Vancouver

I'm going to Vancouver next week for a couple of days. Out on Tuesday, back on Saturday. Leaving poor Andrea on her own, I hope she recoveres from her cold.

Nintendo DS wireless and Netgear Wireless Routers

Summary:Upgrade Router Firmware!

I have a NETGEAR Wireless ADSL Firewall Router DG834G and received the Nintendo DS at Christmas. I had some hassle getting them working but it is going fine now, as reliable as my Internet connection at any rate.

Step 1 - Upgrade Router Firmware
I could not get the DS to connect with the original firmware, it wouldn't even find my network, I had to download the latest (V3.01.25) from Netgear, DG834G Support Page. Fortunately once the firmware is downloaded and unzipped, upgrading the router via it's web interface (usually visible at http://192.168.0.1/) is easy enough, just click on the "Router Upgrade" link, select the file, and the rest is automatic.

Settings - Router
I am currently using the following settings on the Router, I'm no wireless expert so maybe some of these aren't relevant, but here goes:-

NAT (Network Address Translation)	Enabled
Wireless / Mode	b & g
Enable Wireless Access Point	ON
Allow Broadcast of Name (SSID)	ON
Wireless Isolation	ON
Wireless Station Access List	Access Control - On I had to copy MAC address from the DS see: Nintendo WFC Settings / Options / System Information. Note: DS shows MAC using "-" separator, but Netgear uses ":", so type using colons, e.g. "00:09:AA:FF:" etc. I imagine you could start with this access control off and turn it on later.
Security Options	WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) It says somewhere in the docs that WPA isn't supported, I'm not to worried as I'm happy enough with WEP + access control list.
Authentication Type:	Automatic
Encryption Strength:	128 bit
WEP Key	I generated a 128bit key, BUT I didn't type it into the DS until I went into "search for an access point", I selected my SSID and then it prompted me for the key. I entered the WEP key in CAPS with NO SPACES. Actually Netgear represents the key in HEX meaning it will only have characters 0 to 9 and A to F, exactly 26 characters.
LAN IP Setup / User Router as DHCP Server	ON Consequently on the DS auto-obtain IP address and DNS will be set to YES
LAN IP Setup / Address Reservation	I allocated an IP address for the DS here and re-entered it's MAC address, I'm not sure this is really needed, but I prefer to reserve IPs for my own devices

I also have NAT, firewall, etc. enabled on pretty much the most secure settings (no inbound connections, no ping, port scan & DOS detection, etc.) these don't effect Nintendo network, the handheld only makes outbound connections and works fine with NAT, so don't go disabling all your security. The thing which sorted this for me was the modem firmware upgrade.

I do think Nintendo could have made this easier, their wireless implementation must be pretty picky about standards as this is the first device I've found which couldn't find my router. Working now, I'm playing Mariokart with real people all over the world, look out for MetL [ie] and good luck!