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Anyone hear of this strange phenomenon with the Nintendo DS Lite?


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On Thanksgiving day, my 7 yo was playing with his new DS Lite, and was engaged in a multiplayer game with someone named "Jose". This is NOT one of my children. :001_huh: None of my other kids even had theirs on.

 

I thought those things only had a range of like 100 feet or so? We are rural, and there was no way anyone was in that range. (I checked! :lol:).

 

Our nearest neighbors are all over that distance away. (More like 100 yards+) After a few minutes "Jose" left.

 

Could some weather anomaly have caused this?

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My 12yods suggested this:

 

From the DS, go into any Nintendo WFC multiplayer game. On the Main Menu, select WFC Connection Settings.

 

Can you connect to any setting from this point? Ds says you can connect into your home wifi connection, and that perhaps your ds was able to do this.

 

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None of this makes any sense to me. But I'm not a 12yob. I do remember him trying this when his DS was new, although we either didn't have wifi or didn't have it easy enough for him to hook into the connection.

 

If this is what happened with your ds, please know that at the very least, you are not able to text or chat at that point, according to my ds.

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My 12yods suggested this:

 

From the DS, go into any Nintendo WFC multiplayer game. On the Main Menu, select WFC Connection Settings.

 

Can you connect to any setting from this point? Ds says you can connect into your home wifi connection, and that perhaps your ds was able to do this.

 

--------------

None of this makes any sense to me. But I'm not a 12yob. I do remember him trying this when his DS was new, although we either didn't have wifi or didn't have it easy enough for him to hook into the connection.

 

If this is what happened with your ds, please know that at the very least, you are not able to text or chat at that point, according to my ds.

 

I'm going to show this to my 13 yo in a bit.

 

None of this makes sense to me either, but it wouldn't surprise me a bit if my 7 yo figured something out the other DS owners in this house hadn't noticed. :tongue_smilie:

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It's also possible that he could have hooked up to a neighbor's WiFi. We're semi-rural with 1+ acre lots (many of them empty), yet 3-4 different connections show up when I scan my laptop for available networks!

 

My kids wouldn't know how to do it intentionally, but I could see them messing around and "accidentally" connecting.

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It's also possible that he could have hooked up to a neighbor's WiFi. We're semi-rural with 1+ acre lots (many of them empty), yet 3-4 different connections show up when I scan my laptop for available networks!

 

My kids wouldn't know how to do it intentionally, but I could see them messing around and "accidentally" connecting.

 

No wi-fi for miles around here that I'm aware of. Not even our library has it. (This is rural Michigan, and we still have analog phone lines.) Broadband just became available in this area. We had dial-up until about 2 years ago. This is quite perplexing. :confused:

 

I'll ask my 16 yo to scan and see what he picks up. Maybe our router is extra special somehow. If the Wii can do it, their might be some routers than can (just spitballin' here--I know nothing about this stuff.).

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No wi-fi for miles around here that I'm aware of. Not even our library has it.

 

A wi-fi connection would come from within your own home. You receive the internet connection and then buy a wireless router to "distribute" the connection in the area around your home.

 

It's what your library would have, if your library had it. Any of your neighbors, for example, might have a wi-fi connection within their own home. It doesn't matter if you have a broadband connection, or get your internet via cable (sounds like you don't!), or satellite.

 

Your neighbors could easily have it.

 

(I have to say that I can't even turn on my tv without my kids' help. I'm beginning to wonder what I'll do when they move out, because after four months of this new set up, I still can't do it.)

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No wi-fi for miles around here that I'm aware of. Not even our library has it. (This is rural Michigan, and we still have analog phone lines.) Broadband just became available in this area. We had dial-up until about 2 years ago. This is quite perplexing. :confused:

 

I'll ask my 16 yo to scan and see what he picks up. Maybe our router is extra special somehow. If the Wii can do it, their might be some routers than can (just spitballin' here--I know nothing about this stuff.).

 

I'm with you in that I know very little, but my 12 yo son wanted to give you his best guess. I'll turn the keyboard over to him :):

 

Well, a router is a device that emits wireless internet, the range of the router depends on the kind of router you buy. (Eg. You buy a lesser one, 50 feet or so, buy a higher qualiy router, and you can get up to 300+)

You say you don't have Wi-Fi but now you say you have a router, let me just explain that a router emits wi-fi. (Basically just internet with no

wires)

It is possible to connect a DS Lite, DSI, or 3DS (Which isn't even out yet, I may add) to any wireless internet connection, provided (of course) that you know the password for it.

If your seven year old went into the settings on his DS, and selected internet settings, he could scan for wireless internet, find yours, hit accept, and connect to the internet, he could then go to the mode in his game named; "Multiplayer" and hook up with somebody anywhere in the world that is also searching for people to play online with.

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I'm with you in that I know very little, but my 12 yo son wanted to give you his best guess. I'll turn the keyboard over to him :):

 

Well, a router is a device that emits wireless internet, the range of the router depends on the kind of router you buy. (Eg. You buy a lesser one, 50 feet or so, buy a higher qualiy router, and you can get up to 300+)

You say you don't have Wi-Fi but now you say you have a router, let me just explain that a router emits wi-fi. (Basically just internet with no

wires)

It is possible to connect a DS Lite, DSI, or 3DS (Which isn't even out yet, I may add) to any wireless internet connection, provided (of course) that you know the password for it.

If your seven year old went into the settings on his DS, and selected internet settings, he could scan for wireless internet, find yours, hit accept, and connect to the internet, he could then go to the mode in his game named; "Multiplayer" and hook up with somebody anywhere in the world that is also searching for people to play online with.

 

Yep. According to my 16 yo (I finally got him to check it out) this is what happened. Our router is a pretty good one, and we had the settings so anything could connect (That's now been fixed.). I hadn't realized wi-fi was what ALL wireless was and not a different kind of connection like dial-up or dsl. Now I know! :001_smile:

 

Thanks for the explanation!

 

Give a 7 yo a DS, and he gets into the network--when his two older siblings hadn't realized it was possible or even thought to try it. I doubt it was accidental either. :tongue_smilie:

 

I won't be getting him a computer anytime soon. :glare:

Edited by darlasowders
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I'm with you in that I know very little, but my 12 yo son wanted to give you his best guess. I'll turn the keyboard over to him :):

 

Well, a router is a device that emits wireless internet, the range of the router depends on the kind of router you buy. (Eg. You buy a lesser one, 50 feet or so, buy a higher qualiy router, and you can get up to 300+)

You say you don't have Wi-Fi but now you say you have a router, let me just explain that a router emits wi-fi. (Basically just internet with no

wires)

 

I wondered if she meant modem, but said router?

 

If you have broadband, then you have a modem given to you by the cable company. We bought a router on our own (sometimes these come from the cable company too), it emits a wi-fi signal so that a laptop, blu-ray player, etc can connect to the internet without plugging them into a modem. I have mine set so that it does not broadcast its ssid and it is locked. You can't sign onto the network unless you know the ssid and passkey.

 

However, not everyone knows what they are doing. I can pick up 6 other wi-fi signals with my laptop, they are all broadcasting (which is not necessarily a terrible thing), 2 of them are not locked with a passkey. That means a kid could pick them up with a ds and connect to them.

 

eta:

Yep. According to my 16 yo (I finally got him to check it out) this is what happened. Our router is a pretty good one, and we had the settings so anything could connect (That's now been fixed.).

 

Ah, yes. Wireless router=wi-fi, that's what it is.

Edited by Mrs Mungo
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I wondered if she meant modem, but said router?

 

If you have broadband, then you have a modem given to you by the cable company. We bought a router on our own (sometimes these come from the cable company too), it emits a wi-fi signal for use with a laptop, blu-ray player, etc. I have mine set so that it does not broadcast its ssid and it is locked. You can't use it unless you know the ssid and passkey.

 

However, not everyone knows what they are doing. I can pick up 6 other wi-fi signals with my laptop, they are all broadcasting (which is not necessarily a terrible thing), 2 of them are not locked with a passkey. That means a kid could pick them up with a ds and connect to them.

 

We have a router--and it's now more secure. I'm really going to have to watch this kid closely...

 

ETA: It would definitely have been our router he was using also. Nearest neighbors are both elderly couples about 500+ feet on either side. I know the closest ones for certain do not own computers.

Edited by darlasowders
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You won't need to--he'll just build his own. Yes, I have one of those kids.

 

:D

 

Cinder

 

And I have TWO. :willy_nilly:One I could handle...

 

The older one is very amused with little bro. He's been his "mini-me" from day 1. Acts like him, has the same mannerisms, food dislikes/likes etc. and even looks like him.

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And I have TWO. :willy_nilly:One I could handle...

 

The older one is very amused with little bro. He's been his "mini-me" from day 1. Acts like him, has the same mannerisms, food dislikes/likes etc. and even looks like him.

 

I have to say, I am very amused by this whole thing. TOO funny that your 7yo could figure that out. If he's anything like my ds at that age, he really has no idea of what all of it really means, just that it's cool he can play with someone else. That part's not so funny, but the rest of it--well, it's making me :lol:.

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Yep. According to my 16 yo (I finally got him to check it out) this is what happened. Our router is a pretty good one, and we had the settings so anything could connect (That's now been fixed.). I hadn't realized wi-fi was what ALL wireless was and not a different kind of connection like dial-up or dsl. Now I know! :001_smile:

 

Thanks for the explanation!

 

Give a 7 yo a DS, and he gets into the network--when his two older siblings hadn't realized it was possible or even thought to try it. I doubt it was accidental either. :tongue_smilie:

 

I won't be getting him a computer anytime soon. :glare:

 

:D He sounds a lot like my little techie.

 

And, look on the bright side: he may be able to save you a call to Geek Squad some day!

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