Connecting a Dot in the Car w/ FoxFi?

[malliekm]

I got one Dot more than I needed for Christmas.  Had it packaged and ready to send back to Amazon.  Decided today to keep it and make it a "floating" Dot...this is Dot #3.  A "floating" Dot will be moved wherever it's needed.  The car, office, den, patio, etc.
 
Earlier today I connected it in the car.  We have 2 110 outlets.  I installed FoxFi on my phone as a wifi hotspot.  I've used FoxFi in the past to connect my tablet to wifi via my cell phone when we go on trips.  I couldn't get it to work with Alexa.  It couldn't find the wifi connection on my phone.  Has anyone here sucessfully connected an Echo with Foxfi?

Thanks,
Monica

[mike27oct]

Nope, never heard of it, but today for the first time ever I connected my Amazon portable Tap to the hotspot of my iPhone.  It was a real pain, but I got it done after a few reboots and retries.  My advice is, keep trying.

Also, like you, I have a Dot designated as a floater.  Took it with us at TG time on vacation.  Just had to connect the wi-fi to our rental place router, and reset the zip code for accurate weather.

[malliekm]

Thanks Mike, I'll keep trying.   FoxFi enables WiFi Hotspot on your Android phone - no tether plan or rooting required.

[malliekm]

Well I kept trying and it's just not gonna work   I uninstalled Foxfi because I found out that a mobile hotspot is included in my plan!  I tried to follow these directions several times.  No go.  According to these directions, I'd have to have wifi and mobile hotspot enabled at the same time (till the end of the set up) and those can't be enabled at the same time. 
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=202039580

[mike27oct]

Monica, it does work.  I just now turned off my router/wi-fi and had my portable Tap (I had set up for using my hotspot by using these instructions last week) and I was able to connect the Tap again to the hotspot signal and listen to TuneIn radio.

Before anything else, your HughesNet cell service must be able to be reached from anywhere you are (not just from home).  Is this the case?  My ATT cell service is reachable from anywhere there are ATT towers, which is most everywhere.  If you can't reach your cell service with a strong enough signal away from home you will not get a hotspot to work.

Let me know, and if your cell service signal is good, I will continue describing how to get the hotspot to work for your Dot.

[malliekm]

Mike, HughesNet is my home internet provider.  My wirelesss phone provider is Verizon and I currently have 3 bars...now 2.  Signal strength is -114dBm.  When you said you turned off your router/wifi, do you mean the device it's self of just turned it off at the phone?

[mike27oct]

I turned off the on/off switch of router to be sure I was really on the hotspot, and I was. 

Once you get the hotspot configured, it is a lot easier to connect to it again.  I did not need to reconfigure it again, I just turned it on on phone and "Mike's iPhone" showed up in Alexa app as just another wi-fi signal I could connect to.

The phone must be placed close to the Dot (or any device) for a good hotspot signal.  I get 2-3 dots (out of five) of signal strength from ATT cell here at the desk.  Once I connected to hotspot today on the PC wireless so I could test out something other than an Alexa device, I did a speedtest.net test.  It got over 15Mbps download and around 12Mbps upload.  enough to stream a video.  Out in open I would get even stronger ATT signal.

BTW, maybe this link will help you get configured:
http://www.drewslair.com/2016/11/alexa-echo-dot-portable/

[k9kids]

Connected my Echo Dot to my Car's built-in 4G network and Bluetooth. Works like a champ.

Will I keep it connected... no. Just a novelty test.

[euromade]

I used my Echo Dot today for 2.5 hrs and burned 483mb of data!  Any ideas how much data your Echo burns while connected to your phone.

If this is normal data consumption; Echo is very "data intensive" device for using just audio stream.   An old school 3 hr DVD movie was 650MB in comparison...

The data consumed was measured by my iPhone built in data usage meter....not sure how accurate it is...

[mike27oct]

I responded to your other similar message.  Like I said, just don't do what you did for 2.5 hours again.

[taylor.tyler]

Curious if you're worried about theft in using the Echo Dot in your car?

[malliekm]

Theft of what?  The Dot or the car?  I haven't tried again to connect the Dot to my car (was unsuccessful the first time but have since got new instructions).  But no, I haven't considered being concerned about theft but maybe I'm missing something...

[taylor.tyler]

Hi malliekm, Sorry - let me clarify: is anyone worried about the Echo Dot being stolen if you're using it in your car?

[mike27oct]

Taylor, most anyone knows that any new and cool device left in clear view in a car is asking to be stolen.  When GPS was new, the things got stolen all the time, (and probably still are). Locked cars even get broken into to steal things.  Use your noodle.

[malliekm]

Hi malliekm, Sorry - let me clarify: is anyone worried about the Echo Dot being stolen if you're using it in your car?

I really hadn't thought about it Taylor.  I live in a very low crime rate area...cows and horses don't have much use for Alexa (g)  But, if/when I ever do have one in my car, I'm sure I'd hide it when I got out of the car.  Hummm, wondering about the heat effect on a Dot.  Texas summer temps are often in the 100s.  That makes the inside of a car about 140-150.