DS Wi-Fi uses WEP, not WPA

By Tom Bramwell Published 18 October, 2005

Less secure than it might be?

Some more technical details of Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection service for the DS have appeared on the net this week thanks to eagle-eyed (well, presumably just 'eyed') attendees of last week's Digital Life Show in New York City, who saw it demonstrated.

Wi-Fi Connection is capable of auto-detecting the SSIDs of 802.11b-compatible wireless networks in its immediate vicinity (or whatever number of metres it is that the thing supports), and is happy to obtain its own IP address automatically (using DHCP) or work with a static one. All of which bodes well for compatibility.

In slightly less good news, Wi-Fi Connection apparently uses WEP security rather than WPA. As Joystiq points out, WEP is pretty easily cracked and most people ought to be running WPA at home by now - which presents a problem.

Mind you, it's not a problem if you've shelled out £30 for the USB Wi-Fi Adapter plug-in for your home PC, which acts as a kind of gateway for the DS no matter the scenario, but for those of you hoping to take it online, by the sound of it you'll have to plunge your network back into the choppy, electronic shark infested waters of WEP - at least for the time being.

We'll bring you more on Wi-Fi Connection very soon - the first game to support it, Mario Kart DS, is due out in Europe on November 25th.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (34) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • djchump #1 6 years ago

    hmm.... think I'll leave my router on WPA for now and see if Ninty update the DS. They've still got til November 5th before it's released in the UK isn't it?

  • Tweakmonkey #2 6 years ago

    I'm running a WEP gateway and I couldn't give a monkeys.

  • Razz #3 6 years ago

    Not even to me?

    I always wanted a monkey... :(

  • Ranger101 #4 6 years ago

    Yeah, and neither do the german students who live down your road, stealing your broadband.

  • Ranger101 #5 6 years ago

    I doubt Nintendo will change the protocal - they do have to sell those wireless dongles.... a bit like the headphone attachments for the SP.

  • Psi #6 6 years ago

    work with authorised mac lists?

  • Xerx3s #7 6 years ago

    WEP? Thats ancient! Even the ubern00b routers use WPA these days.

    "Yeah, and neither do the german students who live down your road, stealing your broadband." - It iz zhe germanz i zhell you! ^_^

  • smelly #8 6 years ago

    bugger.. my router doesnt even support wep.

    ARSE!.

  • Tweakmonkey #9 6 years ago

    It's true WEP can be cracked, but in my opinion it's sufficient for playing games over.

  • mattigan #10 6 years ago

    Just filter network traffic by mac address - job done!

    Plus you get the added bonus of winding up Theiving Gypsies who try to piggyback on your apparently wide open connection, but can't connect to anything ;->

  • BradlayLaw #11 6 years ago

    I use WEP and MAC address filtering which should be pretty secure. I hope :(

  • ave #12 6 years ago

    I use WSP-PSK with TKIP encryption.

    Not that I know what any of it means, but I did research on how to setup my new linksys

  • justMe #13 6 years ago

    I don't use any kind of security in my wireless router, I share it with my neighbours and anyone that gets close enough.

    I hope some day you'll join us,
    And the world will live as one.

    :)

  • ne1 #14 6 years ago

    It would be quite disappointing if this turns out to be the case, as nicka etc, points out, wep is disturbingly easy to crack, and wpa or wpa2 the only way to go if you, more or less, want any security whatsoever.

    I recommend everyone using less than wpa to read:
    http://www.tomsnetworking.com/Sections-article124-pag e1.php
    (if anyone knows of any better articles etc please post them.)

    If i remember correctly the online interface will be dependent on each game (although all should be using the same) which could mean that if they start supporting wpa not all games would be able to use it? That would be quite awful.

  • jiveguy #15 6 years ago

    God forbid should anybody ever try to hack my Mario Kart Scores!

  • Darkedge #16 6 years ago

    "Mind you, it's not a problem if you've shelled out £30 for the USB Wi-Fi Adapter plug-in for your home PC, which acts as a kind of gateway for the DS no matter the scenario,"

    and opens your PC to be raped. Nice one nini but we should remember your tech is 5 years behind everybody else

  • varsas #17 6 years ago

    It's odd that they would be behind the times considering Japan is at the cutting edge for most of this technology right? Or at least mobile tech.

  • kangarootoo #18 6 years ago

    Lets get this context. Most warchalkers don't give a rats ass about your home network. There is nothing interesting on it and your broadband is slow compared to their usual targets.

    Insisting on WPA is like insisting on having a metal garden shed instead of wooden one. Sure it will protect you if someone decides your garden shears are worth having, but in the grand scheme of things chances are no one cares what is in there.

    If someone really wants to "rape your PC" there are easier ways.

  • kangarootoo #19 6 years ago

    Nice one justMe. Open networks are the future.

  • kangarootoo #20 6 years ago

    Sort of relevant, if anyone is interested. There is a trend in IT security circles towards securing the client rather than the network. In other words, you don't much care if someone gets access to your wires because they can't do anything once they get there.

    Of course the belt and braces approach would work best, but currently a lot of less clued companies focus on stopping network access whilst neglecting the individual security of their systems. Meaning that if someone does get indoors they can pretty much do what you want.

    I guess to follow my analogy, its like having a rickety shed door but chaining all your tools to a metal wall.

    I didn't mean to go all grumpy on those expressing concerns over their home PC security. Of course those concerns are valid. My point here is that if you have a home network, especially one that is wireless, your primary concern should be how secure your PC is rather then how secure your network is. How many of those with wireless networks (WEP, WPA or otherwise) use even a simple login prompt and password? I suspect not many.
    Edited by 1 at 18/10/05 @ 14:03

  • kangarootoo #21 6 years ago

    I agree that anyone going to bother of scanning your wireless traffic is also likely to be wised up enough to spoof a mac address and so that offers little more protection.

    And I can see that having to effectively downgrade your network so that you add a device that is essentially brand new to market is a bit off. Given that somewhere like PC World probably doesn't even sell 11b/g equipment anymore, it does seem a little behind the times.

    I guess they are factoring cost against security, and for most of the DS buying public they have probably (if unfortunately) done the right thing. I wonder how much it would have cost to incoporate WPA compatible HW? I guess we will never really know.

  • Zero Beat #22 6 years ago

    It's also a hell of a lot quicker and easier putting in a passphrase than a 26-character code. Nintendo should be making it easy for every possible situation.

  • rogermellie #23 6 years ago

    I'm surprised they're using WEP considering the amount of freely available software there is to sniff out and reverse engineer it. Mind you I doubt it matters anyway, as most people where I live don't use any security on their wireless networks. So there are plenty of soft targets around me if I just use WEP.

  • kangarootoo #24 6 years ago

    I got by for about 3 weeks in our new place until broadband got sorted, just picking up unsecured networks. Sure I had to sit in the conservatory wearing a tin foil bonnet to achieve a 1mbps connection, but it did the job. Swapping my desktop PC for a laptop was the finest thing I ever did (well, perhaps there will be greater achievements read out at my funeral, but it was quite a good thing to do all the same).

  • kangarootoo #25 6 years ago

    Oh balls. Me and my big mouth. Though in my defense, they could have nicked stuff out of my garden shed and I wouldn't have complained.

    EDIT: Also, these were unsecured networks. If they had WEP in place I wouldn't have broken in. That would be rude and also kind of (i.e. very actually) illegal.
    Edited by 1 at 18/10/05 @ 16:19

  • abigsmurf #26 6 years ago

    argh it's bad enough that the PSP had such broken WPA-PSK, now the DS doesn't even support it! Please say the wifi dongle only permits comminication with DS'. I don't want to leave my network wide open for a single device

  • rogermellie #27 6 years ago

    I got by for about 3 weeks in our new place until broadband got sorted, just picking up unsecured networks.

    Like you say they're unsecured and any network wireless browser will pick them up even by **cough** accident. I can't believe retailers are flogging these routers to households without helping or at least warning them of the security issues.

    Looking on the bright side it will be ace to play on my DS with other people. I just hope some of my neighbours will invest in a DS.

  • kangarootoo #28 6 years ago

    I didn't download anything, I simply used it for email. Anyway, enough of my excuses. I'm not saying it was OK, its just what I did until my own connection got sorted.

    I agree with rogermellie (partly as it serves to distract attention from my own nefarious activities). PC World will happily sell you the HW, but then one week later you will be turning up unsecured on someones WAP list with an SSID of "Linksys" or "Netgear".

    I'm honestly not sure of the legal issues surrounding connecting to an unsecured network. The way Windows words things, you could possibly argue that you were invited to do so. I know that sounds feeble, but the company I worked for some years back (a big US IT corp) actually changed the wording on the login screen of its OS, as it could be argued that presenting a prompt suggesting that you "Please log in" was an invitation that could be used in the legal defense of a hacker. Real law is stranger than fiction.

  • kangarootoo #29 6 years ago

    What the home market really needs is some kind of basic "all listen to me" button, not dissimilar to that used on Bluetooth peripherals.

    Press button on base station (metaphorically speaking), press button on laptop. "I can see PC called XXYZZ" says base station. "Yes, as expected" says user and confirms. Devices now share secure connection, MAC address, passphrase and all.

    Give it a generation or so (hopefully).

  • MARKIV #30 6 years ago

    I know WEP sucks, but it seems to be the standard right now, the PSP launched with only WEP and anyone running homebrew on v1.50 is stuck with it. Also the XBox MN-740 gaming adapter only has WEP and some of us would of thought Microsoft would release a WPA upgrade for it, yet they still haven't!!

  • Foxxlet #31 6 years ago

    hey, I'm not in the least wifimatically minded and I admitedly don't know a lot about networking but it seems to me that the more secure the network, the more lag will be introduced. Maybe its just practical, WEP is faster than WPA?

    The reason I think this is I've noticed some slow down in the initial connection (eg waiting a fraction longer before a web page loads) when I enabled WPA.

    Happy to be proved wrong though. (then I'll fiddle more with my own network to find out why its a bit slower now)

  • Mashum #32 6 years ago

    @'rootoo

    You'll still need to exchange keys in an effort to make it secure - pairing bluetooth devices requires a key of some sort.
    Edited by 1 at 19/10/05 @ 10:09

  • kangarootoo #33 6 years ago

    Yeah, my little brainwave would require your keys to be exchanged in an unsecured way (the bit before the user confirms all if good and dandy). Admittedly, anyone scanning the airwaves at that moment would have what they needed to break in. Errr... and they may be some other glaring holes in my brainwave too :)

    @Foxxlet

    I'm not sure that would be the case. I guess would increase traffic over , but whether WPA needs to attach more packets (extra security bits encasing the actual info you are sending through the air) than WEP... I'm not sure. The method of encryption could actually be more efficient.

    Anyone with some low level comms knowledge want to shout out about WPA encryption (or do I have go nosing myself to scratch the curiosity itch that is developing?).

  • kangarootoo #34 6 years ago

    Ah, WPA not so secure anymore.

    http://w ww.thincomputing.net/newsitem68.html