Hacking What's the definitive way of preventing updates on my Wii U?

[Kafke]

I'm one of those people who updated to 5.5 because nothing was released and I wanted to play Splatoon. But given the rumors of an update coming out in a few days, I wanted to know what's the best way to prevent my system from updating itself. I know back when people were first trying to stop updates, many people accidentally ended up updating.

What do I do to prevent that, and ensure that I'll stay on 5.5 for when the exploit is finally released? Is it just a DNS switch?

Also, if I do block updates/switch DNS/etc, I'm guessing this will kill my ability to play Splatoon and other online games?

Thanks.

 

[fiveighteen]

Block URLS and use TubeHax DNS. You should still be able to play online; it only blocks Nintendo's update servers.

 

[DiscostewSM]

The definitive way? Remove all internet connections from System Settings, and disconnect any ethernet adapters.

Of course doing that would prevent you from going online with anything on the system. I currently use the OpenDNS method which allows me to block, by domain, known places that are used for updating purposes. I still can go online for games like MK8 with this method.

 

[amoulton]

Well apparently on the 3DS they've been able to push YouTube updates to people with the DNS blocked, so that might not even be a reliable method anymore...

 

[Bimmel]

Throw it out of the window. It will never update again.

>..okay, what fiveighteen said.<

 

[The_Meistro]

Send it to me in the mail! I will keep it with me! Where it will never update again!

 

[fiveighteen]

The definitive way? Remove all internet connections from System Settings, and disconnect any ethernet adapters.

Of course doing that would prevent you from going online with anything on the system. I currently use the OpenDNS method which allows me to block, by domain, known places that are used for updating purposes. I still can go online for games like MK8 with this method.

So many people have been updated from using OpenDNS and not realizing their IP changed. I wouldn't recommend it to the average user.

 

[DiscostewSM]

So many people have been updated from using OpenDNS and not realizing their IP changed. I wouldn't recommend it to the average user.

Ah, dynamic IP. That can put a damper on things.

 

[Kafke]

Block URLS and use TubeHax DNS. You should still be able to play online; it only blocks Nintendo's update servers.

So just setting the DNS to the tubehax DNS should be good? Or is there something else I need to do as well? I figured the tubehax thing was for 3DS and not wii u. Which is why I asked here (3DS asks to update anyway. It doesn't auto-update like the wii u).

For the record, that'd be "107.211.140.065" right?

 

[europat]

Disconnect the AC adapter

 

[driverdis]

If you do not use vWii very often then you could uninstall (while keeping a backup) an IOS that the Wii U checks before updating (other than 58 or 80) then the Wii U update will fail to install until that is correct.

dangerous and can brick vWii if you are not careful of which IOS you uninstall or you lose the backup but should result in never needing to worry about updating. This is the method I would use had I decided to block updates on my Wii U. I am not sure exactly which IOS's cause the update to fail though. It is one of the ones under 80 that games and some apps need though.

 

[Kafke]

Disconnect the AC adapter

That's what I'm doing at the moment. Unplugged it, and it's just sitting there. I'm just worried that when I turn it on to play, it'll download and apply an update :\.

If you do not use vWii very often then you could uninstall (while keeping a backup) an IOS that the Wii U checks before updating (other than 58 or 80) then the Wii U update will fail to install until that is correct.

dangerous and can brick vWii if you are not careful of which IOS you uninstall or you lose the backup but should result in never needing to worry about updating. This is the method I would use had I decided to block updates on my Wii U. I am not sure exactly which IOS's cause the update to fail though. It is one of the ones under 80 that games and some apps need though.

I don't use vWii (haven't touched it since I got my wii u). But I don't really want to mess with it and fuck something up. And I might end up using it in the future. But for now I have a dedicated wii unit that I have hacked.

 

[Ericzander]

Block URLS and use TubeHax DNS. You should still be able to play online; it only blocks Nintendo's update servers.

Technical question for you... What's stopping Nintendo from sneakily making another update server and update a bunch of consoles before we catch on?

 

[fiveighteen]

Technical question for you... What's stopping Nintendo from sneakily making another update server and update a bunch of consoles before we catch on?

Honestly, I don't think anything is stopping them lol. We're blocking what they're using. If they use something else, we obviously wouldn't be blocking that. But it would be silly for Nintendo to do that.. as soon as the first wave of people got mass updated and started freaking out on the Temp, we would see the new server and block that and everyone else would be safe. Cat and mouse.

EDIT: I guess they could do like a week straight of changing the server every day and try to get most of us but I think after the first day most would go into a state of paranoia and just stay offline.

 

[Ericzander]

Honestly, I don't think anything is stopping them lol. We're blocking what they're using. If they use something else, we obviously wouldn't be blocking that. But it would be silly for Nintendo to do that.. as soon as the first wave of people got mass updated and started freaking out on the Temp, we would see the new server and block that and everyone else would be safe. Cat and mouse.

So it is possible. See if I was them I would do that right as the new firmware is released later this month. I don't think that it would be silly of them because a lot of people rely on Tubehax or OpenDNS as opposed to just not having a connection. So during the odd hours of the night (or whatever time it is when they get the least activity worldwide) just release the new server, update a ton of consoles, and then let us find the new server and block it. Yeah it won't get everybody, but it'll get a LOT of us.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Technical question for you... What's stopping Nintendo from sneakily making another update server and update a bunch of consoles before we catch on?

Presumably the update server URLs are hardcoded on the Wii U side. There's no way to know that for sure though.

I'm one of those people who updated to 5.5 because nothing was released and I wanted to play Splatoon. But given the rumors of an update coming out in a few days, I wanted to know what's the best way to prevent my system from updating itself. I know back when people were first trying to stop updates, many people accidentally ended up updating.

What do I do to prevent that, and ensure that I'll stay on 5.5 for when the exploit is finally released? Is it just a DNS switch?

Also, if I do block updates/switch DNS/etc, I'm guessing this will kill my ability to play Splatoon and other online games?

Thanks.

The best way is to block it in your router, if possible. This is the way I've done it.

Online games will not work if you're not on the latest version, but simply having the update servers blocked won't stop you from using online and the eShop. It's only when the console detects that it's not on the latest version that it blocks online functionality. And there's no way to stop it from detecting that, since that check is done when it logs in to Nintendo Network.

 

[fiveighteen]

So it is possible. See if I was them I would do that right as the new firmware is released later this month. I don't think that it would be silly of them because a lot of people rely on Tubehax or OpenDNS as opposed to just not having a connection. So during the odd hours of the night (or whatever time it is when they get the least activity worldwide) just release the new server, update a ton of consoles, and then let us find the new server and block it. Yeah it won't get everybody, but it'll get a LOT of us.

I guess I don't know the cost of changing to a new update server. Does it cost less than what they're losing to those who are pirating and playing with Loadiine? I doubt it.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I guess I don't know the cost of changing to a new update server. Does it cost less than what they're losing to those who are pirating and playing with Loadiine? I doubt it.

In reality all they would really need to do is change the subdomains used since most people are blocking the servers by the domain name. Doing that would be free, however, if the URLs are hardcoded on the Wii U side then they can't do that since it'll leave everyone unable to update since the Wii U doesn't know about the new subdomain.

 

[Ericzander]

In reality all they would really need to do is change the subdomains used since most people are blocking the servers by the domain name. Doing that would be free, however, if the URLs are hardcoded on the Wii U side then they can't do that since it'll leave everyone unable to update since the Wii U doesn't know about the new subdomain.

Good point here. It seems that if it wasn't hardcoded and was as easy as just switching subdomains they would have done it dozens of times by now.