Hacking The DS's Wireless

xNoLaNx writes "Darkain, maker of the remote control program for Winamp, RM-X, has been working day and night hacking the Nintendo DS and its wireless, and making a custom USB power connection for it. He has been able to monitor packets over 802.11b coming from PictoChat and more."

Future Possibilities

[Anonymous Coward]

Imagine sooner or later, with the right development one could load up ethereal on their DS and start monitoring the local wifi connection.
This game system could turn into a neat little surveilance device.

Re:Clue for the clueless?

[FLAGGR]

I'm just glad someone is working on the DS wireless, I want some damn documentation on how it works so I can code for the thing without an expensive devkit (I know sniffing packets isnt gonna do much, but its a start)

Feel the Magic

[Anonymous Coward]

I gotta say that the DS is way more fun than I expected, and Feel the Magic puts a grin on my face like few others have in the past few years. This system seems like it has a great future ahead of it, and online capabilities (true online, not just wireless multiplayer) are going to put it over the edge!

Re:Clue for the clueless?

[zallus]

Picture someone with Mario64DS playing with someone on a laptop with Mario64DS in an emulator, or with a specially written bot. Really, as a rule, once protocols in use in PCs get involved in gaming, interesting things become possible.

pictochat/im?

[chocolatetrumpet]

So... will I be able to participate in a pictochat with my cousins' DS, while I use my powerbook?

that's all well and good..

[jx100]

The Nitro [sourceforge.net] project is actually working on tunnelling games over the internet. I believe they're using some of this guy's data as help, but they're also doing other stuff.

Re:Clue for the clueless?

[double-oh three]

Why just game code? Someone should trick the thing into using it's wifi to connect to the internet. IIRC the thing has a small mic and speakers, so someone could add Skype or some other VoIP program on it

Wake-On-LAN

[z3021017]

I hope somebody finds a way to hack WoL capability for the DS.

I thought one of the best things about these new handhelds (PSP included) was that you could play people you didn't know by just 'beeping' them whenever they were in range.

DS as general-purpose internet client

[ewg]

I was disappointed to learn that the DS doesn't support networking beyond local links to other DSs.

With Wi-fi support in every unit, I'd pay $30 for a "game" cartridge with an internet suite based on Opera or maybe the mobile Mozilla technology. Give me a web browser, IMAP client, AIM, and maybe an RSS reader and I'm good.

Hopefully something like this is on the way, something a little more portable than my laptop.

LAN tunnel for the DS

[agtorange]

I can already see someone making a LAN tunneler program for the DS that use a good old wireless router and a program on the computer to grant players the power to play online. It might work something like this. You bring up the program and it gives you list of games you pick a game and then pick a "room" depending on the game the "room" might hold more or less players. The room would fool the DS into thinking it near these other player as if they are in the same physical room. Once in the "room" you can simpley turn on the DS load up the game like metroid hunters and its game on!

DS usb power cable

[Allison Geode]

i read that the DS can use the same power cable as the GBA SP. why bother hacking that together (other than the sheer nerdy joy of doing it yourself)? someone already made one: http://www.the-console-corner.com/gba_sp_usb_power _cable.htm
(sorry for not making that html. lazy tonight.)

Re:DS as general-purpose internet client

[(H)elix1]

I wouldn't be suprised if someone sold that, but the screens are under 300x200 each. Great for games, but not much for web surfing.

I'm reading (and posting) /. on a blackberry - usable with even less resolution than that. Course, I'm bored out of my mind hoping the flight makes it home, but I'd kill for a few games other than breakout right now...

Re:DS as general-purpose internet client

[vandoravp]

Actually it seems almost perfect with two screens. One shows a thumbnail of the whole page, the other shows a blow up of a small portion that you can easily move around.

Re:DS as general-purpose internet client

[System.out.println()]

And with a touch screen, you could use the stylus to move the zoomed-in area around....

You may be on to something here. That would be one kickass browser....

Re:that's all well and good..

[jockm]

What do you mean? It has a 66Mhz ARM9 and a 33MHz ARM7. It has 4 Meg of RAM. That should be more than enough to host a browser.

AiroPeek NX?

[bagofcrap]

from the article:

List of things you need to get started:
* TWO (or more) Nintendo DS Units
* A WiFi card of some kind
* AiroPeek NX software package

AiroPeek NX?
hmm... sounds interesting... *click* *click*

Its 3.5 grand for a copy w/ a 12 month support contract!?!

Not to sound cheap (cos I am), but um, thats a bit of an investment for what sounds like etheral w/ tcpdump on windows.
Anyone with experience w/ Airopeek mind sharing all the cool stuff it can do?

I see this as a way to pirate games...

[Anonymous Coward]

One of the features of the DS is that only one person has to own the game, and you and your friends can play together on that one cartridge.

How much would it take to make this technology send out downloaded copies of the game that are fully playable on another system?

DS Server?

[blixel]

I think it would be cool to setup a Nintendo DS server (if such a thing existed) here in my house on my spare Soekris [soekris.com] box. I could stick a miniPCI wireless card in it, hook it up to an antenna that I could mount on my roof, and then host a 24/7 Metroid Prime Wireless LAN party to all the people in my area.

Re:Do you realize...

[Boeboe]

Only 4 meg, that is true, but it still gives some interesting options: - homebrew games and software (and maybe even hacked roms, no clue if that is possible) can be programmed in a way that the data is streamed real-time from your pc. Why the need to download the full game in 1 blow? Download the new level/map from your pc the moment you need it :) - watch streaming movies! Use the 4 meg to download a streaming movie player onto your DS, let your computer do the rest. Yes, the memory is limited, but combined with the wi-fi connection the amount of possibilities is larger then you might think ;)