Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector? Any good?

Pseudonym

Anyone have any experience with it? Is it pretty easy to use? Foolproof, as they say? What’s the range on it? Does it work just as well with the Wii?

I used routers in the past, but it’s always been a pain to get the DS to find it. And I’m pretty damn tired of having to redo the settings every time my dad’s router goes bust and other such things. The router is yet again broken, and I’d really like to have a reasonable workaround to get on wifi and update my Wii and such in these situations.

Additionally, I’m going away to school for a month this summer. I’m thinking of getting a laptop and it would be nice to be able to use the connector with it to be able to play the DS online while I’m gone. However, I’ve heard there are problems with the connector and Vista. Any way around this yet?

Sonos

its a piece of shit. i say this from experience. you have to have the DS right next to it and the USB connector angled a certain way when i used it. pass on it.

Pseudonym

Well, damn. Back to fighting with the crappy router then.

LockeCole

Sonos wrote: »

its a piece of shit. i say this from experience. you have to have the DS right next to it and the USB connector angled a certain way when i used it. pass on it.

Agreed so hard. I wish I hadn't bought the damn thing.

redfield85

Usually works fine for me. I don't know about angling it. I just plug it into my USB and let it sit next to the conmputer and away I go.

I haven't used it in awhile, but if memory serves me correctly (which it usually doesn't) I was downstairs using the wireless from the Wi-fi Connector upstairs.

schlew

Mine worked well.
Sometimes I couldn't connect, but otherwise it worked flawlessly. Never dropped a game or anything.
The signal strenth isn't unbelievable, but I could play in my room which was two floors up from where it resided, so it was always good enough for me.

And with my Wii, the signal strength is godly.

So, different strokes I guess.

Zek

No idea what those guys are talking about. Mine never has any problems with either the Wii or the DS, though I use them both in the same room as my PC.

Aurin

I couldn't get the software to configure at all, tried updates and all sorts of other crap for a couple hours until I gave up when a friend showed me it could be fooled into thinking it's a wireless access point. Then, Wii never gets signal, loses signal, it gets hot while it's plugged in... eh, it lives in my desk drawer and the Wii doesn't go online anymore.

Vann Diras

Wow... Maybe I'm just lucky? I don't know what's wrong with you people, but setting up the USB Connector was possible the simplest thing I've done on a computer. Add to that, it works flawlessly on my DS from anywhere in my house, and my Wii and computer are on opposite floors and the Wii still gets excellent signal.

I must of gotten the super-rare spectacular model, found in 1 out of 100 boxes.

Or you guys are just silly.

Sorenson

I picked one up recently based on the advice of my sister, who says she's got one and it works fantastic. I tried installing it, but couldn't get my DS to appear on the little authorization window.

And then the dorm network crashed, and I'm now scared shitless of trying again.

TroubledTom

I have had absolutely no problems with it.

Centipeed

Another vote for "I've had fantastic experiences with it, I don't know what those other guys were talking about"...

LockeCole

If you buy it I would recommend keeping the receipt. If you can get it to work inside of 15 minutes, keep it, otherwise you'll probably never get it to work. (This seems to be the experience I've seen from everyone else I know thats tried it)

Paladin

I got it because no way am I making my wireless network vulnerable by switching to WEP instead of WPA.

LockeCole

Paladin wrote: »

I got it because no way am I making my wireless network vulnerable by switching to WEP instead of WPA.

This is also why I got it, unfortunately I could never get the damn thing to work, so I pretty much gave up on having my DS connect to the interwebs.

Trevor

I've never had any problem with it for either DS or Wii, but I'm in a dorm room so I've never actually tested the distance the signal reaches. I'd definitely suggest it if you plan on playing near your computer most of the time, I've had nothing but good experiences with it.

Paladin

I think with the USB connector all you have to do is set your internet connection to shared

Re: nholder

Paladin is correct.

Also, the only trouble I had was getting it to install correctly. Somewhere, somehow something got corrupted and my Internet Sharing went out. For good, as in, I had to re-format. Otherwise, it worked pretty well after all that. Wii ran great on it, DS ran great on it. Range was pretty good.

Infil

I've had a few problems with it, but my current one seems to work okay. I don't know if it's just my crappy internet (which IS crappy), but it often takes a long time when trying to connect for updates with my Wii. Like, I'll be watching the screen, and it'll pop up with "a user is connecting to the network" like 10 seconds after the Wii started "retrieving data...". I don't know. Sometimes it works really quick.

It does run unbelievably hot, though, and you have to keep it on all the time for WiiConnect24.

I've also had a problem where the Nintendo Wi-Fi thing in the system tray will vanish, never to be found again. I *think* I had to reinstall the software.

All in all, if you can get a router to work, that's a better idea. This will most likely work for you, though. I play my DS in my room, away from my PC, and I get great signal strength.

Nickle

I suppose this is as good a place as any, I've been having some weird problems with my WiFi connector lately. The range isn't fantastic, but it works well enough all the way across the house. For some reason though, the registration window has changed my Wii console name 'Nickle' to some Japanese characters. I've reinstalled the software, and it does it again. It has worked perfectly fine with my DS, on other computers, but as soon as I got it working at my new house, on my new comp, this started happening. Other than that, it works fine, it's just...weird...I guess.

cubelover

Nickle wrote: »

I suppose this is as good a place as any, I've been having some weird problems with my WiFi connector lately. The range isn't fantastic, but it works well enough all the way across the house. For some reason though, the registration window has changed my Wii console name 'Nickle' to some Japanese characters. I've reinstalled the software, and it does it again. It has worked perfectly fine with my DS, on other computers, but as soon as I got it working at my new house, on my new comp, this started happening. Other than that, it works fine, it's just...weird...I guess.

I have the same 'problem' Nickle, but have not noticed any adverse effects. I just ignore it now.

And I, too, would suggest the USB connector. I'm not very good when it comes to getting settings, etc. right for networking devices and the USB worked perfectly right out of the box. The range on it is pretty good too - have it set up on the second floor and can connect on the first, no problem.

Trevor

cubelover wrote: »

Nickle wrote: »

I suppose this is as good a place as any, I've been having some weird problems with my WiFi connector lately. The range isn't fantastic, but it works well enough all the way across the house. For some reason though, the registration window has changed my Wii console name 'Nickle' to some Japanese characters. I've reinstalled the software, and it does it again. It has worked perfectly fine with my DS, on other computers, but as soon as I got it working at my new house, on my new comp, this started happening. Other than that, it works fine, it's just...weird...I guess.

I have the same 'problem' Nickle, but have not noticed any adverse effects. I just ignore it now.

And I, too, would suggest the USB connector. I'm not very good when it comes to getting settings, etc. right for networking devices and the USB worked perfectly right out of the box. The range on it is pretty good too - have it set up on the second floor and can connect on the first, no problem.

My connector did something similar but I assumed it was because both my Wii and DS are named "Trevor" and they it couldn't handle two different things of the same name and changed one of them. It still worked fine for months, so I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. Interestingly enough, I got my Wii replaced and there's no alternate naming now, maybe that shoots a bunch of holes in my theory. Either way, you're not alone and it didn't seem to really effect anything.

Edit- While I'm at it, I guess I'll address the heat issue. I noticed it got a little warm when in use and was worried for a while. Then I forgot about it and left it on for three or four days and it's barely warm at all now, so I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.

Pseudonym

So some of you love it, and some of you hate it. That averages out to alright, I guess. Hopefully the router situation will be fixed soon, but the Connector might be good to try out if the situation remains bad. It wouldn't be a perfect soultion, but it sounds handy in a pinch. I'll keep the receipt thing in mind if I go this route.

Anyone know about that Vista incompatablity situation? Nintendo says they are working on the compatablity, but has anyone else cooked up their own fix? The connector would be more tempting if I could use it to get on to Wifi on the road.

Kelor

Pseudonym wrote: »

So some of you love it, and some of you hate it. That averages out to alright, I guess. Hopefully the router situation will be fixed soon, but the Connector might be good to try out if the situation remains bad. It wouldn't be a perfect soultion, but it sounds handy in a pinch. I'll keep the receipt thing in mind if I go this route.

Anyone know about that Vista incompatablity situation? Nintendo says they are working on the compatablity, but has anyone else cooked up their own fix? The connector would be more tempting if I could use it to get on to Wifi on the road.

I've had no problem running my Wii or DS with it. At first it was a bit finicky but I've had no problems since. I'll usually play my DS in my room, but as far as my Wii goes its a good 5m away, with 3 walls inbetween and works fine. Besides, its cheap. Give it a try.

dantree

Speaking of wireless dongle doodads...

I have a ibook, my fiance has a pc and highspeed internet, not wireless, and I sometimes bring my wii to her place, I used to use her neighbors wireless to connect the wii to get my updates and download VC games. They recently got rid of their wireless, and now I am trying to figure out if I can just buy the USB wifi wireless adapter on her pc, in order to connect both my ibook, as well as the wii to the internet.

So...

Dongle plugged into the pc allowing my ibook AND the Wii to both connect to the internet wirelessly.

Has anyone been able to test to see if some setup like this would work?

EmperorSeth

What USB connector are we specifically talking about here? I got the Codejunkies one yesterday, and I'm not sure if I have the settings wrong or if it's the connector itself, but I didn't work for me in the slightest. What's the range supposed to be on these things? My computer is in one room of my apartment and the Wii in another, but it couldn't be more than 30 feet between them. Is this just a matter of me getting my settings wrong? I don't even know if it's supposed to be set to station or access point, but it defaulted to station. Or is the signal strength average of 23% a good enough hint that I need some other solution? If so, what? I'm getting on the damn Virtual Console sooner or later.

monkeypox

dantree wrote: »

Speaking of wireless dongle doodads...
[snip]
Dongle plugged into the pc allowing my ibook AND the Wii to both connect to the internet wirelessly.

Has anyone been able to test to see if some setup like this would work?

unfortunately, nintendo uses a different wireless protocol for the usb adapter... meaning your wii/ds will be recognized, but the ibook will not. it's not strictly 802.11b. you also can't use the ibook to share a wireless connection, because the adapter doesn't support macs. which is stupid of nintendo/buffalo (the manufacturer).

your best bet is to just get a cheap wireless router.

Elessar Elfstone

Mine works flawlessly and was simple to set up.

dantree

monkeypox wrote: »

unfortunately, nintendo uses a different wireless protocol for the usb adapter... meaning your wii/ds will be recognized, but the ibook will not. it's not strictly 802.11b. you also can't use the ibook to share a wireless connection, because the adapter doesn't support macs. which is stupid of nintendo/buffalo (the manufacturer).

your best bet is to just get a cheap wireless router.

thanks for the heads up Monkeypox. I will have to get that set up down the road.