Nintendo DS's RF output...

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Archived from groups: alt.games.video.nintendo.gameboy.advance (More info?)

Out of curiosity, has anyone done any poking around with the RF output of
the DS?

As I have wireless hybrid 802.11a/b/g WLAN at home, earlier tonight the idea
of using various PC tools to see if the NDS could be seen on the air came to
mind. The NDS can put out either 802.11b or Nintendo's proprietary wireless
architecture. I didn't do any googles, but I'm assuming that their
proprietary architecture is within the same real estate of the spectrum of
802.11b -- but using their own encoding and frame mechanisms. I wouldn't
expect any PC utility to recognize that, but figured it may pick up 802.11b
coming out of the NDS if 802.11b is being used for any of the wireless
applications I currently have on the NDS -- i.e., obviously "PictoChat",
"Metroid Prime Demo", and also "Mario 64 DS" and "Asphalt Urban GT". If
any of them were 802.11b, I would be most inclined to think it would be
Ad-Hoc -- in which the PC software would easily recognize. Anyway, after
trying different games and applications, nothing is being seen by my
wireless hardware software, Netstumbler, etc. Its probably all using their
proprietary mechanisms.

I'm curious to actually see the signal level coming out of the DS. I think
I'll take my DS into work one day and sniff it out the carrier with a
spectrum analyzer. The spec annies I have access to work are capable of
taking snap shots that can either be printed out or exported as a .jpg
image. I'll post a link to images after taking them.
 
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Inferno

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Archived from groups: alt.games.video.nintendo.gameboy.advance (More info?)

"Eras" <none@nospam.none.not> schreef in bericht
news:OIZLd.217$4x5.102@fe2.columbus.rr.com...
> Out of curiosity, has anyone done any poking around with the RF output of
> the DS?
>
> As I have wireless hybrid 802.11a/b/g WLAN at home, earlier tonight the
> idea
> of using various PC tools to see if the NDS could be seen on the air came
> to
> mind. The NDS can put out either 802.11b or Nintendo's proprietary
> wireless
> architecture. I didn't do any googles, but I'm assuming that their
> proprietary architecture is within the same real estate of the spectrum of
> 802.11b -- but using their own encoding and frame mechanisms. I wouldn't
> expect any PC utility to recognize that, but figured it may pick up
> 802.11b
> coming out of the NDS if 802.11b is being used for any of the wireless
> applications I currently have on the NDS -- i.e., obviously "PictoChat",
> "Metroid Prime Demo", and also "Mario 64 DS" and "Asphalt Urban GT". If
> any of them were 802.11b, I would be most inclined to think it would be
> Ad-Hoc -- in which the PC software would easily recognize. Anyway, after
> trying different games and applications, nothing is being seen by my
> wireless hardware software, Netstumbler, etc. Its probably all using
> their
> proprietary mechanisms.
>
> I'm curious to actually see the signal level coming out of the DS. I
> think
> I'll take my DS into work one day and sniff it out the carrier with a
> spectrum analyzer. The spec annies I have access to work are capable of
> taking snap shots that can either be printed out or exported as a .jpg
> image. I'll post a link to images after taking them.
>
>
>

As far as I know the Wi-fi of the DS was reported to be picked up by a pc
already a few months ago
Make sure you realise the 802.11b protocol of the DS is using a 1 or 2max.
mbps connection, not a 10mbps as some might think.
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: alt.games.video.nintendo.gameboy.advance (More info?)

"Inferno" <magicmonster@wanadoo.nl> wrote

> As far as I know the Wi-fi of the DS was reported to be picked up by a pc
> already a few months ago
> Make sure you realise the 802.11b protocol of the DS is using a 1 or 2max.
> mbps connection, not a 10mbps as some might think.

Interesting. I'll have to do some google and deja searches later. I just
figured that if one of the applications was using 802.11b Ad-Hoc, it
should've popped up in one of the utlities programs while the DS was
attempting to do a link. Yeah, I remember reading the specs on the DS prior
to launch about the 802.11b throughput. Couldn't really see DS games
requiring more than a couple Mbs. Actual throughput, of course, will even
be less than the stated specs. Across my wireless network, actual figures I
see for 802.11b (11 MBS) are around 5 Mbs, 802.11b (22MBS) are around 14
Mbs, 802.11a (108 Mbs in "Super Turbo") are around 30-40 Mbs, etc.

Cheers!
-ES
 
A

Andy

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Archived from groups: alt.games.video.nintendo.gameboy.advance (More info?)

"Eras" <none@nospam.none.not> wrote in message
news:zY0Md.688$4x5.293@fe2.columbus.rr.com...
> Came across this eariler:
>
> Screenshot of Netstumbler showing the DS --
>
> http://www.bway.net/~john/dsscan.jpg
>
> (Thats with PictoChat running. I'm going to have to try PictoChat again
> myself. I didn't get anything.)
>
> Great website on this subject:
>
> http://www.bway.net/~john/ds.html
>
>

I can confirm mine is seen by Netstumbler when using Pictochat (but as you
said, not any of the other apps/games)

It does show up as 2mb/s on the screen as well (which is a pretty low
transfer speed even for wireless IMO)

Andy
 
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Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: alt.games.video.nintendo.gameboy.advance (More info?)

"Andy" <andrew.pick@NOSPAMPLEASEgwent.wales.nhs.uk>

> I can confirm mine is seen by Netstumbler when using Pictochat (but as you
> said, not any of the other apps/games)
>
> It does show up as 2mb/s on the screen as well (which is a pretty low
> transfer speed even for wireless IMO)
>
> Andy

Ah cool. I'll have to try it again using another wireless card. Its
probably just that the card I tried it with (PCMCIA D-Link DWL-AB650) isn't
registering the DS. This particular card doesn't have a promiscuous mode,
so it isn't only going to see 802.11 a/b signals that completetly comply
with wifi-specificied protocols (frame, frame alignment, encoding,
encryption, etc). I'm assuming that Nintendo's "proprietary mechanism" is
probably a modification to 802.11 that may be using different frames and
such. Makes sense why the AB650 won't see it.

I may just have to get such a PCMCIA card. After some googles, I see there
are quite a few freeware programs out there that can use such cards to show
everything going on in the spectrum that the card uses (802.11a or
802.11b/g) and not just signals carrying 802.11 specific protocols. Think
"poor man's spectrum analyzer". Wouldn't expect much accuracy, but would be
nice to do direct assessments of interference.

One of these days, I'm just going to go for broke and buy my own spec annie.
One I use at work is a $40k piece of equipment, so I don't think I'll have
anything like it in my house anytime soon -- but I've recently seen
approachable prices for the Hewlett-Packard HP-8569B. I used the HP-8569B
extensively while in the military, so am pretty intimate with it. Love to
have one sitting right here on the desk! :^)

Cheers 'n beers!
-ES
 
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