Topic: DS Relay Channel?

[Plugabugz]

I have a router that only uses WPA. Thus my DS cannot go online at home.

It's unlikely, but do you think Nintendo will create a "relay channel" whereby the Wii will take DS online traffic and send it on to the router?

[ryancoke]

it wouldn't help very many people and I don't think nintendo would do that. get a new router

[ShyGuy]

Does your router use MAC address authentication? that's an alternative security measure.

[Plugabugz]

I mean because the DS uses older encryption (WEP). The Wii along with every other wifi device on the house, uses the newer/safer WPA so my DS can't go online directly.

I dont want to pay £30 for the wifi adapter purely for that one item, hence the idea of a relay channel.  

[ShyGuy]

If you turn off WPA and use MAC authentication, then nothing can connect to your network unless the MAC address is on the router's white list.

[BranDonk Kong]

Which would makes sense to use in a home, since your probably only have 2 or 3 connected devices.

[MarioAllStar]

WEP encryption is weak. Really, one should avoid using it whenever possible and instead use WPA or better.

MAC address filtering is not a substitute for good encryption--your data can still be read by snoopers. Plus, MAC addresses can be spoofed.

A DS relay channel, or something like it, would be great for those of us who want to play DS games online from time to time, but are not willing to compromise the security of our wireless network.  

[Pale]

It doesn't even need to be a relay channel...  It should just be an access point period.  If people use the LAN adapter for their Wii they should be able use the Wii to facilitate their DS's wireless.

[ShyGuy]

MarioAllStar, I don't know if you could call WPA a great security measure either thanks to the vulnerability of PSK. (nobody makes a full 64 character passphrase)

[Dirk Temporo]

I like how everybody gets all paranoid about their wireless connection. Really. How many of us are important enough that somebody would maliciously try to steal our wireless connections, or hax0r into our data?

[Plugabugz]

So tell me, what do you have on your hard drive?

If you dont tell me i'll go have a look anyway!  

[Chiller]

 It isn't about being important.  I have known a few people who found it entertaining to park outside of someone's house, or apartment building, and try to jack their wireless network.  These were just random people whose signals they happened to detect whilst driving past.

[that Baby guy]

Quote
Originally posted by: Dirk Temporo
I like how everybody gets all paranoid about their wireless connection. Really. How many of us are important enough that somebody would maliciously try to steal our wireless connections, or hax0r into our data?

My parents are absolutely terrified about this.  Unreasonably so.  Their router probably reaches to the immediate outside area of their house, which is a couple hundred feet away from both neighbors and the nearby road, yet they still think someone will steal their credit card numbers or something like that, unless they have some sort of protection.  They don't realize that if anyone who wanted their personal info really wanted it and was able to steal it through their wireless network without being traced, this same person would most likely be able to break into the network anyway, but I don't tell them that, because they don't need to know it.

I do think everyone who lives in close proximity to others or a road needs to protect their connection, just so you don't have strangers using it for who-knows-what on your internets.  Getting one to protect your information isn't too necessary, IMO.

[Shift Key]

Quote
Originally posted by: Plugabugz
It's unlikely, but do you think Nintendo will create a "relay channel" whereby the Wii will take DS online traffic and send it on to the router?

Wireless networks are not based on peer-to-peer communication. Wireless networks requires an access point to function. What you suggest is having two separate networks - one between the Wii and the router, and the second between the Wii and the DS.

Two problems:

1. I'm quite sure the Wii cannot act as an access point. Many wireless cards can work in access point mode but this is more due to heavy modifications to the device drivers. I'm sure the Wii has the potential to act as a dumb access point for LAN gaming through a system update but don't hold your breath.

2. Having two wireless networks nearby increased the opportunity for intrusion. Especially when the Wii cannot do WPA as the DS doesn't support it. What you're thinking of doing is shifting the problem, not solving it.

Securing a wireless network can be done through other methods such as hiding your ESSID, turning off DHCP and setting up a ARP table for only the devices that you permit. Its not as straightforward as switching on WPA but it will go a long way to deterring intruders. I'm not going into a huge debate about wireless security, but if someone wants to leech your Internet connection then it is as straight forward as retrieving enough packets to decrypt your WPA key. Wireless networks will never be as secure as wired networks due to the ability to "listen in" to communications.

[Plugabugz]

I agree with you here about security options, only given the bouncy nature of wifi it will never actually work as simply as that. On my laptops, if i turn off the SSID it will automatically "forget" the connection thats set to default and drop out. Right now i have a bigger problem with the ISP-provided wireless router having remote assistance enabled by default, which only they can access.

The only way to guarantee wireless security is to disconnect your wireless connection, so it makes the whole idea of getting a DS online a little more difficult.