Topic: Wii LAN Adapter - First or Third Party Version?

[Pale]

So I've about had it with my wireless signal strength in my new house and I think I'm going to be hooking everything up wired. So, I'm in the market for a LAN adapter for the Wii.


My initial research has been somewhat surprising.  Apparently the only place to get the official Nintendo one is from their online store.  I would prefer to order this from one place (preferably amazon) to save on shipping with the other stuff I need to buy.


Amazon has a ton of them.  Seems like the Nyko is the most purchased.  It's about 10 bucks cheaper too.




Sooo, will the Nyko (or another third party version) treat me fine, or should I get first party?

[ejamer]

A few years back, I spent some time making unofficial tests with an official LAN adapter, a no-name 3rd party LAN adapter (ordered from the Hong Kong-based DealExtreme website), and the built-in wireless adapter.


Tests involved timing how long it took to download various games from the Wii Shop Channel, pinging the console from other PCs, and playing Medal of Honor Heroes 2 online (looking only for general observations when playing online, since I had no quantifiable metric available).


The results* were surprising.  Performance was nearly identical for both LAN adapters, and any differences observed appeared to be statistically insignificant.  Using the wireless adapter was slower initially... but after tweaking my router configuration and location, that delay was reduced to negligible levels.  The only real advantage I saw when comparing all three connection types was slightly more consistent results from the two LAN adapters.  The most important factor from my tests was clearly the quality of service offered by your network provider, instead of anything related to the actual Wii console.


I chose to sell the Nintendo LAN adapter, use the built-in wireless adapter for regular play, and hold onto the 3rd party LAN adapter in case it will be useful in the future (ie: wireless router not working, a more consistent connection required for some online gaming, or visiting friends without wireless access).  Some people might prefer to pay more for the official Nintendo LAN adapter because it probably has better quality assurance and resale value.  Personally it wasn't worth the extra cost for me; you might have a different opinion about the matter though.




*Note that these tests were very rough in nature, and my background in networking and statistics is very limited.  So "results" are better called observations and opinions.

[KnowsNothing]

I have the Nyko one and when I tested to see if it worked fine it worked fine.  I haven't used it since since I never play online.  Wow those two sentences were like poetry.

It comes in a cool cylindrical tube if that helps any.

[Pale]

Heh, we all know the wireless antennae isn't great in the Wii, but since i moved to my new house i've had no ends of wireless issues.  For some reason, my router being just two rooms away causes all my consoles and my computer to drop connection constantly.  That's why I'm giving up on wireless.

All I'm really concerned with is the overall quality and durability of the nyko one.  If it works and won't break in a year, I'm going that route.

[BlackNMild2k1]

What kind of router do you have?

[Pale]

It's not the router. It worked fine in my last place. It's a WRT54G from linksys.  I actually bought and tried some new Wireless N router from Linksys with a supposed "range extender" and have the same problem.  I'm not sure what it is about my house, but it doesn't allow for consistant connections.

I can be anywhere in the room and about every 15-20 minutes I hear the sound of iChat logging back on because my machine dropped the connection temporarilly.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Do your fancy phones interfere with wireless connections? (my roommate's phone does)

[ShyGuy]

Plumbing, masonry, fluorescent lights, and aquariums can also be a factor. You could probably flash your Linksys with DD WRT and boost the signal.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Supposedly a solid granite fortress inside a massive fish tank with flourescent lighting is a no-WiFi zone.  Don't design your house like this.

[Morari]

It's not the router. It worked fine in my last place. It's a WRT54G from linksys.  I actually bought and tried some new Wireless N router from Linksys with a supposed "range extender" and have the same problem.  I'm not sure what it is about my house, but it doesn't allow for consistant connections.

Flash the router. Switching over to the DD-WRT firmware was the best thing I ever did with my WRT54G. It gives you infinite control over the settings, and that includes the signal strength and spread itself.

For the question itself however, any cheap Ethernet-to-USB adapter should work just fine. You should expect it to be slower than a properly configured G band wireless connection however. It would have been much nicer of Nintendo to have included an actual Ethernet port instead of relying on USB adapters.

[TheBlackCat]

For the question itself however, any cheap Ethernet-to-USB adapter should work just fine. You should expect it to be slower than a properly configured G band wireless connection however. It would have been much nicer of Nintendo to have included an actual Ethernet port instead of relying on USB adapters.

This is not true.  I had a linksys gigabit USB adapter that did not work at all for the Wii.  The outwardly identical 100 mbps version of the same device, however, said on the box that it is compatible with the wii, while this one did not, which is interesting.  I am not sure if the Wii does not support gigabit or if it was a problem with the adapter itself, but the Wii did not detect it at all.  So you can't count on every adapter working.  I have a nyko one now that works just fine, but unless it specifically says it works with the wii I would not count on it doing so.