iSMART only work in UK?

[retrobloke]

Hi All
Just out of UK on holiday. iSMART not working!
Is this normal?

 

[siteguru]

Yes. Your car has probably gone into a deep sleep. It'll kick back into life when you unlock it with the key.

Or ... periodically try the app and it might wake itself up.

 

[Eber]

To me it's unclear - are you

A) out of the UK and took the car with you
B) out of the UK and try to scan the car (which is still in the UK) from abroad?

 

[siteguru]

I suspect B

 

[retrobloke]

Yeah sorry it’s B

 

[Quidgebo]

Hi there.
Ah yes, I had the same experience.
Car parked at airport, app couldn’t update when outside the UK (within 4 hours) and VPN pretending to be in the UK didn‘t help.
As soon as I was back on UK connection - worked first try. Must use geo/IP restrictions.

 

[Surfdog]

I'm just back from 10 say holiday in Spain while car left at home. I regularly checked ismart and it worked every day throughout providing location and SOC. However after exactly 7 days it stopped performing a vehicle scan.

 

[retrobloke]

bit of a pain when you most need to check the car is ok. We have had 2 cars stolen in the last 3 years.

 

[profdraper]

Well, it’s on a phone plan with its sim. Uses Vodaphone in Australia & so in travelling to different countries would need to be able to change networks. Ask MG, one would have thought this be an obvious thing in the UK & the EU with various jurisdictions being so close to each other.

 

[siteguru]

We think it uses Voda here in the UK too. However the issue here has nothing to do with network roaming - it's the person who is out of the UK, not the car.

 

[mg4mc]

Most car SIMs are multi-network and select the strongest signal amongst those available.

I think (but do not know for sure) MG use Telenor Connexion - IoT Connect: Managed Connectivity

 

[Quidgebo]

My guess is, if owner is outside the UK…

• Car at home on WiFi will work normally
• On MG 4G it may restrict non-uk IP addresses or those on a blacklis like VPN.

 

[siteguru]

The SE has no Wi-Fi capability, so can only use the mobile data network for connection. But you raise an interesting point re. IP address blocking - should be quite easy to test if someone has a VPN on their phone.

 

[PeteC]

My guess is, if owner is outside the UK…

• Car at home on WiFi will work normally
• On MG 4G it may restrict non-uk IP addresses or those on a blacklis like VPN.

I was in Thailand recently and could connect to our car in the UK with the car on MG 4G. As others have found, after several days (can't remember how long) I could no longer connect to the car. It remained dormant until I got home and unlocked the car.