If WPA is better than WEP, why don't nintendo use it for their wi-fi connections?

Question

I don't want to sound like an idiot, but please help me understand. Because I have a WPA encryption, but For nintendo wi-fi you need a WEP connection, I'm not gonna change it, because of the low security, so don't answer by giving me instructions on how to change it, but I wanna know why they don't use WPA please?

Answer 1

My guess would be: this is probably a licensing issue. WEP may be less expensive to impliment than WPA. Or, it may be that WEP is more likely to be compatible with a wider range of systems (modems, routers, etc).

Best way to get 'the' answer is, of course, to drop an email to Nintendo and ask them why they chose to go this way.

Here is the link to Nintendo Tech Forums. This is the best place to find your answer.

http://techforums.nintendo.com/

Answer 2

WEP is more widely supported than WPA, and Nintendo doesn't exactly have to be secure in and of itself, just able to connect to as many networks as easily as possible.

In other words, there's little need to support WPA.  WEP is easily sufficient.

Hope that helps.

Answer 3

I think its just the DS that only has WEP. The Wii has WPA. I agree its very annoying, I'm not prepared to compromise the security of my network just to hook up my DS. The other way to do it is an add-on for your PC to let it act as a gateway for the DS. I've not investigated the security implications for the PC with this arrangement though.