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Hands on With Nintendo's Wi-Fi Adapter
vituperation writes "1UP took the Nintendo USB Wi-fi Adapter for a test drive and has posted a detailed photoessay on the installation process. It looks straightforward enough... provided, of course, you run WinXP. For those who prefer other operating systems, the article also mentions the ease with which the author (who doesn't use XP) was able to connect his copy of Mario Kart to an existing wireless router. Nintendo's online strategy seems questionable, making connectivity completely dependent on the options offered by individual games, but the trade-off is that it's simple enough for practically anyone to make use of."
cuz there is no way i'm gonna shell out loot online for this.
Since when has it not been viable competition against the PSP?
It's like sex, except I'm having it!
How does Since when has it not been suitable competition against the PSP make you feel?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
The whole report is really a 'how to install' guide in order to attract attention. Since the device isn't public (yet), theres almost no real world testing (Mario Kart DS isn't even out yet). Unless you're curious about the system requirements (Mac users need not apply), theres nothing of real interest.
He didn't say "disable WEP". He said "disable WPA". Most people use WEP if they use anything at all as it's the most compatable, so I don't see a problem here.
(source)
I recently upgraded my PSP to firmware v2.0 in order to play GTA:LCS. I will now tell you the wonders of browsing the web on the PSP. First, while the screen si[OUT OF MEMORY]
Which is particularly heinous in this case because according to the referenced article, there's no small amount of confusion surrounding it. Oh and the "Mario Kart" mentioned in the Slashdot article is actually "Mario Kart DS". Also the actual article isn't the most illuminating.
Apparently it connects to a personal computer and comes with software for Windows, to hook the DS to the computer for some reason not presented early in the article. You register the DS with the computer for some apparently unknown reason. All of this is supposed to somehow "take games online". It sounds like maybe the DS's firmware gets updated in the process, but who knows? Did the DS have the capability to connect to WAPs before this came out? If not, you'll probably need to connect the DS to a Windows box with the device first to set it up.
Also, the article seems to say that connections can be made to players around the world, but fails to explain further. Bad all around.
I have a PSP and the web browser is the least attractive feature ever. It's quicker to run upstairs to my lab then to boot the PSP and enter a URL to go to....
:-)
That and the UI ain't exactly straightforward.
That said, GTA for the PSP is a hella fun game. I call it "portable mayhem" cuz I mostly drive around squishing people. I've only completed like 6 missions so far
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
The thing is just a rebranded Buffalo USB Wireless key. If you don't have wireless already there are probably a lot better maybe even cheaper solutions and as I understand it this doesn't give you any extra functionality like compatibility with Nintendo's proprietary wireless protocol.
l .php?productid=81&categoryid=7
http://www.buffalotech.com/products/product-detai
Questionable how? What does that even mean? Because the way I read that sentence, it's a completely pointless jab at Nintendo. It seems to imply that because this doesn't enable voice chat for every single game or come complete with an online matchup room or something, it's suddenly a "questionable" strategy.
I'm not sure what the article summary is trying to get at, either, unless they are referring to this paragraph from TFA:
How shocking! Could this mean that the process of playing online might be different in Animal Crossing, compared to Mario Kart? That the mechanism for matching players (for example, by skill, geographic area, etc.) might be different between games? That Future Game X might have some cool feature that Nintendo didn't anticipate? Oh, the humanity!!
I can see how you might be disappointed. Clearly, Nintendo should have thought of every future multiplayer feature possible and put support for that in their online service, rather than allowing developers to do just about anything they want with generic TCP/IP connections. How inconsiderate of Nintendo, forcing game developers to write code for themselves! Bad Nintendo, you'll get no supper tonight!
Now that I think about it, I guess I do know what the summary is whining about: they wanted Nintendo to make a free equivalent of Xbox Live, with all its bells and whistles, and now they're pouting because they won't get it. I guess we'll all just have to suck it up and learn to live with their free global gaming service.
... is, according to Nintendo's wifi site, the only way to communicate to people online that you don't have on your friends list. I know they have to "protect the children", but come on.
Hopefully this is decided on a per-game basis. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see it in, say, Mario Kart, but to have it in Metroid Prime or other games that are T or higher would be a bit disappointing.
Wasn't there already a Mario Kart game for the DS? Yes! Mario Kart Double Dash!
Are you being a dumbass on purpose? No Mario Cart game has been released for DS yet, Double Dash was a Gamecube game.
Get a clue!
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and with the Double, dual, two concept being in every DS game, it's an easy mistake to make.s +double
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22mario+kart%22+d
Glancing at the results of the above search, it isn't that unreasonable a mistake to make. Granted, actually clicking on any one of the links and scrutinizing the results should clear that up, but still...
While it's great that the DS can now be used as a portable wi-fi sniffer, the article isn't decreasing my 'stupid' sensor. Reading things like "no WPA support" (not that I have a WPA router, but still), Windows XP only for the adapter, and phrases like "supported router" don't exactly reassure me.
When the DS was released (and still), all it had was NiFi built in, which only allows it to network with other nearby DS's. Enterprising hackers created tunnels with their computers so two DS's far apart could play each other, but I digress. Finally, Nintendo's WiFi service was opened today to work in tandem with online games such as Mario Kart DS which will be released next Monday (I believe it's the first Mario Kart for the DS, Double Dash was for the GameCube).
These games are revolutionary for the DS because the game carts themselves implement the TCP/IP protocol. No longer is long distance playing relegated to 1337 haxors who have set up a tunnel on their PCs and whatnot. Any game that implements this will be able to hook up to any already existing wireless 802.11b (maybe g, not sure) network, without any changes or setup. The game will have an "online" option where it scans for networks, allows you to put in your WEP key or whatever, and then store it. The Wi-Fi Adaptor essentially serves as a WAP for those DS owners who don't already have a wireless network. It does require some setup like registering the DS with it as you pointed out, but it's not necessary to use the dongle if you already have wireless.
As for playing Mario Kart DS online there are two ways. One way is to play only with your friends. Each DS + game combination has a unique identifier code, which you can somehow use to store your friends. From the hands-on that I read about, you can see whether any of your friends are online, but not which ones in particular. And by online, I think it means playing Mario Kart, so I think it will usually be something you'd arrange beforehand. There's also a matchmaking system which lets you play random people, and works with Nintendo's new wifi site, nintendowifi.com. This sounds like Bungie's setup for Halo 2 to me, since it keeps track of how well you do and stuff.
I hope this cleared some things up for you. Sorry about jumping on you before, I was the one who was mistaken.
I understand that life's not fair, just why is it never unfair in my favor?
You will see that Nintendo is very cautious about communication with people not on your friends list. They care about the safety of kids who will be playing the games, and they appear to have the opinion that chatting with random people will encourage predators to play.
I think it is important that they do this, and I also think it will be a bonus for us. No more voice chatting assholes? Sign me the fuck up.
I did the same thing. Waited for LCS to upgrade to 2.0. You can adjust the web browser so most pages look fine. Some pages however (and /. is one of them) take forever to load though. As for the memory, you can bump the cache from 512 to 2048 and that limits the out of memory errors. Although you still get them. A lot. Shame really, it's *almost* a perfect on the go browser, but the small flaws get magnified by their frequency.
The text entry 'fix' I've found is to use the PSP Virtual Keyboard. Not a perfect solution, but it helps.
-- I have fans? Wow.
WEP is trivially breakable. Sniff the air for long enough to brute the WEP package, spoof one of the recorded MACs you heard while sniffing, and you're in. WEP uses a home-rolled encryption that's weak.
"WEP is vulnerable because of relatively short IVs and keys that remain static. The issues with WEP don't really have much to do with the RC4 encryption algorithm. With only 24 bits, WEP eventually uses the same IV for different data packets. For a large busy network, this reoccurrence of IVs can happen within an hour or so. This results in the transmission of frames having keystreams that are too similar. If a hacker collects enough frames based on the same IV, the individual can determine the shared values among them, i.e., the keystream or the shared secret key. This of course leads to the hacker decrypting any of the 802.11 frames."
WPA does not use such a thing. The new WPAv2 uses even better AES! Check out how it works.
Nintendo saying no to WPA basically means I will never use my DS at home since I'd have to setup another wireless basestation and a DMZ to allow it to access the net. I will not compromise my wireless network security for a toy.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
You should edit that - "most people" should become "stupid people" since only a complete and utter feeb would trust their network security to something as easily cracked as WEP.
The PROBLEM here is that you have to downgrade your wireless security to virtually "none" to connect from home.
-- There are two kinds of motorcycles. 1: German. 2: Crap.
There has been a sh*tstorm of complaining on the Nintendo forums about the lack of WPA security for the DS. Nintnedo's response to everyone is "buy the USB WiFi adaptor, it will only allow a DS to connect".
Question: Does anyone have any idea how they would actually do that? What mysterious restrictions would be in place to allow only DS units to attach?
-- There are two kinds of motorcycles. 1: German. 2: Crap.