Joined in 2023 
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63 About this deal
I have the comfort dash, so I leave it plugged into the USB slot in the glove box and every time I start the van it connects to the discovery nav head unit and creates a wi-fi network in the van. I have a new Skoda Octavia purchased in September 2017 which has an Amundsden Sat Nav installed and in the handbook it refers to a USB Car Stick which I thought was just a standard dongle in which you put a data SIM card to allow connection to the Internet from the car without using your phone.
When set up the phone acts as a mobile wi-if router and can share its internet connection with any wi-if device, of which one is the DNS and therefore car-net. Problems so far very few, found for some reason the USB cable was critical as connection to iPhone 5 occasionally crashed with a cheaper quality cable which charged fine, worked with data to laptop but was iffy with car-net. For example when navigating, you can have the map in front of the driver and the directions on the centre screen, or you can have the map on the centre screen and the directions in front of the driver, it's very slick indeed and especially helpful if you're driving solo to somewhere new. The Infotainment manual states that there are two possible ways of connecting the car to the Internet. I have a carstick as I was under the impression it would work with the composition media unit, but it doesn't.I know you need the discover media headunit to use the carstick with the it but not really that bothered by that. I wanted to learn about the built-in technology as far as possible, rather than just using Android Auto / Apple Carplay, because there is some good functionality there that you lose if you just plug in your phone via App Connect. You can tether it when you plug it in to the USB port (with hotspot on and discoverable) and it will connect and continue working after you unplug.
The other way is to configure the Infotainment system as a Wireless LAN (WLAN) client to a smart phone which has been configured as a WiFi hotspot - that is, using tethering.Unfortunately after one week of picking up the vehicle the media screen on the Amundsen went blank as I was driving to the airport for a family holiday ( could faintly hear the radio but unable to get the touch screen to work. Also because of the Covid lockdown, the car is spending a lot of time sitting outside the front door, so there's been time to fiddle with it! The Discover Media happily connects to the Huawei modem, seems to be getting all the correct traffic updates, CarPlay is streaming music etc. I am still not sure whether your iPhone is configured as a mobile WiFi router AND is also connected to the Infotainment system by USB cable – that is, you use both types of connection. However, my elder daughter has an Android and is very pleased with it, and my younger daughter has an iPhone and is equally pleased with it.
It's mentioned in the Golf handbook and appears to be a way of using Car-Net by sticking it in the USB socket. Whilst I get the need to use an external WiFi source to drive ŠkodaConnect, I too don’t see the point of the WiFi Hotspot. I've tried various servers, always the same speed results, crap on Carstick and great on the Huawei.
If I get chance and remember I will have a go for you - it's my guess it will be fine - on an iPhone at least! You state that you connect your iPhone to the Infotainment system using a USB cable, but then you refer subsequently to using only Apple CarPlay, Siri, Apple Maps, etc. And i like just leaving my phone in my pocket, or in the centre armrest, and not having to faff around with a USB cable on every journey. I've tried Google, but all entries seem to say how good/bad car sticks are without explaining what they do! So i need to get a 'carstick' I presume, but then that would use up my USB port, may as well us my phone as the hot spot in the first place!
To my ears, it sounds better than either bluetooth-based audio, or my wired Android Auto phone using high quality Spotify streaming. I understand about the VW Carstick, but its really expensive, and I want to know if its unique in some way or a more generic device would do the same job? Settings Menu-System Settings-Skoda Connect ( on line services )- Factory settings Skoda Connect ( on line services ) Not the whole car reset ! I have a genuine VW carstick, however i find it problematic and erratic and it only sometimes works. Will be very useful once lockdown is ended - again so this is in front of the drive on the active display.If Waze comes to Android Auto, I may switch to an Android phone so I can use it with the touch display. The Car Stick is supposed to plug into the USB port by gear stick and will then share the connection with the head unit and allow for the car to become a Wi-fi hotspot. It would be as simple as turning on the unit and connecting a device to it with the supplied password (on the back of the router). Also sometimes when you start the car up from cold, Car-net just doesn't work until you either reboot the head unit, or restart the car.
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