Hacking Questions regarding WiFi with N3DS

[Johnny Dunlop]

Hi everyone,

I recently purchased:

N3DS XL - Black
QW1024
9.0.0-20U

Now, I know that this is a good firmware for future hopes of a Gateway compatible flashcard so I know not to upgrade the firmware.

I have a few questions regarding WiFi usage:

1. If I connect to a WiFi network, will the N3DS automatically attempt to update the firmware?
2. If not, can I safely browse the internet and use other apps such as miiverse (excluding eShop)
3. Can I update 3DS games through WiFi to play online? or does this require the use of eShop?

Thanks in advance and sorry for the noob related questions.

Regards,
Johnny

 

[Dragaan]

1) Yes, but you can just refuse to do so.
2) (dunno)
3) Nope. You need eShop access to update, and you need to be on the latest firmware to use the eShop.

 

[Johnny Dunlop]

1) Yes, but you can just refuse to do so.
2) (dunno)
3) Nope. You need eShop access to update, and you need to be on the latest firmware to use the eShop.

1) Will it ask me every time I connect to WiFi to update the firmware? and can I refuse to update every time?

3) So basically, you cannot play games online unless you are on the latest firmware / latest game updates?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Dragaan]

1) Will it ask me every time I connect to WiFi to update the firmware? and can I refuse to update every time?

3) So basically, you cannot play games online unless you are on the latest firmware / latest game updates?

Thanks in advance!

1) I don't know when, but I think it'll just keep on pestering you. You can find more information in this post.
3) Yes, at least for retail game carts before Gateway support come out. If you have a retail game that doesn't need to be updated to play online, I think it should be fine (someone please verify). When Gateway support actually does come out, there's a way to update your roms/retail carts so you can play online.

 

[C00kies0fD00m]

1) yes it will ask you to update everytime you hop onto wifi.

3) unfortunately if the game requires an update and your firmware is not up to date ita will force you to update.

As a side note are you intrested in the home brew element of flash cards or strictly playing "backed up" ROMs? If you are stricky playing ROMs I would recommend either the Sky3DS or QQ3DS both of these carts are based upon spoofing a real cart and don't require any system level exploit. If you are looking for home brew however, these offerings fall short. It may take some time for the gateway team to crack the N3DS , apparently the system has beefed up encryption and that's why I went with the QQ3DS for the time being. I have a N3DS MM edition for reference.

 

[Johnny Dunlop]

1) yes it will ask you to update everytime you hop onto wifi.

3) unfortunately if the game requires an update and your firmware is not up to date ita will force you to update.

As a side note are you intrested in the home brew element of flash cards or strictly playing "backed up" ROMs? If you are stricky playing ROMs I would recommend either the Sky3DS or QQ3DS both of these carts are based upon spoofing a real cart and don't require any system level exploit. If you are looking for home brew however, these offerings fall short. It may take some time for the gateway team to crack the N3DS , apparently the system has beefed up encryption and that's why I went with the QQ3DS for the time being. I have a N3DS MM edition for reference.

I am mostly interested in playing ROM's. However, I heard that the Sky3DS does not support eShop roms. How about the QQ3DS?

 

[C00kies0fD00m]

I am mostly interested in playing ROM's. However, I heard that the Sky3DS does not support eShop roms. How about the QQ3DS?

No the QQ3DS does not support the loading of eshop ROMs to the cart, however it does come with an R4i clone which will allow you to run DS roms and has some cool emulators available. Right now I'm playing super metriod on my emulator and it's an enjoyable experience, the GBA emulator is not great but GB/GBC is good and NES emulator is good.

 

[Johnny Dunlop]

No the QQ3DS does not support the loading of eshop ROMs to the cart, however it does come with an R4i clone which will allow you to run DS roms and has some cool emulators available. Right now I'm playing super metriod on my emulator and it's an enjoyable experience, the GBA emulator is not great but GB/GBC is good and NES emulator is good.

Okay thanks.

Any major advantages to the QQ3DS over the Sky3DS?

 

[C00kies0fD00m]

No the QQ3DS does not support the loading of eshop ROMs to the cart, however it does come with an R4i clone which will allow you to run DS roms and has some cool emulators available. Right now I'm playing super metriod on my emulator and it's an enjoyable experience, the GBA emulator is not great but GB/GBC is good and NES emulator is good.

Also the qq3ds can play any region games if that interests you, check out the review from GBA temp did on SKY3ds which applies to QQ3DS card (it's a clone)

https://gbatemp.net/review/sky3ds-rev-2-blue-button.250/

 

[C00kies0fD00m]

Okay thanks.

Any major advantages to the QQ3DS over the Sky3DS?

You get the r4i card bundled in and it's cheaper by 10-20 bucks, it's literally the same internals and firmware.

 

[jimskeet2002]

1) NO. Go to settings menu>Internet settings and set spotpass and send information options to "NO". You can use wifi without issues. Just do not let n3ds in sleep mode with wifi on cause it will get a notification that an update is available and it might pop up occasionally... Also there is a way to boot on "safe" mode and delete it but I do not know if it works on n3ds or only on OG 3ds.
I just delete the connection settings after I use wifi so there is no chance of my bro updating on accident.

2) Yes you can but you cannot access eshop

3) You cannot update any game cause that needs eshop access, so if any game requires any update to go online, it cannot go online till you update firmware.

 

[Johnny Dunlop]

You get the r4i card bundled in and it's cheaper by 10-20 bucks, it's literally the same internals and firmware.

Thank you for the information. So just to confirm, the QQ3DS is natively region free?

Also, I see you can play roms online. Would it be best to use one of my own headers from a title only I own? If so, can that header be used for all roms I plan to take online?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Johnny Dunlop]

1) NO. Go to settings menu>Internet settings and set spotpass and send information options to "NO". You can use wifi without issues. Just do not let n3ds in sleep mode with wifi on cause it will get a notification that an update is available and it might pop up occasionally... Also there is a way to boot on "safe" mode and delete it but I do not know if it works on n3ds or only on OG 3ds.
I just delete the connection settings after I use wifi so there is no chance of my bro updating on accident.

2) Yes you can but you cannot access eshop

3) You cannot update any game cause that needs eshop access, so if any game requires any update to go online, it cannot go online till you update firmware.

Thank you for the confirmation!

 

[C00kies0fD00m]

Thank you for the information. So just to confirm, the QQ3DS is natively region free?

Also, I see you can play roms online. Would it be best to use one of my own headers from a title only I own? If so, can that header be used for all roms I plan to take online?

Thanks in advance!

Thank you for the information. So just to confirm, the QQ3DS is natively region free?

Also, I see you can play roms online. Would it be best to use one of my own headers from a title only I own? If so, can that header be used for all roms I plan to take online?

Thanks in advance!

So the QQ3DS just gained the region free play not to long ago, I think it had more to do with the file writer (it's what you use to side load ROMs on the Micro SD card) then the actual cart. But it has been verified in one of the threads here on GBAtemp (you'll have to go digging for the guide posted on here), maybe try here https://gbatemp.net/threads/release...-from-9-0-9-4-sky3ds-users-regionfree.378975/

As far as online play, you may have seen Nintendo banned users for what we thought was public header use but now have reversed the ban. So to answer your question private (and or semi private using headers from the forum) headers should provide you with more protection as we have yet to see a wide scale ban on private headers. But it's still very much at your own risk but yes it can be done.

 

[kheldar]

Mine doesn't prompt for an update and I use it online all the time. just don't leave it on sleep mode while wifi is enabled.