Wi-Fi Rant (or something to that affect)

**Unspoken** · 05-13-2007, 10:47 PM

So my friends and I went up to Bloomington on the weekend for some purchases and idiotic fun. We needed to go to the Barnes and Noble bookstore for a bit, so I asked if I could have time to play DS online there. I even specifically bought the new headset so that I could chat on Pokemon Diamond.

I'm sitting at the Starbucks inside, and I pull up the connection screen and attempt to make a connection with the open AT&T hot-spot. For some reason, however, it doesn't connect properly. It keeps saying there is an error and fails to connect.

It seems that the Wayport hot-spots are the only working hot-spots I've visited for DS gaming as of late. I think Nintendo could have done something to make the connection a bit more compatible, because even on mine I set up at home, I have to manually configure everything.

Of course, as you can guess, there was nothing I could do, and now I can't get online with my DS. There are no hot-spots in Bedford, which really is pathetic, seeing as how a smaller town than ours has one. Nintendo really can't do anything about this, but maybe Wayport could come out here?

I'm not quite sure what this thread is really about; I think I just rambled on and on about something. I'm sure there's a point, but I can't bother my tired self to remember.

**Khaos** · 05-14-2007, 01:11 AM

As I understand it, Nintendo is contracted with WayPort.

Now, the other thing about hotspots is if they have chillispot or some other hotspot landing page service on them, they won't work with devices. These services redirect all traffic to a web page asking you to agree to their Terms and Services before using their hotspot or to ask you to pay (as I'm sure you've seen before). Since the DS can't read webpages, you cannot see these TOS, yet alone agree to them.

Another thing would be that public hotspots usually only open select ports, because they don't want people downloading torrents or etc on their networks. They may just let you only browse the web, so only port 80 may be open.

***Zeep*** · 05-14-2007, 05:12 AM

Originally Posted by Khaos

Now, the other thing about hotspots is if they have chillispot or some other hotspot landing page service on them, they won't work with devices. These services redirect all traffic to a web page asking you to agree to their Terms and Services before using their hotspot or to ask you to pay (as I'm sure you've seen before). Since the DS can't read webpages, you cannot see these TOS, yet alone agree to them.

This is the reason it doesn't work.

Anytime you find a public hotspot that's not encrypted, especially one like "tmobile" or "at&t", it's almost always a captive portal hotspot, meaning once you connect you can't do anything until you register for their service. Since you can't do that on the DS (unless you have the DS webbrowser), it doesn't let you connect to the hotspot.

**TheGreenElf** · 05-14-2007, 09:32 AM

Yeah, that is a problem with the hotspot itself. Although the DS has a crappy online interface for games, it's actually got a decent configuration and options, not to mention a damn good auto-detect system. I also believe Barnes and Noble uses a pay service...I can't remember though.

**koten** · 05-14-2007, 07:58 PM

I have used my DS wifi about 10 times max. I don't find it that fun, so I could care less about your sob story.

Go cry a river you emo.

**Lucent Beam** · 05-21-2007, 02:48 PM

If I want to play DS online, I'll just wait til I'm at home.

I do know that for people who have trouble connecting from college campuses, hauling yourself out to a McDonald's ends up being the easiest option (Banana did this a lot to play with me, heh).

**BananaBabeQT** · 05-21-2007, 02:55 PM

^ Yes, I did. I think Panera Bread has free wi-fi, but I've never connected so I don't know if you need to log in or something to that effect.

@koten... you suck, Wi-fi is awesome. I played Clubhouse games like all the time, but it's best with people you know so you can draw things and talk to them.