It appears that users are being banned from 3DS online services, en masse. There's no direct cause right now, and seemingly no linking factor. This post is meant as an announcement for users, to be wary, and that GBAtemp will keep you updated as soon as more info rolls in. If you have been banned, please post in the thread below, and we will try to keep tabs on the situation. To be extra sure, it can't hurt to turn off your 3DS's wireless capabilities, so you might as well do that for now.

Edit 1: it appears that e-Shop access isn't restricted if you are banned.

Edit 2: A caller to Nintendo reported that the company said this ban is due to "unauthorized software usage".

Edit 3: @LinkSoraZelda is collecting info. Contact him if you are banned.

Edit 4: Click and fill this out if you were BANNED.

Edit 5:

[11:28:19 PM] Clector: Curiously the page of that error in Nintendo Support website used to have this:Error Code: 002-0102 Situation: You receive the error code 002-0102 when attempting to connect online. What to Do: If you continue to experience this issue, please contact Nintendo by calling 1-800-255-3700. Representatives are available from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., Pacific Time, 7 days a week.
[11:28:44 PM] Clector: Now it says this: What to Do: If you are experiencing this error code, your Nintendo 3DS family system has been banned due to unauthorized system modifications, play of unauthorized versions of one or more games, and/or connecting to the official game servers in violation of our terms of service. This ban is effective immediately and requests to remove the ban will not be processed.

Thanks to @Joom

Edit 6: Aurora Wright is taking another poll here

Edit 7: Not a lot is known but

There are bans happening, they are happening in all regions.
All models in the 3ds family seem to be candidates for banning.
There is no indication they will be anything other than permanent.
A game or DLC may end up being a cause but there is no one game or DLC that ties banned users together.
The cause or causes are as yet unknown, though it does seem to be related to modifications. Reports of unmodified consoles being banned are as yet unproven.
The banning is tied to something you can modify, thus you can unban. Doing it while the causes are unknown is likely only going to burn a working token though.
There are semi public tokens out there, Nintendo knows how to browse a forum as well as you so don't be surprised if they also get banned.
It does not seem to be limited to a given base firmware version, it does not seem to be limited to any one custom firmware type. There is some speculation that older hacking methods are not being hit as hard but nothing to confirm this yet.
The data collection could have happened this morning, or it could have been months in the making.
A simple check to see is checking your friends list, by itself it will not ban you.
Some are turning their wifi off. It is doubtful this will be of much use and being banned does not seem to come with any downsides that wifi being off will not also mimic.
You may have escaped a ban thus far but it could happen at any point. It could be that they stop in the future, it has happened on other consoles, but you would be living in hope rather than any particularly well founded logic.
The bans are done on the side of Nintendo's servers rather than your 3ds so there is also that.

If you hack your devices/games then their online functionality may be troubled. This has been known for decades, Nintendo seems to have finally caught up with that.

Please continue to share information with the thread or the links in previous edits.

Update 5/30

HOW TO HELP AVOID BANS (we think)​

If I was to guess from the information we have gathered since the ban wave, it seems likely that they are looking for TitleIDs that don't exist. Homebrew shows up in the activity log as the Download Play app, and fake CIA's show up as just ??????. That last one is what I'm guessing they are looking for.

If you are not banned yet or before you unban yourself, go into your friends list, choose settings, and turn off the option to "show friends what game you are playing." This will prevent you from playing games online with friends, so turn it back on when you wanna game with someone, but ALWAYS keep it off when running custom CIAs. Next, go into system settings -> internet settings -> spotpass, and turn off BOTH options. One is auto download software, the other sends system information to Nintendo. Also, make sure you don't have your favorite title set to something stupid like FBI or any other non-Nintendo CIA.

Its VERY likely that these options are what tipped off Nintendo, but we aren't 100% certain yet. The amount of banned people that had one of these options turned on was over 80% for each. If I was to assume that some of those people overlap, its very possible (but not confirmed) that 100% of banned people in the survey had at least one of those options turned on. I personally had all of them off and I have TONS of reasons for Nintendo to ban me.... yet I am not banned (yet).

Another bit of advice: Only run custom CIAs when offline, and after you close them, run a "legit" game like Smash Bros. or something before shutting down or going back online. This way your most recent title won't show up as a fake CIA

Current Theories as to what causes a ban
​

* SpotPass Settings: 8 users out of 46 users that were banned have SpotPass completely shut off, or SpotPass only (no friends list visibility)
* Firmware Version (Luma, Nintendo): Literally all reports ranged from 10.2+, I can get exact numbers for this if you'd like, but all firmwares were affected.
* Firmware Type (A9LH, B9S): 44 of the 126 B9S users that answered were banned, pattern was mirrored for A9LH users as well.
* Homebrew Titles such as FBI, HBL, Luma Updater, Themely, and freeShop: Literally about 98% of users both banned and unbanned had some combination of these applications installed. However the common ones were: FBI, HBL, LumaUpdater and NTR.
* Save Modification: Equal amounts of users on both sides have reported save modification in some form, either with PKSM or another save editor
* System Transfers: 188 users said that they had not previously system transfered, 61 of those users were banned; 16 users said they transferred from a hacked console, only three of them received a ban; 13 said they transferred from a stock system and likewise were banned. The rest of our sample did not answer this question.
* Activity Log Information: A majority of those who have not been banned have said they had NOT cleaned their activity logs. I can get exact numbers for this too on request.

This information is just what I've found. Like I said, there could be variables or things we haven't even checked for yet. But these are things that I feel should be disproven, at least with the current dataset we have.

• From the information that we've gathered from some people that have used a packet sniffer such as WireShark, the following data is sent to Nintendo's online gaming servers as soon as the 3DS connects to the internet:
  • Amount of time spent online (timer stops when either the system is disconnected from the internet, or connection drops out, then starts the timer again in a new session when it reconnects to the internet).
  • The game being played and amount of time spent on it during that session.
  • The console's unique hexadecimal ID used in the LocalFriendCodeSeedB, along with it's RSA-signed signature.
  • The console's serial number in which is broadcasted from the SoC and is hard coded in the SoC.
  • Friend Code generated on the Nintendo 3DS system, if one has been generated.
  • Internet connection status (either online or offline).
  • The Nintendo Network ID, if there is one linked to it.
  • Even if the sending of SpotPass Information is switched off, or even hiding your currently playing games. It does not prevent the system from sending currently playing information to Nintendo's online gaming servers, it only hides it from your friends in your friend list (like being invisible on the forum, while mods and admins can still see you). Why? Because even people without a Friend Code on their system have been getting banned too!

• The following data is NOT sent to Nintendo's online gaming servers:
  • The data from the Nintendo 3DS's Activity Log. Oddly enough, while Nintendo does explicitly state that they collect Activity Log data, they're actually referring to their own server's Activity Log, which always tracks every console's online activity, and keeps a record of them that is stored forever. And is only collected in increments of data through a timer and a currently playing list.
    
  • Games or apps that have not been played, regardless if they're legitimate or not. You only get tracked when you're online and using that game or app.
  • Using games or apps while offline. Even though it is stored on the 3DS console's Activity Log, that data is NOT sent to Nintendo's online gaming servers.
  • Custom Firmware. Though we can't rule out the possibility of them releasing a 3DS update in the future that adds such function to collect MD5 hashes of files and FIRM data and send them to Nintendo online gaming servers (which would also be updated in a maintenance).

• Things that people think what happens with consoles, but really doesn't:
  • "LocalFriendCodeSeedB is transferred to the system upon doing a system transfer". This is false, the LocalFriendCodeSeedB remains on the system and does not move to another system.
  • "The console generates a LocalFriendCodeSeedB upon first startup". Again, this is false, the LocalFriendCodeSeedB is made during the manufacturing process at Foxconn. It is generated at the factory, flashed to the NAND flash memory storage, then created as an account on Nintendo's online gaming server and Nintendo eShop server immediately when being manufactured. It is absolutely impossible to generate a LocalFriendCodeSeedB and be able to connect to Nintendo's online gaming server and/or Nintendo eShop server, even if you knew the RSA generation key for it. You'd end up with Error Code 002-0102 "This console's online services have been restricted by Nintendo" if you even tried (the error can either mean two things: The hexadecimal ID doesn't exist on the server, or the request to access the hexadecimal ID has been denied which in other words... banned). So a LocalFriendCodeSeedB generator will NEVER happen! Because it's not worth doing, if it can't connect.
  • Switching off "Currently Playing" information. Once again, this does not hide your online activity from Nintendo's online gaming server, it only hides it from your friends.
  • Switching off SpotPass. Nope, this too doesn't hide your online activity from Nintendo's online gaming server, it only opts-out of receiving SpotPass data, sorry.

So pretty much the bottom line is, if anyone has been using custom apps and/or titles not installed through Nintendo eShop while online in the past, guess what? You're screwed! And it is only a matter of time before your console's unique hexadecimal ID in the LocalFriendCodeSeedB is banned from Nintendo's online gaming server. This will mean, your console can't access the Friend List or play any online functions in games.

If you have been online while using custom apps and/or titles not installed through Nintendo eShop and haven't been banned yet, that's because Nintendo hasn't caught up to you yet. They're still going through each unique hexadecimal ID's Activity Log on their server, and by Activity Log, I mean the Activity Log on their server, not the 3DS console's activity log. And it will be only a matter of time before you're banned too.

Thanks to @Platinum Lucario @MadMageKefka and @ShadowEO !

 

[BARNWEY]

But, if I generate friend code seed from my other 3DS doesn't that mean I'll get my other 3DS's friendcode on the banned console? If yes, will that not just mean that if I get banned again my unbanned 3DS also gets banned?

It will not transfer that friend code, that is in a separate file in the NAND. However, now both of your 3DSes will be banned if Nintendo bans one of them...

if i use a friendcodesed of another 3ds that is unbanned...when one of the 2 3ds became banned...both became banned.sorry bad english

Are you saying that both of them became banned after you transferred the LFCS file?

 

[player594]

I can't get Decrypt9WIP to boot up to install focalfriendcodeseed_b. Only Godmode 9 and Luma boot up.

 

[Quantumcat]

I can't get Decrypt9WIP to boot up to install focalfriendcodeseed_b. Only Godmode 9 and Luma boot up.

Do you have it in your luma/payloads folder? If you have b9s it needs to be a firm file and if a9lh a bin file. If you have an old Luma version it needs to start with x_decrypt9 or up_decrypt9 or similar.

 

[player594]

Button combo not working still.

 

[Quantumcat]

Button combo not working still.

What version Luma are you running? You can see by going into Luma updater or the config menu by holding Select on boot.
Also, download Decrypt9 again in case the download or transfer got corrupted.
If the above doesn't fix it, show us a picture of your SD card contents and the contents of luma/payloads, you probably named something wrong.

 

[xMusicax]

Im on 11.3 would it be safe to update i have al9h

 

[RustInPeace]

Im on 11.3 would it be safe to update i have al9h

Yes but that kind of question doesn't really pertain to this thread.

 

[firefist202]

Are the ban waves still continuing? Is it safe to go online?

 

[xMusicax]

Are the ban waves still continuing? Is it safe to go online?

read the first comment on this thread

 

[QCLasky]

Im still playing pirate and original games online. I use cheat (not online, but i did it once) save editors, spot pass was turned on, shared data with nintendo.. not banned yet

 

[Reaga]

So, because I have used the Freeshop, I'm guaranteed to be banned sometime soon?

 

[RustInPeace]

So, because I have used the Freeshop, I'm guaranteed to be banned sometime soon?

It's not a guarantee since many people have used freeshop and were not banned. But, you're at a risk of being banned. It seems the banwave from last week ended last Friday, so it's a matter of waiting to see if another will come.

 

[Reaga]

It's not a guarantee since many people have used freeshop and were not banned. But, you're at a risk of being banned. It seems the banwave from last week ended last Friday, so it's a matter of waiting to see if another will come.

Ok, well I played Smash online just the day before then, but have been using my R4 for Mega Man ever since so haven't checked. I should probably try to go online after work and see if I'm banned.

If so, I made my bed and am stuck with it. But accepting it doesn't mean it won't royally suck.

 

[xMusicax]

would it be safe to use luma updater because you would be online doing so?

 

[KytuzuEX]

Spoiler: READ THIS BEFORE POSTING (Credit to [USER=404137]@nitroBW[/USER])

Having A9LH/ B9S or whatever method you use itself is not a ban reason, Nintendo can't detect these things. Having CFW is very unlikely the reason for these bans too, since we may didn't completely hide it, but there are factors, which are way easier to check for,

like having installed illegitimate titles (FBI, HBL, freeShop, 3DSident, etc). They can easily find them, by checking for unknown titleIDs. It's easy for them to do this, collect data, log us and inspect the logs.

Depending on whether people whose systems had [x,y,z] during periods [a,b,c], they probably got banned, this is not confirmed, but the basic idea of how people got banned. Either we search for the exact titleID which everyone would have needed in their system, which is almost impossible and unrealistic, or Nintendo, like I said, just searched for unknown titleIDs itself instead of for specific targets, both is possible. There are many ways of how they could check for them.
We now know which domains to block in order to stay safe, based on what people said who sniffed the packages which are sent everyday. Blocking these still lets us play online, which itself probably isn't safe, since we don't know which servers the game connects to and which data they will send, we would have to reverse engineer every game for that and this wouldn't let us play online anymore.
The data collection could have happened this morning, or it could have been months in the making.
Another explanation might be that Nintendo didn't ban a few people on purpose so we can't find a pattern, but this sounds unlikely, doesn't it?

We may be giving Nintendo too much credit for the banwave, when they could just have done it as an immature reaction to B9S, which some users already suspected. Why didn't they do that when A9LH was released? B9S is "worse" for them. We literally can have full control now, any system so far can be hacked with it and if NTRboothax ever becomes a thing, it might even be a bigger threat for them. This, again, is just speculation, we simply don't know why they did it, their only response was "that people have been using unauthorized software".

Rafa, a very nice guy on our discord, not sure what his Temp name is, began to analyze the results from Aurora's poll (with the nice table I made;p) and found out that they were not targeting a specific CFW. There is no SOLID proof for that, but it's statistically provable. Even if analysing everything from that poll ends up with everything being random, we could either not have enough/ not exact enough information, the "People whose systems had [x,y,z] during periods [a,b,c]" theory could be true or that Nintendo actually didn't ban everyone.

Regarding the "unbans", we are sure that it is similar to the SuMo banwave, some people got a temporary ban, but most people probably got a permanent ban. But banning someone for 1 day, 2 days or 4 days makes no sense, right? It's not that I don't want to trust the people who've been claiming that, but there is just little to no proof for Nintendo unbanning them and not them unbanning themselves. One explanation for getting unban might be, that these people injected another seed, doesn't matter for what reason, that seed got banned, they restored a NAND backup (which contained their old (unbanned) seed) and they weren't banned anymore, there is no proof for this either though, but a few people said they were unbanned after restoring a backup.
If you make a NAND backup, system transfer to this console, can you still use the NAND backup or will it brick? If it worked, that might be another explanation.
Temporary bans are the most realistic and most likely explanation though.

The banwave seems to be over as there haven't been any greater amounts of ban reports in the past few days, right now, they could just be banning individuals for whatever reason, or maybe the banwave is not over, we don't know, sorry.

Blocking the domains, disabling telemetry, not cheating online, never installing or playing unreleased/ out-of-region games, cleaning the activity log, backupping your seed and injecting another one until we can confirm it's over, factory resetting or removing everything that breaks their ToS are security measures you can take in order to not get banned (again), but doing all of this could make you seem suspicious.. or maybe not. Unbanning is still a thing, but stay safe regardless.



This was my little write-up about the banwave. I would like to stress, that many of these infos are NOT (and probably can't be) confirmed! This is 95% speculation. I repeat, this doesn't have to be the truth! This is not an absolute solution or a fix, we might never get any of those..

I would really like to thank rafa, Veranek, Zalexard, enMTW, funkymon and several others from the official inofficial GBATemp 3DS Banwave support server, the past week was very exciting and fun, it was really nice talking, theorising and discussing about the banwave with you guys (and girls) (Also they contributed most of the information from this, I'm not that smart).
(This was written by me, so if there is any wrong information, it was my fault for including it. Please blame me for it and correct me.)


-


You may have a few questions, which is probably why you are visiting this thread.
Anyway, I made a small Q&A in order to answer some questions I saw people asking.
(NOTE: These are speculation, since we can't 100% prove it, but the answers seem very likely and realistic imo):


Q: Is my NNID banned too?

A: No, this only bans your LocalFriendcodeSeed_B.


Q: Is my Switch/ WiiU in danger, because my 3DS got banned?

A: Rather not, these bans only apply to your 3DS and since the NNID isn't banned, your WiiU should be safe.


Q: Are you sure X isn't causing these bans?

A: Maybe, maybe not? I'm pretty sure that the info in my write-up is correct though, but it's only speculation. Feel free to check the "Other possible ban reasons" pastebin in the "Useful Links" list though.


Q: Is this ban permanent?

A: Probably. Multiple Nintendo reps have confirmed this now, but we should wait atleast 10 to 25 more days, so we can be sure. Some people seem to be unbanned though, so some bans may be temporary.


Q: Can I unban my console?

A: Check the "Useful Links" List, there is a link to an unbanning guide.


Q: How can I stay safe?

A: Check the "Useful Links" List, there is a link to a pastebin with instructions, a list of domains you can block and a link to Cthulhu, so you can clean your Activity Log.


Q: How can I contribute?

A: Even just posting information about your banned (or unbanned) console can help! Feel free to discuss or theorise in the thread, in PMs or on discords.


Q: You made a mistake!

A: Please correct me, so I can fix it!


Q: I love you..

A: I know.


If you have any other questions, feel free to ask them.


-


Useful Links:


002-0102 Error Code Nintendo Support Page: http://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/17218/p/430/kw/002-0102

Unbanning Methods: https://gbatemp.net/threads/all-3-methods-to-get-unbanned-from-recent-ban-wave.450679/

Nintendo's ToS: https://www.nintendo.com/terms-of-use

Nintendo's 3DS EULA & Privacy Policy: http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/info/en_na/docs.jsp

List of Domains to block: https://gbatemp.net/threads/regarding-the-recent-3ds-banwave.471781/page-291#post-7346389 (Don't block the connection test domain!)

Nintendo & Collecting Data: https://gbatemp.net/threads/regarding-the-recent-3ds-banwave.471781/page-277#post-7345664

Poll Results: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1...I38qp5IVKlk6lSCK0zeMZvijUqrPIuw/viewanalytics

Poll Results (table): https://mega.nz/#!Dkkj0bJI!GBW12aQFP-nFV_j80gWvwwd0XactCvnpIZeAQokCW2Q
|- with Rafa's Analysis: https://mega.nz/#!v49myRZD!7y09cP5_0zsc1YG0U3xRLphxevfpta7M-RqjbeDqgHw

Rafa's Results: http://i.imgur.com/7tU7dWX.png

How To Stay Incognito: https://pastebin.com/FPAES6eA

Cthulhu (Cleaning Activity Logs): https://gbatemp.net/threads/release...ime-step-history-and-cached-icon-data.439485/

Other possible ban reasons: https://pastebin.com/B7Ts9v7d

3DBrew: https://www.3dbrew.org/wiki/Main_Page

3DS Hacking Guide: https://3ds.guide

Updating from A9LH to B9S: https://3ds.guide/updating-to-boot9strap.html

 

[Dekky]

I've noticed that the bans have seemingly been fairly random, but have not seen any surveys asking about geographical location such as major cities or states within the United States. I imagine if Nintendo pulled random samples for banning, they'd have used chunks of data organized by region, which makes sense from a marketing perspective.

 

[Kourin]

I've noticed that the bans have seemingly been fairly random, but have not seen any surveys asking about geographical location such as major cities or states within the United States. I imagine if Nintendo pulled random samples for banning, they'd have used chunks of data organized by region, which makes sense from a marketing perspective.

What relevance does our location have to the banwave? We already know that people from all over the world got banned, Nintendo isn't picking on particular countries or particular states within said countries.

Not to mention it's a pretty poor piece of information when different countries have different populations and numbers of people playing 3DS' in the first place.

 

[Dekky]

What relevance does our location have to the banwave? We already know that people from all over the world got banned, Nintendo isn't picking on particular countries or particular states within said countries.

Not to mention it's a pretty poor piece of information when different countries have different populations and numbers of people playing 3DS' in the first place.

Relevance is hardly important, Companies often organize consumer data based on region due to marketing since various demographics will perceive marketing campaigns from different perspectives. In fact the SpotPass and data collection functions are primary meant for marketing purposes. I know that 3DSs have been banned world wide, but a linking factor could be one's location to certain "hotspot" centers from which data was pulled.

 

[hiten]

Status of my 3DS

Status: Not banned
Region: US
Console: Old 3DS XL
Mod: SigHax w/ Luma on 11.2
Spotpass setting (sending system info to Nintendo): disabled
Friend list setting: enabled (online friend can see the games I'm playing)

So I just went online again to check my friend list, I'm still not banned.

After that, I turned off the "show game you are playing" option, launch FBI and check update using FBI built-in updater.

I'll check my friend list again tomorrow to see if there's any changes.

 

[nitroBW]

I've noticed that the bans have seemingly been fairly random, but have not seen any surveys asking about geographical location such as major cities or states within the United States. I imagine if Nintendo pulled random samples for banning, they'd have used chunks of data organized by region, which makes sense from a marketing perspective.

Maybe it has something to do with our geographical location? But even if, we can't use that info. There aren't as much europeans hacking their console as there are americans doing it, probably 70% of gbatemp/reddit/4chan users are american anyway, so a poll would end up saying that bans mainly happen in america, but we already know that and it would always end up like that, so it wouldn't be much of a reliable source of information.

Not even mentioning the factor that most people only realized that they were banned 1-2 days later anyway.
Many of the few europeans were banned on day 1 afaik.

Regarding the "hotspot of bans", I don't think that we can really prove something like that, but we can still try, I guess. Create a poll if you want