Nintendo Switch and WPA3

[Gerowen]

I don't really need help, so if this is the wrong forum I apologize.

 

My old Linksys WRT3200ACM has started having some intermittent issues lately.  I've been running OpenWRT on it for ages now because Linksys stopped publishing firmware updates for it many years ago, but lately it's been having some quirks with the WiFi dropping out while all the wired clients would keep working fine.  I did some troubleshooting and narrowed it down to either a hardware failure brought on from years of 24/7/365 usage, or a problem with the proprietary firmware for the wireless chipset, neither of which I can do anything about.  So, I ordered us a shiny new OpenWRT based router (The GL-inet Flint2).  Got everything set up, static IPs assigned and ports forwarded for the home server, and the WiFi upgraded to WiFi6 with WPA3.  Proceeded to connect everything; phones, laptops, Steam Decks (both OLED and original models), etc.  Even our Samsung washer and dryer, while they had to use the 2.4 Ghz network, handled the WPA3 just fine.  But the Nintendo Switch on the other hand apparently doesn't support it.  That puts it in the same league as our decade-ish old HP printer that only really ever gets used for scanning documents as the only two devices that won't connect to WPA3 networks.  Even the Switch OLED was a no-go.  Honestly, I'll probably just leave everything at straight WPA3 without the WPA2 compatibility.  I only ever play the Switch docked anyway where I have an ethernet cable connected to it, because the thing is anything but ergonomic for an adult man to play in handheld mode for any length of time.

 

I am curious though; is this a hardware limitation, or a software one?  I have the network set to run in a/n/ac/ax mode for frequency compatibility, so I'm guessing the sticking point is the WPA3.  I could understand if I was on a frequency the WiFi chip couldn't physically interact with, but encryption is a software thing with hardware acceleration for things like AES in certain scenarios.  Unless the encryption is something they're afraid would slow the Switch down because it doesn't have the hardware to do hardware accelerated encryption/decryption, it seems like WPA3 support is something that Nintendo could just include in a system update or something.

 

On the bright side though, my WiFi speeds doubled from 400 Mbps to almost pegging my gigabit internet speeds,

 

[johnt]

I think I've read the Switch is using a really outdated wifi card, which was already really old when the console was released. Most likely, Nintendo can't and will not update the device to take advantage of newer wifi security. Just Nintendo doing Nintendo things. Thick plastic, super cheap hardware.

[BiotechBen]

4 minutes ago, johnt said:

I think I've read the Switch is using a really outdated wifi card, which was already really old when the console was released. Most likely, Nintendo can't and will not update the device to take advantage of newer wifi security. Just Nintendo doing Nintendo things. Thick plastic, super cheap hardware.

From what I could find, it's a broadcom 4356 (ifixit teardown) and when trying to look it up on broadcom's website you get effectively a null page lookup error.

[manikyath]

the nintendo DSi (i think.. might be wrong on which exact platform it was) was WEP only well into the WPA2 era. basicly it launched right at the tail end of WEP making any sense at all.. and they made no effort to even consider future-hardening their device.

 

so - while it's likely to be a hardware limitation at least in part, nintendo has a track record of not even considering future-readiness while designing their hardware, and having no intention to patch things down the line if it's not an exploit that can be used for sideloading.

 

and that, is why nintendo is -as compared to their expenses- technically more wealthy than apple.

[Gerowen]

9 hours ago, manikyath said:

the nintendo DSi (i think.. might be wrong on which exact platform it was) was WEP only well into the WPA2 era. basicly it launched right at the tail end of WEP making any sense at all.. and they made no effort to even consider future-hardening their device.

 

so - while it's likely to be a hardware limitation at least in part, nintendo has a track record of not even considering future-readiness while designing their hardware, and having no intention to patch things down the line if it's not an exploit that can be used for sideloading.

 

and that, is why nintendo is -as compared to their expenses- technically more wealthy than apple.

I eventually just opted to turn my 2.4Ghz network down to mixed WPA2/WPA3 mode.  The only devices on it are the washing machine, dryer and now two Nintendo Switches.  It's not like the Nintendo Switch can actually take advantage of the faster WiFi6 speeds anyway; with its EMMC storage and abysmally slow CPU.

[Alex Atkin UK]

1 hour ago, Gerowen said:

I eventually just opted to turn my 2.4Ghz network down to mixed WPA2/WPA3 mode.  The only devices on it are the washing machine, dryer and now two Nintendo Switches.  It's not like the Nintendo Switch can actually take advantage of the faster WiFi6 speeds anyway; with its EMMC storage and abysmally slow CPU.

Switch download speeds and ergonomics are both pain points, especially next to the Steam Deck which can pull 60MB/s (the WiFi can actually surpass Gigabit, at least the OLED model, but downloads I suspect are CPU limited) and is the most man-friendly console I've ever owned.  Basically the only one that isn't instant agony.