Although setting up the wireless internet connection on a Wii ought to be simple, very often there are quirks on the router or the Wii itself that cause the setup to fail.

Typical failures listed on the Wii support blogs include:

• Changing the router to mixed mode (b/g)
• Hard coding the IP Address on the Wii instead of using an automatic setting
• Hard coding the DNS Address on the Wii instead of using an automatic setting
• Making sure that the type of Network Key is correct (WEP, WEP2)
• Removing Game Cube Memory Cards before trying to connect

What I have not seen listed is another fix that I learned from a good friend and network guru a few years ago, and in my case this fix solved the network connection issues that I was having on my Wii.

Debbie just bought us a Wii a few days before Christmas, and her son set it up for us the night before we left for Florida, so I never got to even try it then, and since we returned from Florida we have been too busy until yesterday to even power it on.   Well typical for me, having let Debbie play it a bit, I set down to reading the manuals to make sure I knew enough about the setup and to see what features it had and what we could do on it.  Above all I was intrigued by the fact that it had an internet connection, and could not relax until I knew whether we could connect our Wii to our network or not.

The settings were easy to deal with, but despite my having entered the WEP Key correctly a number of times, it still would not connect to our network.

I remembered that some devices do not automatically convert the entered key characters to uppercase, so I set the Caps Lock key on the Wii keyboard on, and then typed the WEP key again.  I did not imagine that this was the cause of the connection problem, but was very relieved to find out that it then connected immediately.

I was rather disappointed at the Channels, especially the weather, few international locations compared with using internet sites, and very limited news feeds, but the potential to play against family and friends around the world really has me excited, especially playing against my daughters in Florida.

So, if you are having problems connecting your Wii to your wireless network, just try entering your WEP key in Upper Case, and hopefully this will work for you.

If this does not resolve your problems, I strongly recommend Liquid Ice’s Nintendo Wii Hacks, as this has great information to help you get your Wii working 100%.