Connecting a Nintendo DS to an Airport Extreme

The Problem

A search through the Designing AirPort Networks Using AirPort Utility.pdf that comes with the router got my detective skills going. On Page 21, there's the sentence

  • Note: If you don't want to use an 802.11n radio mode, hold down the Option key and chose a radio mode that doesn't include 802.11n.

Why is that important? On the very next page we find this:

  • WEP: If your base station supports it, choose this option and enter a password to protect your network with a Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) password. Your AirPort Extreme Base Station supports 40-bit and 128-bit encryption. To use 40-bit WEP, don't use an 802.11n radio mode.

The DS only supports 40 and 128 bit WEP passwords! So you have to run in 802.11 b/g compatible mode to enable plain 128 bit WEP encryption:

Airport Extreme Radio Mode settings

There you can enter your 13 character ASCII password for 128 bit WEP, and run the DS's WiFi connection feature to scan for your network. Obviously you'll have to have the SSID broadcasting turned on. Enter your 13 character ASCII password into the DS and run a connection test. Everything should be good to go.

The Solution

I bought the new Gigabit Airport Extreme a few weeks ago, and have been quite happy with it. The AirDisk feature alone was worth the price. But with new gadgets (like my MacBook Pro) comes setup time and often frustration.

Today I tried to get the WiFi working on my Nintendo DS. It didn't work right away, nor did it work after changing the settings to use a WEP Transitional Security Network setting. All the while I was using the 802.11n (802.11b/g compatible) radio mode, since I wanted maximum speed for the laptop (and figured the DS could still connect to the "b" speed.

I figured it had something to do with the WEP password, but many searches on Nintendo's site, the NintendoWiFi site, and others proved fruitless. And I wasn't about to have a WiFi network at home with NO security.

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