Hacking Any way to keep WiiConnect24 functionality after the cut?

[Elliander]

As some are aware, Nintendo will be discontinuing the bulk of what little online functionality the Wii has on June 28th, 2013. Some channels, such as the weather channel (which I use often), don't obtain information from Nintendo's servers (It's from from weathernews), but they use the "WiiConnect24" features and that is what is really being cut.

I can't really find any reference as to why WiiConnect24 depends on Nintendo's servers. All Nintendo says about it is this:

"WiiConnect24 allows the Wii console to use its high-speed internet connection to accept data for a variety of services including News and Weather, posting messages on the Wii Message Board and receiving messages from Nintendo about new Wii features."

So wouldn't it be possible to hack something to keep modified consoles online?

Importantly, this will destroy any feature of the Wii that depends on WiiConnect24. Some games will loose online functionality, and I am sure some Homebrew will as well. Will the Homebrew Channel stop working? Or any other Homebrew?

I know they claim it's because of a "very low participation rate", but I think it's more likely that they would use similar services on the Wii-U and want to force more people to migrate to the Wii-U. This decision comes right after failing Wii-U sales, so it seems pretty obvious to me that they see complacency with the Wii as a factor. Which of course would be true.

 

[Gabelvampir]

I don't think any homebrew depends on WiiConnect24, it is just a feature that let's the Wii get data from the Internet while being in standby.
The Homebrew Channel will definitely not stop working, all relevant data is local. And online stuff it does does not depend on Nintendo servers.
It should be possible to reverse engineer WiiConnect24 server side stuff, not sure if anybody did that already. It should be doable to keep it going with homebrew server software.
You wouldn't even need a modified Wii to use it, would be much simpler if you change the IP it connects to in your router to the homebrew server.

Edit: Oh and if the Weather Channel has its own servers that do not get turned off it should still work, it uses only WiiConnect24 to pre-fetch weather data. So it will be a bit slower then before until it has its data.

Edit2: Also the talk about the Weather Channel reminded me of this: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/12/20

And yet another edit: Seems at least the Forecast Channel stuff runs on a standard Apache Webserver on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux. So the server part is generic, but you'd have to encode you own weather data. But that does not seem to be all that hard: http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Forecast_Channel

 

[Elliander]

That's really good news. I am in the process of brushing up on C++ programming for PS3 related learning, but out of curiosity, would the Wii use the same programming language? I won't have any time at all to even look into learning Wii Homebrew any time soon, but if I knew the differences I could at least keep them in mind while studying. For example, what would someone need to know in order to reverse engineer WiiConnect24?

I would really like to eventually learn to focus on network side programming for consoles. I have my own servers, but I have to learn the new versions of HTML (xHTML, CSS, mySWL, etc.) since I am about 15 years out of date.

 

[Rydian]

The Wii uses C, and this is the environment to use.
http://devkitpro.org/wiki/Getting_Started

 

[bezem]

Don't let this thread sink to the bottom, I love the idea behind it!

 

[Elliander]

The Wii uses C, and this is the environment to use.
http://devkitpro.org/wiki/Getting_Started

Thanks. I'll keep that in mind as I study.

Don't let this thread sink to the bottom, I love the idea behind it!

Good to hear I hope it is applied.

 

[techboy]

Having just found out about the upcoming WC24 shutdown yesterday, I'll agree that this would be really cool to see. I use the weather and news channel on occasion.

 

[bezem]

Well they left something up, since there is now a message stating the services are discontinued. Very annoying.

 

[techboy]

Weather, News, Nintendo Channel, and CheckMii Out give discontinued messages now. Everybody votes lets me see results but says there's no new questions.

Mii Parade in Mii channel still seems to work (had 1001 Miis when I just viewed it). Today & Tomorrow is also unaffected (not sure if it uses any internet functions for the predictions, but guessing not)

 

[kp_centi]

Mii Parade probably won't update, since I can view that also when Offline

 

[Hiroshirou]

time to delete those channels. gotta keep it clutter free

 

[Elliander]

time to delete those channels. gotta keep it clutter free

I wouldn't rush into that. If anyone manages to get a fix working I want to make sure I still have them. I am personally thinking of it as a temporary internet outage for the Wii.

 

[antiaverage]

but I have to learn the new versions of HTML (xHTML, CSS, mySWL, etc.) since I am about 15 years out of date.

XHTML is dead, MySQL (not MySWL) is super old although still legitimate (but there is better NoSQL stuff out there for certain use cases), but yeah, good luck

 

[HNKii]

Same for me... I got my Wii on 10/26/13 and didn't even have a chance to use WC24...

 

[W hat]

WC24 has nothing to do with regular online play. That is done through GameSpy servers. Nintendo is shutting down WC24 servers, which affects mostly Nintendo system channels.