Q: What's going on?
A: People using Sky3DS and Gateway cards under particular circumstances have been banned. It seems as though the bans started being doled out Wednesday, February 4th 2015, seemingly following the 9.5 update. Both users of cards have been reporting the issue, but not all users of cards have yet been banned.
Q: Wait, banned? How do they know?
A: Users in multiple countries have been getting error 002-0102, which normally means an internet connectivity problem. However, after contacting Nintendo, multiple users have confirmed that the CS says its a ban. They offer no further information at this time, and can not overturn it. As of now, there is no solid evidence that it is a NNID ban, and most conjecture/circumstance points to a MAC/SN ban. Users that are banned can still enter the eShop and purchase games, and download updates. They can not go online within any game or use their friends list. They also can not use ANY application that requires online connectivity, including Pokemon Bank, YouTube, and Netflix. However, the Web Browser DOES still work.
Q: How can I tell if I've been banned?
A: If you go to your friend's list, and you are connected to a valid internet-connected wireless network, you will still have a connection error on your screen and everyone will be listed as offline. Furthermore, if you try to use any game's multiplayer functionality, you will get similar messages.
Q: So how is Nintendo detecting these cards and banning people?
A: There is no solid evidence yet, but a lot of the reports have been from people going online in-game using either Sky3DS with the default template or pre-patched .3dz files with Gateway. Both of those actions initiates an online connection using what's known as a public header. Each 3DS game has a header, which is similar to an old-fashioned cd-key for PC games. Only one person should be able to be online with each header for each game, so if there are two or more people using the same game with the same header, that shows that at least one person is spoofing or pirating. This has yet to be confirmed but seems the most likely situation, with Nintendo possibly including a new check in 9.5 for duplicate online header events. People using private headers with both cards, as well as .cia files (which remove the header entirely), have not yet reported banning. Someone has reported being banned using 9.4 emuNAND so it does not seem to be explicitly tethered to the 9.5 update, though it may still have been implemented on Nintendo's side around the same time.
Q: So what do I need to do to avoid being banned?
A: Safest bet? Don't use either hack card at all for now. If you still want to use the Gateway or Sky3DS, it is highly recommended to use your own private header for a game, or just don't go online at all with the games on your hack card. As of this point in time, people using cia files have not reported confirmed bans. However, due to how cia's work, it may not be safe to use those as well. As with all these things, you assume your own risk for anything you do to your device. These are helpful suggestions.
Q: Has anyone who's already been banned tried using a different or new 3DS with the same Nintendo Network ID that was on the banned console?
A: There's a lot of rumors being thrown around but I've yet to see a post (maybe my old, tired eyes missed it over the last 54 pages) of someone who's tried getting onto a completely different console from one being banned using the same NNID.
Q: Has anyone been banned who HASN'T gone online since patch 9.5 came out with a hacked card?
A: It would be really nice to know if this was something that was done just in the latest update, and if people who haven't used online mode since then are "safe" or not. I'm not wondering if someone's gone online using an older firmware getting banned, I'm wondering if it's only happened if you've gone online with public headers since 2/4.
So far, common games played involving a banned console are:
Pokemon (any 3DS version)
Super Smash Bros
Mario Kart 7
Some others that were played online, but only single instances:
Bravely Default
Tomodachi Life
Fantasy Life
