*NOTE: This guide is a work in progress. The most important stuff is for the most part done, so I figured I'd just go ahead and post it. Sorry if some of the explanations suck lol, I'll touch it up later
EDIT: cleared up some crappy explanations*
---------------------------------------------------------------------
**************************************************************
NOTE: This whole "port forwarding reduces lag" thing started on gamefaqs, and from there went to smashboards and other brawl sites. I figured it was legit, as I noticed that my connection improved afterwards and other people were saying the same thing. I'm thinking that that was just a coincidence though. I did some testing on this, with my Wii using port forwarding and then not using it, and I noticed no difference between the two. Starting a match on the "With Anyone" mode took anywhere from 20 seconds to over 8 minutes with both of them. Lag was dependent on the match as well, and varied by a large margin with and without port forwarding. So yea, as Surgo said, port forwarding will not help out with lag issues. Port forwarding MIGHT help if you can't connect at all, and/or are getting rampant error codes.
Anyways I apologize for the misinformation :(. If you've already port forwarded/set up DMZ it's not hurting anything, it just probably wasn't necessary. Personally I'm still using it so that I can disable UPnP, which is a security liability. So yea, once again sorry for wasting some of you guy's time; I'll be sure to be more thorough when I post this kind of stuff. I'll change this guide around to reflect this soon.
***********************************************************************
As the title says this guide will detail and give step-by step instructions on how to optimize your Wii's connection. Personally I've had great success with these steps; sometimes a "with anyone" match in SSBB only takes a minute to connect! Of course I don't guarantee that this will make everyone's online Wii experience less laggy, since there are many different routers/ISP's/ect, but if you're dealing with lag it's worth a shot!
This guide will cover the following ways to improve your connection:
1. allowing your Wii to get past your router’s firewall by means of port forwarding or setting up a DMZ server.
2. Ways to increase your wireless signal. (only necessary if your Wii is far away from your router and you have a weak signal.)
3. other miscellaneous ways to improve your connection.
(if you want to know exactly what an IP address is ect. check out this page: http://portforward.com/help.htm . That knowledge isn't necessary to do this, but it's always good to know this stuff ;) )
SECTION 1: Allowing your Wii to get past your router’s firewall by port forwarding:
What you'll be doing here is letting your Wii to get past your router's firewall. I'd highly recommend doing this, as it's helped many people's connections (including my own). Usually this isn’t necessary with other consoles (depends on the router) but the Wii and routers don't really mesh that well (lol Nintendo), so it’s good to set this up manually. In order to do this two steps need to be taken: 1: giving the Wii a static IP address and 2: port forwarding to that IP address or setting that IP address as a DMZ server (I’ll get into both of those later.)
For now lets focus on giving your Wii a static IP address. This is necessary because your router needs to know which specific IP address to forward the ports to. Normally your Wii's IP address will change each time you connect it, which is why you are assigning it a static IP address. (simplistic explanation, but meh)
First off you need to make sure you have access to your router. Usually to access your router you just need to go to http://192.168.1.1/ in a web browser. If this doesn’t work consult the routers instruction manual to find out how to access it. Once you connect to it it will ask you for a password. The default password for your router can be found in it’s intruction manual. Now then! Let's get started!
Setting a static IP:
- Go to the Wii menu, then to "internet", then to "connection settings".
- select the connection you are using and go to "change settings".
- scroll right till you get to the "auto-obtain IP address screen", click on "No" and then "advanced settings".
- here you will need to enter a static IP address. The number you will enter will be 192.168.1.X with "X" being a number of your choice between 1 and 255. You have to select a number outside/far away from the DHCP range though. What that means in English is: you want make sure your router doesn't assign a connected device the same IP address that you gave your Wii. Routers assign connected devices IP address automatically in a certain order. For an example, my router’s DHCP works by assigning devices IP address 2 going up. So if I connected 3 devices to it they would have IP addresses 192.168.1.2 , 192.168.1.3 , 192.168.1.4 respectively. I wouldn't want to give my Wii an IP address of 192.168.1.3, but giving it one of 192.168.1.150 would be fine. How a router assigns IP addresses is dependent on that router though. Just log into your router, look at the connected device's IP addresses, and don't assign your Wii an IP address near them.
If you need more info on selecting a good IP address and DCHP check out this link: http://portforward.com/networking/dhcp.htm.
- next click on the "subnet mask" area and enter "255.255.255.0"
- click on the "default router" area and enter your router's IP address. This is usually 192.168.1.1
- go back and go to the next screen.
- go ahead and click on advanced setting and enter your DNS's. You can find the DNS you’re using by connecting to your router. Alternatively you could use open DNS’s servers, which are faster. To use their servers type in 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220 as the DNS your using. Using open dns sped up my connection personally.
- go to the MTU screen and enter the same MTU value your router uses. This is usually 1500
- Save and test the connection. If it works congats! You've given your Wii a static IP address!
Port Forwarding/using DMZ
Now that you’ve given your Wii a static IP address you can instruct your router to give proper access to that IP address (your Wii). There are two methods of doing this: port forwarding, and setting your Wii as a DMZ server. By port forwarding you open up specific ports that your Wii requires to work at 100% online. By using DMZ all your doing is opening ALL of the ports and exposing your Wii to the fury of the interwebs. Needless to say you NEVER want to use DMZ with a home computer, but I wouldn’t worry about it too much with a console. If you have other programs/ consoles using port forwarding chances are you’ll have to go with the DMZ option (as is my case). This is because you can only port forward a certain port to one device, and since the Wii require ALL UPD ports to be open (nice Nintendo!) it will conflict with anything else using UDP ports.
port forwarding:
- access your router and go to the port forwarding screen. To know exactly what to to go to http://www.portforward.com/english/routers/port_forwarding/routerindex.htm and select your router. For a program just click xbox live to get the general idea on how to port forward with your router.
- once you know how to port forward with your router forward the following ports to your Wii's static IP address:
TCP: 28910, 29900, 29901, 29920, 80, and 443
UDP: Allow all traffic to all destinations. aka: forward ports 1-65534
(having to forward ALL 65,534 UDP ports is pretty freaking ridiculous, and is probably why the Wii doesn't mesh with routers that well. For comparison the Xbox 360 only needs TWO UDP ports open.)
Setting up the Wii as a DMZ server:
- Enable the DMZ option and enter your Wii’s ip address.
- That’s it!
SECTION 2: Reducing lag by improving your Wii's connection to your router (for those seeking the elusive 3 green bars)
Free solutions:
- Make your own parabolic reflector.
I don't know if this works, but it may be worth a try lol. Here are some templates:
http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/template/index.html
http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/template2/index.html
http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/Ez-10/
- Download custom firmware.
With certain firmware you can increase your routers wireless signal by fooling with some settings. I plan to mess with this and write a guide for it later (maybe), but for those who want to look into it here are two custom firmwares:
http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato (works for a few routers)
http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv3/index.php (works for a lot of routers)
I'm not sure what the real difference is between those two, I'll update when I look into it some more.
*WARNING: If you are going to do this be sure to be VERY thorough and make SURE you know what you are doing. If you screw up you could brick your router! From what I read you can unbrick most routers, but it'd be better not to do that*
Not Free solutions!
- buy a new antennae
- buy a wireless repeater
- screw wireless and buy a Lan adapter!
- buy this thing: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...glink&lp=1&type=product&cp=1&id=1179876185243
apparently it uses your home's wiring to transmit data!?
(I'll look into this some more)
SECTION 3:Miscellaneous ways to improve your connection: (work in progess)
- check channels for interference
- use open DNS (www.opendns.com)
Links: (work in progess)
Btw I'm no wifi expert, but if anyone has questions feel free to ask. Also if anyone has anything to add to the thread/ point out any mistakes I made that would be awesome.
EDIT: cleared up some crappy explanations*
---------------------------------------------------------------------
**************************************************************
NOTE: This whole "port forwarding reduces lag" thing started on gamefaqs, and from there went to smashboards and other brawl sites. I figured it was legit, as I noticed that my connection improved afterwards and other people were saying the same thing. I'm thinking that that was just a coincidence though. I did some testing on this, with my Wii using port forwarding and then not using it, and I noticed no difference between the two. Starting a match on the "With Anyone" mode took anywhere from 20 seconds to over 8 minutes with both of them. Lag was dependent on the match as well, and varied by a large margin with and without port forwarding. So yea, as Surgo said, port forwarding will not help out with lag issues. Port forwarding MIGHT help if you can't connect at all, and/or are getting rampant error codes.
Anyways I apologize for the misinformation :(. If you've already port forwarded/set up DMZ it's not hurting anything, it just probably wasn't necessary. Personally I'm still using it so that I can disable UPnP, which is a security liability. So yea, once again sorry for wasting some of you guy's time; I'll be sure to be more thorough when I post this kind of stuff. I'll change this guide around to reflect this soon.
***********************************************************************
As the title says this guide will detail and give step-by step instructions on how to optimize your Wii's connection. Personally I've had great success with these steps; sometimes a "with anyone" match in SSBB only takes a minute to connect! Of course I don't guarantee that this will make everyone's online Wii experience less laggy, since there are many different routers/ISP's/ect, but if you're dealing with lag it's worth a shot!
This guide will cover the following ways to improve your connection:
1. allowing your Wii to get past your router’s firewall by means of port forwarding or setting up a DMZ server.
2. Ways to increase your wireless signal. (only necessary if your Wii is far away from your router and you have a weak signal.)
3. other miscellaneous ways to improve your connection.
(if you want to know exactly what an IP address is ect. check out this page: http://portforward.com/help.htm . That knowledge isn't necessary to do this, but it's always good to know this stuff ;) )
SECTION 1: Allowing your Wii to get past your router’s firewall by port forwarding:
What you'll be doing here is letting your Wii to get past your router's firewall. I'd highly recommend doing this, as it's helped many people's connections (including my own). Usually this isn’t necessary with other consoles (depends on the router) but the Wii and routers don't really mesh that well (lol Nintendo), so it’s good to set this up manually. In order to do this two steps need to be taken: 1: giving the Wii a static IP address and 2: port forwarding to that IP address or setting that IP address as a DMZ server (I’ll get into both of those later.)
For now lets focus on giving your Wii a static IP address. This is necessary because your router needs to know which specific IP address to forward the ports to. Normally your Wii's IP address will change each time you connect it, which is why you are assigning it a static IP address. (simplistic explanation, but meh)
First off you need to make sure you have access to your router. Usually to access your router you just need to go to http://192.168.1.1/ in a web browser. If this doesn’t work consult the routers instruction manual to find out how to access it. Once you connect to it it will ask you for a password. The default password for your router can be found in it’s intruction manual. Now then! Let's get started!
Setting a static IP:
- Go to the Wii menu, then to "internet", then to "connection settings".
- select the connection you are using and go to "change settings".
- scroll right till you get to the "auto-obtain IP address screen", click on "No" and then "advanced settings".
- here you will need to enter a static IP address. The number you will enter will be 192.168.1.X with "X" being a number of your choice between 1 and 255. You have to select a number outside/far away from the DHCP range though. What that means in English is: you want make sure your router doesn't assign a connected device the same IP address that you gave your Wii. Routers assign connected devices IP address automatically in a certain order. For an example, my router’s DHCP works by assigning devices IP address 2 going up. So if I connected 3 devices to it they would have IP addresses 192.168.1.2 , 192.168.1.3 , 192.168.1.4 respectively. I wouldn't want to give my Wii an IP address of 192.168.1.3, but giving it one of 192.168.1.150 would be fine. How a router assigns IP addresses is dependent on that router though. Just log into your router, look at the connected device's IP addresses, and don't assign your Wii an IP address near them.
If you need more info on selecting a good IP address and DCHP check out this link: http://portforward.com/networking/dhcp.htm.
- next click on the "subnet mask" area and enter "255.255.255.0"
- click on the "default router" area and enter your router's IP address. This is usually 192.168.1.1
- go back and go to the next screen.
- go ahead and click on advanced setting and enter your DNS's. You can find the DNS you’re using by connecting to your router. Alternatively you could use open DNS’s servers, which are faster. To use their servers type in 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220 as the DNS your using. Using open dns sped up my connection personally.
- go to the MTU screen and enter the same MTU value your router uses. This is usually 1500
- Save and test the connection. If it works congats! You've given your Wii a static IP address!
Port Forwarding/using DMZ
Now that you’ve given your Wii a static IP address you can instruct your router to give proper access to that IP address (your Wii). There are two methods of doing this: port forwarding, and setting your Wii as a DMZ server. By port forwarding you open up specific ports that your Wii requires to work at 100% online. By using DMZ all your doing is opening ALL of the ports and exposing your Wii to the fury of the interwebs. Needless to say you NEVER want to use DMZ with a home computer, but I wouldn’t worry about it too much with a console. If you have other programs/ consoles using port forwarding chances are you’ll have to go with the DMZ option (as is my case). This is because you can only port forward a certain port to one device, and since the Wii require ALL UPD ports to be open (nice Nintendo!) it will conflict with anything else using UDP ports.
port forwarding:
- access your router and go to the port forwarding screen. To know exactly what to to go to http://www.portforward.com/english/routers/port_forwarding/routerindex.htm and select your router. For a program just click xbox live to get the general idea on how to port forward with your router.
- once you know how to port forward with your router forward the following ports to your Wii's static IP address:
TCP: 28910, 29900, 29901, 29920, 80, and 443
UDP: Allow all traffic to all destinations. aka: forward ports 1-65534
(having to forward ALL 65,534 UDP ports is pretty freaking ridiculous, and is probably why the Wii doesn't mesh with routers that well. For comparison the Xbox 360 only needs TWO UDP ports open.)
Setting up the Wii as a DMZ server:
- Enable the DMZ option and enter your Wii’s ip address.
- That’s it!
SECTION 2: Reducing lag by improving your Wii's connection to your router (for those seeking the elusive 3 green bars)
Free solutions:
- Make your own parabolic reflector.
I don't know if this works, but it may be worth a try lol. Here are some templates:
http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/template/index.html
http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/template2/index.html
http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/Ez-10/
- Download custom firmware.
With certain firmware you can increase your routers wireless signal by fooling with some settings. I plan to mess with this and write a guide for it later (maybe), but for those who want to look into it here are two custom firmwares:
http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato (works for a few routers)
http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv3/index.php (works for a lot of routers)
I'm not sure what the real difference is between those two, I'll update when I look into it some more.
*WARNING: If you are going to do this be sure to be VERY thorough and make SURE you know what you are doing. If you screw up you could brick your router! From what I read you can unbrick most routers, but it'd be better not to do that*
Not Free solutions!
- buy a new antennae
- buy a wireless repeater
- screw wireless and buy a Lan adapter!
- buy this thing: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...glink&lp=1&type=product&cp=1&id=1179876185243
apparently it uses your home's wiring to transmit data!?
(I'll look into this some more)
SECTION 3:Miscellaneous ways to improve your connection: (work in progess)
- check channels for interference
- use open DNS (www.opendns.com)
Links: (work in progess)
Btw I'm no wifi expert, but if anyone has questions feel free to ask. Also if anyone has anything to add to the thread/ point out any mistakes I made that would be awesome.
