In a room I have a wii and a desktop computer. The wii is hooked up to the internet broadband via built in wireless and I can watch netflix on it. Is there any way I can use the Wii as a router, attach it via ethernet to the desktop and use it to power the desktop’s internet?
I have tried a USB wifi attachment for the desktop and it didn’t work. So I’m not sure if that is an option, or if I need a different model or what.
I don’t think so.
The easiest solution here is probably to get a USB wireless adaptor for the computer and connect it as an additional client to the wireless connection the Wii is using.
ETA: Oops. re-reading your post, you might have tried that (I first read it as a USB connection to Wii). Why didn’t it work? What happened?
You have a broadband cable modem? And the wii is hooked up to it via wireless? I don’t think you can go through the wii for internet, but I guess I don’t see why you couldn’t go through your cable modem either via a wired or wireless connection (assuming you have a wireless NIC for your PC). Am I missing something?
-XT
I’m not sure exactly what you’re saying, but I’m guess you have wireless internet, but your computer doesn’t have a built-in wireless adapter? When you say you used a USB adapter, did you mean this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Wi-Fi_USB_Connector? Because that’s for using your computer to broadcast a wireless signal, not receive one. You would need something like this.
I bought a wireless USB adapter, but couldn’t get it to work. This room is on the 2nd floor, but I have got the Wii and a laptop to work up there before, so I don’t know if that could be why the USB adapter never worked on the desktop.
I have a powerline adapter kit that I have used in the past for this desktop, but I use that for the xbox 360. And that is in a different room, and the kits have gone up in price, I think they are asking $30 or so for another adapter unit.
I may have to buy another USB adapter and hope I can get that one to work instead.
I don’t think the Wii can serve as a relay for you desktop to get to the wireless router, unless there’s some custom firmware I’m unaware of. You’re better off trying the USB adapter, IMO. What prevented the other adapter from working? Could it not see the signal, or was it a configuration/install issue?
How was the USB adapter connected? If it was plugged directly into a USB port on the back of the CPU, it may not have been able to get a signal due to physical obstructions.
Try it again with a long male-to-female USB cable and put the adapter in a better spot. For my home computer, this means running the cable behind the shelves of the computer desk and putting the adapter at the highest point possible, not hidden behind any obstructions.
I decided to try to see what was wrong with the USB adapter. I had installed it correctly and installed the drivers, but I hadn’t input the password to get onto the wireless lan. So that is why it didn’t work, and now that I have done that it is working. I think when I first bought it I didn’t have enough experience to know what was wrong and I think just gave up and used the powerline adapter instead. Ah well, at least this thread reminded me to recheck it and get the wireless USB adapter working.
So I won’t need the Wii after all.
The Nintendo device actually just a standard USB router with a driver that restricts it. You can definitely use it as a reqular Wifi device–you just have to get the driver for the non-Nintendo version and hack it a bit. That device is so-far the best USB-Wifi device I’ve ever used.
See section 4.2 of this guide.