Accessories

Not a very good product - at all
Minimal instructions (for the DS) and very unprofessional looking applications make this product a waste of time and money. I got it installed and briefly saw a MAC address appear in a window, but still the DS reported an unsuccessful connection test. That was the best it ever got, after that, the MAC address wouldn't even appear any more. Even after disabling WEP, no joy. This product is schizophrenic. It's packaged with NINTENDO DS all over the box, but most setup instructions are for the PSP!! Weird.

Took some effort to make it work
Reading the other reviews here, I don't blame them for giving this product a bad review. My WiFi MAX didn't work right out of the box after following the provided instructions. And their WiFi MAX software that you install first is also misleading. Even though my WiFi MAX is currently working, their software still reports, "No Zydass WIFI dongle present. Please plug in your dongle into a USB port." That's terrible when you're trying to troubleshoot...it'll look like it's some hardware driver issue when it's not.

Anyway, for those of you who might have the same issue as mine, I'm going to share my solution so that hopefully it'll help you out. I followed the solution given at their website titled "1. You need to share your Internet connection (in Windows)". I use Windows XP Home Edition (32bits).

http://us.codejunkies.com/support/support_article.aspx?prodID=26&articleID=66

Other than the frustrating setup issue, this product works. I'm happily connected to the internet now with my DS!

I blame Nintendo for lacking the foresight to implement the WPA encryption instead of WEP. I think most homes that have a wireless connection is probably using WPA because it is more secure than WEP.

Sucks
This thing sucks. Stupid thing just says something about the dongle not being plugged in in AFTER I installed what was on the disk and plugging it in.

Stay Away
If you do not want to waste your hours trying to get this thing work, stay away. It worked fine initially, but when I reconnected it some time later, it couldn't connect. I know a bit about networking and spend a lot of time trying to get it work again to no avail. Buy a wireless router instead. It is not a hardware issue, the drivers and the software is crappy and very unstable.

Wi-Fi Flaw
Since Nintendo started to enhance gamers worldwide with the Wi-Fi connection for the Nintendo DS, many companies have tried to make many knockoffs to work as well as the one that Nintendo had defined. Unfortunately, they actually haven't hit the nail on the head. The Wi-Fi Max for the Nintendo DS, doesn't work all that well for gamers who want to tackle other gamers online. Not only that, it actually freezes during the downloading. It really isn't actually worth the money this product is made out to be. I really recommend the one that Nintendo made instead. It handles much, much better.

Price: C

Convience: C-

Overall: C 1/2-