Nintendo Zone
Nintendo Zone is the successor to DS Download Stations, offering retailer exclusive content, game videos, screenshots, etc. As of February 6th 2012 demos are available for download, demos are downloaded from the eShop servers and installed to SD card. NZone demos are the same ones available on eShop, these are region-locked as trying to download them from other regions results in an error. USA Best Buy and some other retailers have NZone, this NZone seems to be significantly different from the DS(i) NZone. Most content available at Best Buy is already available on eShop, like the screenshots/videos, game info etc. The OK Go video is available from NZone however. The OOT video on NZone server is the one from eShop launch like most of the other videos.
Like DSi, when an open 3DS detects NZone the hidden(always accessible for USA) NZone title appears and a notification about it appears. Like DSi this title is already stored on NAND, it's just not visible until you're in range of NZone.(doesn't disappear with sdcard removed) When NZone beacons are in range, 3DS only detects NZone when not connected to Internet already. Once connected to a NZone AP, the beacon payload is cached until disconnected from the AP.
When modified DSi nzone beacons are broadcasted with the 3DS Best Buy authentication param, DSi launcher won't blink the NZone title icon but the title will still semi-work. NZone title would connect to the server, with buttons for demos, Best Buy, and WFC config displayed, but NZone will display an error a while after selecting "Best Buy" service after a bit of loading.(probably unsupported html tags etc)
Description
The NZone browser interface looks very similar to the main 3DS web browser, so it's probably the same as that browser except modified.(and with video support, presumably mobiclip) The NZone beacon encryption is same as before, except some unknown fields in the cleartext was changed where 3DS will only "detect" NZone /w NZone icon blinking/enabled when the beacons' fields are set this way. DSi will not detect these beacons. 3DS can use DS(i) NZone, but only if the NZone title is already enabled. With DS(i) beacons, 3DS connects to Internet but the NZone icon will not blink. However the NZone title will still work once launched. The Best Buy NZone uses the same authentication parameter at all stores /w NZone. Accessing the server via curl does not work correctly, the server returns old content. This is likely because the NZone title sends new/different params to the server.
Beacon payload format
This seems to be identical to DS(i) NZone format except for the unknown fields, WPA2 isn't supported. 3DS NZone is not region-locked like DS(i).
| OFFSET | SIZE | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|---|
| 0x00 | 32 | AP SSID. |
| 0x20 | 10 | Authentication parameter, required for connecting to the server. Server uses this to determine which third-party content to link to on the index page. First ASCII number char in this param is region, this is also used to determine which server to connect to. Regions: 0) JP 1) USA 2/3) EUR 4) KOR 5) China |
| 0x2a | 2 | This u16 was always one in all dumps, unknown what this is. This isn't used by the client. |
| 0x2c | 24 | Some UTF-16 retailer ID string can include the country, unknown what this is but it's not used by the client DS(i). "BestBuy" |
| 0x44 | 32 | AP crypto key, if any. |
| 0x64 | 1 | Unknown, not used by the DS(i) client. For 3DS this is 0x1, for DS(i) this is 0x0. |
| 0x65 | 1 | AP crypto key type: 0) Open 1) WEP-64 2) WEP-128 3) WEP-152 |
| 0x66 | 1 | Unknown flags, for 3DS this is 0x1e, for DS(i) this is 0x3. Bits 0 and 1 don't seem to be used by the client. The DS(i) client uses bit2 unknown what for though. |
| 0x67 | 5 | Padding. |
| 0x6c | 2 | Unknown, with 3DS this is zero but for DS(i) this was 0x428. |
| 0x6e | 2 | CRC16 over the whole payload excluding checksum offset, initval is 0. |
Wi-Fi Hotspots
| SSID | Security | Region | Source | Usable remotely |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wayport_Access | None | USA | McDonalds | Yes |
| attwifi | None | USA | AT&T | Yes |
| Boingo Hotspot | None | USA | Boingo | Yes |
| SIMON WiFi | None | USA | SIMON Malls | Yes |
| ibahn | None | USA | iBAHN | Yes |
| noasp## | None | USA | Nintendo events (noasp03 at GDC) | No |
| BELLWIFI@MCDONALDS | None | USA (Canada) | Bell | Yes |
| free-hotspot.com | None | EUR | free-hotspot.com | Yes |
| 7SPOT | None | JPN | 7-11 | LAN-only 7-11 hostname used |
| TSUTAYA | None | JPN | TSUTAYA | Only with NZone beacon |
| _The Cloud
WiFi Zone - The Cloud |
None | EUR | The Cloud | Yes |
- These can be configured on you own router/laptop/phone to identify as a nintendo zone.
- You will need an available internet connection to be able to connect to the servers.
- After connecting the Wi-Fi network, the page displayed will be of the device's region. (Some regions, such as Australia, will not be redirected to a local Nintendo Zone page as there are no plans to introduce Nintendo Zone(s) to that region. If a 3DS has its region set to one of these regions where there are no plans to introduce a Nintendo Zone, they will be brought to the Nintendo Zone of the region of the SSID)
- If you intend to create a permanent, private, Nintendo Zone WiFi spot. It is recommended that you enable MAC address filtering to only allow your devices. As using any form of encryption will prevent the Nintendo Zone WiFi spot from working with your 3DS.