its different depending on the game. For instance with mario kart or the conduit, I can access their lobbies and see who is online but actually connecting to other players is a no go. I'll either get an error code message right away or be stuck waiting for it to connect for 5 mins then have an errror message come up. In mario karts case, such an error message takes you back to the main menu (as all 1st part wfc games do, I believe) and its very annoying. At least the conduit keeps me connected to wi-fi so I don't have to sign back in.
In animals crossings case, I can look to see who has an open gate and get a player list, but be unable to connect. Opening my gate is a little different.. sometimes I'll get an error right away, other times the gate will open but, again, I just won't be able to connect to other players. In this last scenario, you'd see me online but you'd get the communication error message when trying to connect.
I've gone into my router settings and there's no option to simply disable the firewall but I've tried things suggested to me like setting up a static IP for my wii, port forwarding said IP and even setting up the DMZ host..thingy. all this stuff is like a second language to me but I did the best I could trying to set everything up the way I've been told, but I must be doing something wrong.
The real pain in the ass is that I'm fucked no matter what cuz every other option available won't work:
-can't use the LAN adapter for reasons stated above
-can't use the USB wi-fi adapter because or corrupted files on my computer, which because of other corrupted files (possible virus infection) won't allow me to redownload whatever is necissary for it to work
-can't connect to neighboring wi-fi access points because they're either unstable, password locked, or just not there. For the longest time I used someones connection entitled "my connection bitches" but they wised up and put a password in place. Now the only unsecure connection is so piss poor, it won't allow my wii to connect to it.
/angry face