nintendo wifi security

[wiiii]

right, so I've now got my ds
which is just brilliant
and today i got my first wi-fi enabled game through the post from ebay... mario kart


so far very enjoyable game

so i thought I'd have a go at the on-line play for the first time, and i went to set up the connection settings but for some reason the ds wouldn't connect to my router...
no problem, i thought i would figure out why and just change a few settings here and there

it advised me to go to NintendoWIFI.com to see what settings i should use for my specific router
which i did

only to find that it wasn't connecting because i had configured my router to use the WPA pre shared key

for some reason the Nintendo ds does not recognise this method of security
and requires that i switch my router to the older and less secure WEP



why oh why is this the case?

does anyone know of any reason why this is the case ?
it is such a weird thing for Nintendo to require

oh and by the way i did change the settings and have quite happily played on-line now !!

but now my router is not a secure as before....
shame

[Gaffer]

This is a widely known criticism of Nintendo's WiFi.

When they brought out the DS lite, it was early 2006. They should have at least allowed WPA1 even if they weren't going to allow WPA2 security.

Forcing everyone to rely on an outdated (and easily crackable) WEP protocol has simply ensured that many of us never go online with our DS's......which is Nintendo's loss in the long run .

I know of a neighbour in my street who had their WEP'd router piggybacked (ie someone was stealing their bandwidth). They changed the router and enabled WPA and that "cured" the problem

I refuse to set my router to WEP, so will have to miss out on DS online play for the time being.

[mewmaxwii]

hopefully nintendo will make an attachment in the charging slot which makes it connect to any security. i have the same problem too. ive got wpa tsk (wateva its called) which then makes nintendo force me to buy a nintendo usb connector. grrrr

[M_the_C]

Originally Posted by Gaffer74

I refuse to set my router to WEP, so will have to miss out on DS online play for the time being.

Me too. Couldn't Nintendo create a firmware update to add WPA compatibility?

[Adrenalin]

couldnt you just make it so that it only accepts certain mac address', for your ds and anything else you want to connect, then you dont need any security installed. Thats what i did for my wii. I also have the ssid hidden

[kian1977]

maybe if enough people complained to Ninty and threatened them with lawsuit (Americans probably would) may make Nintendo sit up and listen and decide to either send out some kind of firmware upgrade free of charge or send everyone a USB thingy.

I was reading a an article earlier in NGamer and they were discussing the first Mario Party on the N64's grooved topped analogue stick, the 80 parents of American children complained that they were getting blisters, sores, cuts, etc, one child had to have a tetanus jab due to a cut...they offered free fingerless padded gloves to all Mario Party players to avaoid future problems/lawsuits.

Now if DS owners complained that if they had to reduce the security of their router increasing the risk of hakers/piggybackers, they may just be forced to release the update.....Just a thought

[kian1977]

well I decided to create a petition, please sign and pass the link to friends

NDS Wifi Firmware upgrade. Petition

[M_the_C]

Originally Posted by kian1977

maybe if enough people complained to Ninty and threatened them with lawsuit (Americans probably would) may make Nintendo sit up and listen and decide to either send out some kind of firmware upgrade free of charge or send everyone a USB thingy.

You can't threaten them with a Lawsuit over something like this, it wouldn't work legally. It is a feature that we would like, not one that has a detrimental effect on the product. The online functionality still works, so you can't claim false advertising.

You couldn't threaten a cooker manufacturer for not adding microwave capability.

Still annoying though.

[Gaffer]

Originally Posted by Adrenalin

couldnt you just make it so that it only accepts certain mac address', for your ds and anything else you want to connect, then you dont need any security installed. Thats what i did for my wii. I also have the ssid hidden

Not good enough if you want "proper" security I'm afraid.
Download one of the many free "sniffer" tools off the internet (takes about ~5min to find and d/l).
Download one of the many free mac address changers off the internet (takes ~5min to find and d/l).

Hey presto, in about 10 minutes anyone can check your mac address settings, set their computer to mimic it and there they go stealing your bandwidth - all without spending a penny

[6Dan6Pos6]

It is plainly obvious.

They knew most people put WPA on for better protection.
So they didnt allow it so you HAD to buy the USB connector if you didnt want to change ur router setings.

I got ma DS today and connected through WEP.

took me a while to persuade ma dad to change the router settins though.

P.S. How do you find out ur DS friend code?