 

derekgates

Lieutenant
Feb 23, 2018
740
375
0
NW FL
derekgates.us
Ride
2011 335is
This is driving me nuts. I absolutely cannot use mhd app after latest update. It’s impossible to do logs or, flash or monitor for me at all

App freezes after a few seconds when opened and then refuses to open and force closes itself permanently until device is rebooted. And even then I might not get 1 minute of use out of it before the process starts over again.

@jyamona


I have similar issues... I flashed to the 8.1 maps yesterday to try to diagnose my many sluggish problems (DCT? Turbos? ???). Flash feels better but as I drove around with the app in the monitor view it kept crashing and reopening over and over during my entire drive. I use a cable, not wireless, but something is going wrong with the app itself. Bummer.

[Edit]: Nexus 5 here
 

typedRew

Sergeant
Feb 25, 2019
412
221
0
Ride
2009 335i xDrive
What kind of device is that? And what android OS version?
It’s a amazon fire 7 newest generation. Never had a single issue with it in 10 months with near constant monitoring and often flashing multiple times a week.

Also never had issue with wireless adapter until newest update. Constant crashes or completely locking me out of the app entirely.