Wii Network Traffic When Powered On

I've been troubleshooting a problem with a Wii not having network connectivity this weekend. The Wii was plugged into a switch that showed the link was up. The Wii wasn't working when I had it configured for a fixed IP address, gateway address, and DNS server addresses. I tried DHCP, instead, but that didn't work, either. With a sniffer, I could observe the Wii sending out DHCP requests, but I never saw any response coming back from the DHCP server. Yet, I could see other network traffic reaching the Wii. I plugged the cable going into the Datel USB network adapter I was using with the Wii into my laptop and it would get an IP address from the DHCP server, so all of the network cabling seemed to be good. I even installed a driver for the Datel USB to Ethernet network adapter into my laptop and loaded a driver for that adapter on the Windows Vista laptop. That worked as well.

I was able to resolve the problem by putting a small 5-port hub between the switch and the Wii. Everything worked fine then, but I don't know why that worked. I thought there might a problem with autonegotiation of the duplex and speed settings, but on the switch side I tried all possible settings for the duplex setting, i.e. auto, full, and half, with all possible combinations of the speed setting, i.e. auto, 100 Mbs, 10 Mbs, but none of the nine combinations worked.

When I did get the Wii's Internet connectivity working, I captured the traffic from/to it, so I would have a better idea of how it determines whether it has Internet connectivity. I've recorded my notes here.

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Configuring a Linksys BEFSR41 Router for Animal Crossing

The Wii game Animal Crossing: City Folk, which was released on November 16, 2008 in the U.S. allows one to visit friends who also have Wii's on which they are running the game. But in order for someone to visit you, you must have your router/firewall configured so that the appropriate firewall ports are open.

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Cherry Blossoms in Animal Crossing

When a family member started playing Animal Crossing™: City Folk on her WII today, which is April 1, i.e. April Fools Day in the U.S., she found a lot of trees she had recently planted were now red. She thought the trees had died. But the red leaves on some trees that appear in the game from April 1 through April 7 represent cherry blossoms.

Each year in Japan and the U.S., as well as some other countries, there are Cherry Blossom Festivals held when the cherry blossoms appear.

Japan gave the U.S. 3,020 sakura trees, aka cherry trees, to the U.S. in 1912 as a gesture of friendship. Those trees were planted in Sakura Park in Manhattan and along the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C. Japan sent another 3,800 trees to the U.S. in 1965. The annual National Cherry Blossom Festival in D.C. has been a popular tourist attraction in the early spring for many years.

Also on April 1, you can get a special gift, if you speak to Tortimer, the tortoise-like character. If you talk to him on other special days, you can get other items from him.

To get the following of Tortimer's goods, speak to him on the corresponding day noted below.

• Cool Globe - Nature Day
• Leaf - April Fool's Day
• Picnic Basket - Labor Day
• Resetti Model - Groundhog Day
• Sailboat Model - Explorer's Day
• Wheat Bundle - Harvest Moon

References:

1. What does it mean if you have red trees ...
   Date: April 5, 2008
   GameSpot
2. Cherry blossom
   Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
3. National Cherry Blossom Festival
   Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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