I'm creating this tutorial because this is a much better solution than using an old version of Windows or using Mobile Data for this functionality.

Requirements

• Linux-compatible Wireless Adapter (WiFi Card)
• Linux Distribution of your choosing (I'm using SteamOS for this tutorial)
• Nintendo DS or Sony PSP
• linux-wifi-hotspot installed
• NDS users: nds-constraint DNS

Steps to achieve

1. Open a terminal window and type or paste the following text:
   
   

   wihotspot

   
   
   
   
   
   OR simply launch "Wifi Hotspot" from your Applications Menu.
   
   
2. After entering that text, a GUI window will appear. In this Window, set an SSID (Hotspot name) and click the box that says Open.
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. After setting your Hotspot to Open, it's important to do one or both of the following in the Advanced settings: Set your Hotspot to Hidden and/or add your console's MAC address to the Mac Filter text box.
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Once you've done the above steps, you can now click "Create Hotspot" at the bottom to turn on your new hotspot!
   
   
   
   
   
   If all is well, you will now see a PID to indicate that your hotspot is live and you can connect via the Nintendo DS or Sony PSP by inputting the SSID in a New connection.
   
   
   
   
   
   The Connected devices list will populate when you run a connection test, like below:
   
   
   

Congratulations, you've made your hotspot. You can now always launch this hotspot, which is now saved to your system by running the following in your terminal once again

wihotspot

You can also simply launch "Wifi Hotspot" from your Applications Menu.

Note: Whitelisting MAC addresses is the only way to be completely safe from other people connecting to your Hotspot. It is highly recommended that you do this.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

Nice tutorial. I have played around with Networkmanager on my laptop (openSUSE 15.0) to test connecting a DS to the internet some weeks ago (worked).

Surprisingly modern Windows does not seem to support the outdated and practically useless WEP. (If the user has a reason and knows about the risk, the OS should not patronize. A BIG warning would be good though). Because of the risks that come with a WEP hotspot I would rather not not use any autostart on an OS or a computer that is also used for other purposes.

On a computer or secondary OS used only for providing a DS compatible hotspot the autostart is a good idea and convenient.

 

[AkikoKumagara]

Because of the risks that come with a WEP hotspot I would rather not not use any autostart on an OS or a computer that is also used for other purposes.

On a computer or secondary OS used only for providing a DS compatible hotspot the autostart is a good idea and convenient.

I'm fortunate enough to live someplace where I can be certain no one around me is technically capable of breaking into a WEP connection, or I'd have the same feelings as you.
I know this isn't the case for many people so I did add a small disclaimer at the bottom of the original post for that very reason.

 

[PRAGMA]

Just use a MAC whitelist, sure its also breakable, but its the littlest things that can throw someone off

 

[Ryccardo]

Surprisingly modern Windows does not seem to support the outdated and practically useless WEP.

Medium-length story, it never supported acting as (infrastructure mode) wep hotspot; and back in the day some wireless card manufacturers provided that themselves, but when 7 came out with its official HostedNetwork WPA2-only hotspot, probably literally every 3rd party tool (including the often cited Connectify) switched to being a frontend for that...

 

[AkikoKumagara]

Just use a MAC whitelist, sure its also breakable, but its the littlest things that can throw someone off

I agree. I wouldn't know how to achieve that while using this method, but I'm sure it's possible. I did mention this at the end of the tutorial

 

[Gamer90Kirby]

Would this work on Win10 and a generic (Non-nintendo) USB wifi adapter?

 

[AkikoKumagara]

Would this work on Win10 and a generic (Non-nintendo) USB wifi adapter?

This method is specifically for Linux operating systems. While Windows 10 does have some weird integrated Linux support now, I don't believe it's capable of this. You would have to install another operating system on your PC and dual boot for this guide to be useful for you. The USB Wi-Fi adapter thing would most likely work with this method, assuming your PC is connected to the internet by wired connection or a different adapter than the one you would use for this.

 

[RealYoti]

>>as well as other consoles that don't support WPA connections, such as the PSP
PSP works with WPA. I'm using WPA-AES.

 

[AkikoKumagara]

>>as well as other consoles that don't support WPA connections, such as the PSP
PSP works with WPA. I'm using WPA-AES.

Doesn't work with WPA2, which is far-and-away the most commonly applied security on modern modems and routers. WPA-AES is not a commonality in 2019.
I will change the wording there, but my point is still there.

 

[Deleted User]

How much would this change on something more common/noob ish, like, linux mint or ubuntu? (not that there is anything wrong with ubuntu or linux mint.)

 

[AkikoKumagara]

How much would this change on something more common/noob ish, like, linux mint or ubuntu? (not that there is anything wrong with ubuntu or linux mint.)

Should be the exact same process.

 

[Tempylon]

I'm creating this tutorial because this is a much better solution than using an old version of Windows or using Mobile Data for this functionality.

Requirements

• Linux-compatible Wireless Adapter (WiFi Card)
• Linux Distribution of your choosing (I'm using Manjaro for this tutorial and have also successfully done this on Ubuntu)
• Nintendo DS Console
• A secondary connection on host computer (Ethernet/Second Wireless Adapter/etc.)

Steps to achieve

1. Open a terminal window and type or paste the following text:
   
   

   nm-connection-editor

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. After entering that text, a GUI window will appear. In this Window, click the plus button at the bottom of the screen to create a new connection. If you have an existing connection under Wi-Fi adapters called "Hotspot", please remove it now. We'll be making a new one.
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. After clicking the plus button, set the connection type in the dropdown list to Wi-Fi. Click Create now.
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. The settings menu for your new connection will open automatically when created. From here, set the following information: Connection name (must be "Hotspot"), SSID (can be whatever you want, for this tutorial, I used "NintendoWFC"), and mode (must be "Hotspot").
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. Now, click on the Wi-Fi Security tab. This part is what will make the connection work with the NDS console, as well as other consoles that don't support modern WPA2 connections, such as the PSP. Set the Security parameter dropdown to "WEP 40/128-bit Key". Type in a password for the network in the "Key" field, and click Save on the bottom right of the window.
   
   
   

Congratulations, you've made your hotspot. Once saved, you can activate this hotspot by opening a Terminal window and running the following command:

nmcli connection up Hotspot

You can shut down the hotspot with the same command, but changing "up" to "down".

Bonus

By creating a .desktop file (on GNOME, may work on other desktop environments, but I have not confirmed), you can run this command at startup silently. There are other ways to do this for those using other Desktop Environments, but I will not explain that here.

To do this, open a text editor of your choosing and paste the following text:

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=nmcliAP
Exec=nmcli connection up Hotspot

Save the file anywhere as "hotspot.desktop" and then move the file to the following directory:

/usr/share/applications/

Once this is done, open GNOME Tweaks and go to the Startup Applications section. After clicking the plus sign to add a Startup Application, you should now see nmcliAP (the .desktop entry we just created) on the list of Applications provided. Add this as a startup app and your new hotspot will launch in the background every time you boot your Linux operating system.

Note: WEP Security is easy to break and you should only use it when you need to, or find a way to whitelist MAC addresses so you don't have to worry about your connection being cracked.

Wiimmfi DS users just gone up to 500%!

 

[SNBeast]

It's oft here said to add a whitelist, but could you add a method to do so to the guide? Searching doesn't yield much.

 

[AkikoKumagara]

It's oft here said to add a whitelist, but could you add a method to do so to the guide? Searching doesn't yield much.

Haven't looked into it myself. I'll do some digging when I have some time.

 

[Leeo97one]

I'm unable to setup a hotspot properly using the official Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector. I can connect to it using my Android device, but with my N2DS XL I keep getting error code 51302 or 51099.

 

[AkikoKumagara]

I'm unable to setup a hotspot properly using the official Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector. I can connect to it using my Android device, but with my N2DS XL I keep getting error code 51302 or 51099.

I don't know enough about the Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector to be able to help with this, unfortunately.

 

[BETA215]

Followed this tutorial step-to-step, but I can't seem to make a working hotspot. Manjaro shows it's created and running, DS will detect it, but when running the connection test it'll fail. Changed connection's DNS to the ones shown here - https://github.com/KaeruTeam/nds-constraint - but no changes.

Terminal shows:

** Message: 22:51:30.623: Cannot save connection due to error: Invalid setting Wi-Fi Security: invalid wep-key: wrong key length 0. A key must be either of length 5/13 (ascii) or 10/26 (hex)
** Message: 22:51:30.854: Cannot save connection due to error: Invalid setting Wi-Fi Security: invalid wep-key: wrong key length 1. A key must be either of length 5/13 (ascii) or 10/26 (hex)
** Message: 22:51:33.117: Cannot save connection due to error: Invalid setting Wi-Fi Security: invalid wep-key: wrong key length 2. A key must be either of length 5/13 (ascii) or 10/26 (hex)
** Message: 22:51:33.595: Cannot save connection due to error: Invalid setting Wi-Fi Security: invalid wep-key: wrong key length 3. A key must be either of length 5/13 (ascii) or 10/26 (hex)
** Message: 22:51:39.650: Cannot save connection due to error: Invalid setting Wi-Fi Security: invalid wep-key: wrong key length 4. A key must be either of length 5/13 (ascii) or 10/26 (hex)

And it's already a 5 characters password.

 

[AkikoKumagara]

Followed this tutorial step-to-step, but I can't seem to make a working hotspot. Manjaro shows it's created and running, DS will detect it, but when running the connection test it'll fail. Changed connection's DNS to the ones shown here - https://github.com/KaeruTeam/nds-constraint - but no changes.

Terminal shows:

** Message: 22:51:30.623: Cannot save connection due to error: Invalid setting Wi-Fi Security: invalid wep-key: wrong key length 0. A key must be either of length 5/13 (ascii) or 10/26 (hex)
** Message: 22:51:30.854: Cannot save connection due to error: Invalid setting Wi-Fi Security: invalid wep-key: wrong key length 1. A key must be either of length 5/13 (ascii) or 10/26 (hex)
** Message: 22:51:33.117: Cannot save connection due to error: Invalid setting Wi-Fi Security: invalid wep-key: wrong key length 2. A key must be either of length 5/13 (ascii) or 10/26 (hex)
** Message: 22:51:33.595: Cannot save connection due to error: Invalid setting Wi-Fi Security: invalid wep-key: wrong key length 3. A key must be either of length 5/13 (ascii) or 10/26 (hex)
** Message: 22:51:39.650: Cannot save connection due to error: Invalid setting Wi-Fi Security: invalid wep-key: wrong key length 4. A key must be either of length 5/13 (ascii) or 10/26 (hex)

And it's already a 5 characters password.

If the network is using 128-bit WEP, your Key needs to be 13 characters, assuming you use an ascii Key. I'm not sure why your 40-bit Key isn't working. I used a 10-digit hex password in my example above, so maybe that's worth trying as well. That would be a password made up of numbers 0-9 and letters A-F.

 

[BETA215]

Tried doing these steps in a different laptop and it worked perfectly. I guess there must be issues with drivers: until some months ago WiFi didn't even worked in Linux. Now built-in WiFi and bluetooth work, but hotspot won't.