Although Mercedes has turned off this feature in the US, it is relatively easy to activate it and use either the Verizon hotspot/tethering feature or third party applications on the play store to use the data plan you've purchased for the phone.

I did this more as a technical challenge then actually needing the function to work.....and because Mercedes HQ management told me that the function was not built into US Comand 4.5 cars (which it, of course, is).

You can only use the internet when the car is in park. I don't know if, once connected, you can start to drive and it will update whatever page you are on...didn't try it. I can tell you that inputting URL's is painful, so if you do want to use this capability, plan on creating favorites for any page you want to go to.

My impression is that most anything I can do with internet on the car can be done more easily on my Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone....but maybe that's just me. It's one of the reasons I'm not all that excited about Mbrace2 and the "new" internet capability Mercedes has announced.

 

Care to share how u accomplished this feat?

 

How do you tell if you have command 4 or 4.5?

 

You can learn what version you have thru Engineering Menu according to the post I read yesterday . I believe easiest way to learn is to have 3D symbols and colorful screen .
Comand NTG 4.5 comes with Comand Online whereas there is not such a feature in NTG 4

 

If you look at your comand screen and it doesn't have a globe as the rightmost icon on the top, stop here....you don't have comand 4.5.

Since Mercedes has disabled internet on US cars, it's necessary to go into engineering mode to enable it. I did this a while ago, but I believe the setting is obvious (if I can find it, most anybody can find it) and I think it's in HU-Software....just change the internet option to ON.

Please remember anything you changed, because you may want to go in and change it back.....disclaimer: if you aren't comfortable going into the engineering settings, then you shouldn't....yes...this is where you can change comand to show steering angles like the M's and other things but documentation is scarce. I am intentionally not giving full information here....

I am not in my car, so I'm doing this from my (bad) memory) but it's close.

If you changed the correct setting, then when you then start the comand system and select the globe icon (right on the top), you should see "serius weather" AND another box to set a favorite web site.
You can set up a favorite URL now, if you like...but don't try to connect yet.

On that page, on the bottom left, there is an option box which is or includes "select carrier". Well there is no Verizon preset carrier, so you have to create a new one, name it verizon, put something in the phone number field (#777 would be good, although in this implementation, that's ignored, select any username (it's not used by the software i'm suggesting) and then for DNS, change it to manual and enter 8.8.8.8 as DNS1. Exit back to the phone (or some other) screen.

Next from your android phone, unpair from the mercedes, download application BlueDUN TRIAL (free) using Play Store. (no need to load the fee version unless you decide you want it...the trial will stay up for 5 mnutes at a time. Start the app..but dont' hit "start" in the app yet.

Now go to the comand console, phone, lower left option, find your phone on the list and move to it...but then move the selector to the right to a little box you probably never noticed. Disconnect/detach the phone.

now back to your phone....now hit start in BlueDun making your phone visible with data capability...and on comand, hit update....let comand find the phone again. pair with the phone. At this point, the mercedes knows you have a data capable phone (and you do, as long as bluedun is running).

Nothing more to do on the phone...leave BlueDun on (of course it will only stay active for 5 minutes because this is the trial version. I limited my test to under 5 minutes, so I don't know what happens if you go over 5 minutes. If I wanted to test any more, I'd buy the full version.

Put your car in Park (hopefully it was already there) because internet only works when the car is in Park...if you are in neutral, you get a message "will not work when car is moving....apparently mercedes thinks neutral is moving.

Go to the globe, and either enter a URL or hit the favorite you set up earlier and if you've done everything right, you will go thru some handshaking and in less than a minute you'll be online. You can follow the progress on BlueDun which will show how many bytes of data have gone back and forth. If I remember correctly, bringing up the google home page was about 150,000 bytes.

Warning/Suggestion: If you are going to use this vs try it once, sign up for Verizon Hotspot and in that case, you may not even need BlueDun., you might be able to use Foxfi (free) or other.....I didn't try it.

I tried many other ways to get the bluetooth link working and none worked....but likely had I activated the hotspot, I could have saved a lot of time. It actually is Mercedes that recommended BlueDun so I felt comfortable using it, although it's not clear if it's legal under Verizon's T&C's....or anyone elses. I did my test, I'm done because as I said, I can't figure out anything useful to do with internet on comand while sitting in my car while parked. If I want something on the web, I just pick up my phone, talk to it (don't you just love today's technology), and get the information on the phone screen.

Based on my test of just two web pages, comand is going to eat up the data bytes on your cellphone plan. BlueDun apparently uses the data plan for your cellphone, not the hotspot. If you activate the hotspot feature and use BlueDun, I have no idea which bucket the bytes come out of. I presume that since the application is in the play store, it is not doing anything illegal or in violation of my contract...I leave that to legal minds.

All of the above is at your own risk. If you are careful in the engineering menu, the rest of the changes can all be easily reversed...or they just won't work and won't effect anything else. If you do get it working, I'd be interested what you will do with it.

 

ok well i dont have the 3D so im guessing i just have 4 then

 

It just dawned on me , NTG4 doesn't support Bluetooth Audiostreaming either.Well, your message suggests me that you have NTG 4 but your dealer can upgrade it for you if you like to have NTG 4.5

 

**** at stoplights!!! yes!!

 

Geeze....my Comand system supports bluetooth audio streaming.Does that mean I have 4.5? I always assumed that I had 4.0 but I think I read somewhere that there was some kind of "interim" version that falls somewhere between 4.0 and 4.5 in terms of features/capabilities.

 

I was able to access web pages today via hooking up my Blackberry from Verizon to my NTG4.5 system, but I don't have Google Search/Street View or any apps, all I have is the ability to enter a url...

Ghstudio, can you confirm this?

Edit: uhh nevermind, i have COMAND Online Apps

 

NTG4.5 is a different COMAND unit as well as different software. If you have a PCMCIA slot in your unit, you don't have NTG 4.5. It has a smaller (SD?) slot.

NTG4 does support bluetooth audio streaming in units with the latest software. My early build 2011 supported it out of the box.

Regards,
Don

 

Well that explains my situation. I have 4 with the newest firmware. Grr I wish I had 4.5.

 

Buy a new one!

Regards,
Don

 

What online apps....I don't have any online apps. Did you get your 4.5 updated?? Mine is original 4.5.

 

I have never received an update on my NTG4.5
I'm talking about the Destination Download, Facebook, and Google Local Search when I say "apps."
These options open up when I go to the globe icon, scroll from Sirius Weather to COMAND Online, and then press down on the central COMAND mouse scroll. So, under the globe icon, I can choose Sirius Weather, COMAND Online, or my favorite web pages that I opened and saved using the URL feature all the way at the bottom of the screen. I didn't have the COMAND Online option until I selected MB Services in HU Paramaters of the Engineering Menu and then reset COMAND.

 

Thanks a lot for ending this mystery

Your're dead on , NTG 4.5 has SD Card slot as I am uploading here . This should have been the easiest way of knowing what you version you have lol

 

I don't have that option anywhere in the HU parameters...so it must be something in an updated 4.5. Is there any way to tell what the URL is for those new choices...I could just set up favorites to point to them.

I wonder if I could convince my dealer to upgrade my software. Does anyone have a problem with 4.5 that I could use as an excuse?

 

It's not really a URL, it's more of an option along with Sirius Weather and Favorite Webpages. I attached some iPhone photos of COMAND Online below. It's weird that you don't have MB Services in Engineering mode and I do, because the dealer has never touched my system since delivery last August.

 

Oh, yes, of course I have that on the screen.....I just never thought of clicking on it

I still can't figure out why I/we want this function on our mercedes if it only works when we are in park.

 

Kind of cool to have the feature but I don't see it all that useful other than just for the initial wow factor. Seems like anything you can do on here you could do on your smartphone much easier and faster.

 

how do you get into the engeniering mode?
thanks

 

I was in the same boat . . . can access web now, but don't see the COMMAND Online option yet. Does it require a COMMAND RESET, or will it just show up on it's own after a while?
(2012 E-350 connected to Galaxy S III via BlueDUN)
Thanks
Todd

 

Anyone have any ideas for some good web pages to make links of? I was thinking a link to google, since it is simple, but what others would be good? Something that would make sense to have on the command head unit, that you would want to look at there, instead of digging out your phone, and calling it up on there . . .

T

 

I also set up google as a favorite...but I can't imagine sitting there putting in my search terms one letter at a time...painful.

Most of my standard applications...weather, stock market, mail are so easily done on my phone....I have navigation on the car or if I need an address, it's far easier to talk to my phone than enter the place letter by letter. I don't think voice recognition is part of Comand, at least at this point.

So I now have an exciting feature to demo...but no real use for it. I suppose some will want/plead for an application that posts where you are at any minute of the day....I would hate that. Facebook will probably be a driver, although unsafe to read reply while driving, so it's a non driver. At this point my view is that it's a solution waiting for a problem....hampered by safety concerns and usage restrictions by auto company lawyers (and probably rightfully so).

 

If you've connected, then you have the comand online box on your screen....it was in the very first 4.5 that shipped. When open the globe page (top right icon), you must see: Sirius Weather, Add a Favorite and a box that says command. Click on the box that says comand.

I expect that in 2013, Mercedes might add some predefined applications to the screen but they will just be predefinied favorites. If they do add applications the we could manually enter them as favorites and access them on our current 4.5 systems.