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Wii U Ethernet Adapter

E

EDarkness

Member
May 13, 2007
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skullforge.omc-games.com
Anyone know of a good USB ethernet adapter I can use for the Wii U? I'm considering wiring all of my game systems up and figure the Wii U should get the ethernet treatment as well. I see that there are a lot of different adapters on Amazon, but I'm curious which is worth looking into. Any help would be appreciated.
 
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UltimateIke

Member
Jun 18, 2008
5,262
0
770
A few of us in the Wii U launch thread noticed the Wii and Wii U are both faster with Wi-Fi than with the LAN adapter. At least for us, anyway.

Using the web browser on the Wii U to do a speed test, I get ~6mb/s download with the LAN adapter and ~12mb/s with a wireless-g connection.


On the same website my PC gets ~25mb/s (using wireless or ethernet). So either way the Wii U isn't using the connection's full bandwidth.

EDarkness said:
Is the official Wii one 10/100? I saw one the other day that was 10/100/1000, and I was wondering if that would be worth getting.
Click to expand...

USB 2.0 is only 480 mb/s. It's not possible for it to do gigabit. It's not like you are going to have an internet connection that fast anyway.
 
C

catabarez

Member
Mar 20, 2011
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I have a Rocketfish brand one from Ebay for like 8 bucks for my Wii. It works perfectly on the Wii U.
 
R

Reallink

Member
Jan 7, 2008
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What kind of speeds do you guys see on the U browser using Testmy.net (one of the only non-flash based I'm aware of)? I only seem to pull half speeds Vs. my wired PC and I'm not sure if the browser's just incapable of running an accurate speed test or if the Wifi signal is weak for some reason (I'm only 10' from the router).
 
R

Resilient

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Jan 4, 2010
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Fucking lol at that website, was not expecting that. OP, with Nintendo it's always best to go official.

Wow, you can still buy a transfer pak for the 64 from that website...
 
M

miknein

Banned
Jul 3, 2012
98
0
0
Reallink said:
What kind of speeds do you guys see on the U browser using Testmy.net (one of the only non-flash based I'm aware of)? I only seem to pull half speeds Vs. my wired PC and I'm not sure if the browser's just incapable of running an accurate speed test or if the Wifi signal is weak for some reason (I'm only 10' from the router).
Click to expand...

FYI: I got 1.9Mbps on my desktop PC just now. Got 89Mbps on SpeedTest.net (flash). So... yeah :-D
 
M

Marty Chinn

Member
Jun 6, 2004
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1,585
The official adapter is stupidly slow. It's 5 to 10 times slower than WiFi for me. I'm really disappointed. Avoid at all cost for now.
 
R

Reallink

Member
Jan 7, 2008
6,498
1,440
1,310
miknein said:
FYI: I got 1.9Mbps on my desktop PC just now. Got 89Mbps on SpeedTest.net (flash). So... yeah :-D
Click to expand...

Yea, their servers aren't always up to snuff like Speedtest.net, but I'm talking multiple off-peak back to back tests with your PC and U pad on the same site and same server. My results don't line up, U pad is slower by a wide margin. Just trying to trouble shoot whether it's my Wifi signal or if the U's browser can't run the test accurately.
 
N

netBuff

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Sep 11, 2011
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UltimateIke said:
That's what I said when I realized I wasted $30 on the LAN adapter. Haha.
Click to expand...

Let's hope this is a facet of the still a bit unfinished Wii U software and will get fixed with time. Otherwise, we both wasted money on an useless network adapter :/
 
U

UltimateIke

Member
Jun 18, 2008
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netBuff said:
Let's hope this is a facet of the still a bit unfinished Wii U software and will get fixed with time. Otherwise, we both wasted money on an useless network adapter :/
Click to expand...

I don't know if I have any hope left. The original Wii is a few megabits per second faster over Wi-Fi too (though both Wi-Fi and ethernet are slower on the Wii than the Wii U). I don't know if it is some issue with Nintendo's software or what. It's disappointing in any case.
 
M

Marty Chinn

Member
Jun 6, 2004
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UltimateIke said:
I don't know if I have any hope left. The original Wii is a few megabits per second faster over Wi-Fi too (though both Wi-Fi and ethernet are slower on the Wii than the Wii U). I don't know if it is some issue with Nintendo's software or what. It's disappointing in any case.
Click to expand...

I honestly don't expect Nintendo to do anything about this and it annoys me. I never realized it with the Wii since I barely used it, but I expect to use it more here. It was only obvious to me when Amazon wasn't showing up in HD which I thought was odd given how fast my connection is. This really irritates me because I hate WiFi with a passion.
 
E

EDarkness

Member
May 13, 2007
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netBuff said:
Let's hope this is a facet of the still a bit unfinished Wii U software and will get fixed with time. Otherwise, we both wasted money on an useless network adapter :/
Click to expand...

I don't know why they would throttle speeds on the Wii U, especially when we're talking about downloading 20GB files. You'd think for the customer experience they'd make sure we could get the fastest speeds possible. Either way, I'll order the official one and give it a shot.
 
N

nckillthegrimace

Member
Jul 7, 2010
12,418
0
600
Wii U over WiFi
bandwidthplace.com: 7.3 Mbps down
testmy.net: 7.8 Mbps down

Wii U over Ethernet
bandwidthplace.com: 5.1 Mbps down
testmy.net: 3.4 Mbps down

What.

For comparison's sake: Laptop over WiFi
bandwidthplace.com: 10.8 Mbps down
testmy.net: 11.3 Mbps down

So yeah, don't use the ethernet adaptor unless you don't have wifi.
 
S

sfried

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Apr 25, 2009
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I just used my Wii's ethernet LAN adapter on the Wii U. As simple as that.

I might buy another one just so I can have my Wii on my room.
 
T

tenchir

Member
Jun 6, 2004
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What's the latency though?

The lower speed could be the result of overhead processing done through a USB connection compared to the integrated wifi that's designed with the system in mind.
 
M

Medalion

Banned
Dec 12, 2008
29,578
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up my ass
Bandwidthplace.com is really really off in measurements I think

It said my upload speed was twice as fast as my plan's upload limit
 
M

Marty Chinn

Member
Jun 6, 2004
31,449
0
1,585
Medalion said:
Bandwidthplace.com is really really off in measurements I think

It said my upload speed was twice as fast as my plan's upload limit
Click to expand...

I don't think they're totally accurate, but I think it's kinda telling in comparing the numbers against each other though. For me, I'm getting 1.5 to 2.0mbps for ethernet, 10mbps for WiFi and then 15mbps for my PC. SpeedTest tells me I get 17.5mbps for my PC. I also know I can't get an HD signal through ethernet for Amazon Instant Watch. I think the site is good enough to tell that there's a problem.

Glass Joe said:
I've got the same one I bought for Wii U. It worked right away (no setup) and has yet to give me any issues.
Click to expand...

Measure your speed vs WiFi. You'll find out it's slower.
 
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