Wii Wi-Fi via Airport Extreme?

May 24, 2007 5:39 PM

How can I get my Wii online via my Airport Extreme?

Finally got a Wii. Love that it's got built-in Wi-Fi. But I can't get it to connect to my Apple Airport Extreme base station.

There are forum posts scattered across several gaming sites, but they have different solutions, and none of them are particularly attractive. The most common "solution" seems to be using WEP (not WPA/WPA2) and limiting the password length to exactly 13 characters.

This sounds wacky to me, and I'm not crazy about the idea of crippling my network security (and changing the settings on all my other wireless devices, including TiVos, Apple TVs, and other computers), too.

The Wii says it does WPA2, the Apple Airport Extreme does WPA2... this stuff is supposed to be platform independent, right? Surely, there's an Apple fan and a Wii addict whose gotten this combination to work the way it's supposed to? I can't believe WEP is the only workaround.

posted by pzarquon to technology (12 comments total)

Is it seeing your network and cannot connect? (Turn on SSID broadcast.) Or is it invisible to the network?

It uses WPA, my Wii's on my WPA2 Linksys network.

-Make sure that your router functions in both 802.11b/g. The Wii is 802.11b.

-Set your router to channel 1 or 11. This was not the default on my router, not sure about Airport.

-Check for MAC Address filtering.

-Make sure your WPA2 variation is compatible.

If any of these options do not make sense to you, post back, as I'm not sure how proficient you are with Wi-Fi.
posted by ALongDecember at 6:24 PM on May 24, 2007

Grabbing at straws here, as I don't have an Airport:

Is the Airport in some kind of 802.11g-only mode? I have WPA (not WPA2) on my home network and I couldn't get the Wii to work with it until I allowed both 802.11b and g devices, even though the Wii is supposed to be g-compliant. After that, it works great.
posted by marionnette en chaussette at 6:24 PM on May 24, 2007

ALongDecember, I had no idea it was just an 802.11b device. That's good to know.
posted by marionnette en chaussette at 6:25 PM on May 24, 2007

Some configuration advice from Nintendo if you don't know how to set your router, you may have seen it. Airport Extreme is not on this list of bad routers, and I would assume it would be if it didn't work since it's pretty popular.

I was going to recommend this if all else fails, but it's PC only and I assume you're on a Mac.
posted by ALongDecember at 6:33 PM on May 24, 2007

Thanks, all. I know a fair bit about Wi-Fi, but clearly not everything!

It seems invisible to the network (I'm not broadcasting my SSID, but entering it in the Wii, along with the password, it simply won't connect). Would turning on SSID broadcast just for initial configuration, then turning it off once linked, help? I was guessing the problem was the password, but maybe it's just that initial howdy-do.

I'm already running a mixed network (there are b, g, and n devices connected), so I don't think it's a 'g-only' restriction.

I didn't know the Wii expected a specific channel, though.

I'm also a bit lost on the 'variant' connection. I presumed the WPA2 Personal setting in the Airport Extreme configuration was the same as the WPA2 - PSK (AES) setting on the Wii. Is this incorrect?
posted by pzarquon at 6:42 PM on May 24, 2007

Turn on SSID on for the configuration to see if Wii detects it, that will help narrowing your problem. Once it's set up and working, you can turn it back off.

The channel thing helped me actually, not sure if the Wii expects it or if it is an interference thing as Nintendo says.

Checking my settings, it seems my network is actually WPA, not WPA2. Are you sure yours is WPA2 and not just WPA?
posted by ALongDecember at 6:49 PM on May 24, 2007

My mistake, you said it was WPA2 on the Airport. I assume that WPA2 personal means WPA2 - PSK (AES) but I don't know the Airport very well.
posted by ALongDecember at 6:52 PM on May 24, 2007

In the setup app for the Airport Extreme, under the "wireless" section in the "AirPort" tab, you can select "Radio Mode" to be "802.11n (802.11b/g compatible)", which should be good enough. For "Wireless Security", there's a "WPA/WPA2 Personal" mode that should be the most flexible (and yes, it's "Personal" = PSK).

Turning the SSID broadcast on shouldn't matter, but it couldn't hurt to try it. From what I understand, if you're using WPA and a decent password, the SSID broadcast doesn't cost you any security.
posted by Zonker at 7:15 PM on May 24, 2007

I had a very very strange problem with my homebrew access point (it runs FreeBSD with a wireless NIC in HostAP mode). My Wii wouldn't connect to it, but every other device would. After much duress, I switched around the channels and -- voila! -- everything worked fine. I'm not sure why the Wii is picky about channels, but try switching around which one your Airport uses; it might help.
posted by kdar at 8:41 PM on May 24, 2007

My new 802.11n Airport Extreme is just fine for my Wii to connect to, and I'm using WPA2 on my Airport.

I believe you *have* to broadcast the SSID in order for it to work.
posted by mathowie at 8:46 PM on May 24, 2007

I use an 802.11b/g Airport Extreme (white UFOesque model) with WPA2 enabled, and our Wii connects fine with a non-thirteen-character password.

Our Extreme broadcasts its SSID, but I don't know if that is a requirement.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:10 AM on May 25, 2007

This may help. Something like it helped me with my Belkin Router.
- Temporarily turn off WPA2.
- Make sure that you register your Wii, do all the updates you need to do.
- Turn WPA2 back on.
posted by seanyboy at 4:32 AM on May 25, 2007