Asking the Wiimmfi devs/admins: WFC and emulators

      Asking the Wiimmfi devs/admins: WFC and emulators

      Hello there! I'm Arisotura, the author and main dev of melonDS (DS emulator).

      I'm posting here because I'm concerned about one thing.

      melonDS is popular for supporting wifi, and that includes online connectivity. We are also in the process of fixing up local multiplayer support and adding netplay, which is guaranteed to boost the popularity of melonDS.

      With that, I'm concerned about people using melonDS to join WFC games and cheat/hack.

      So I'd like to hear opinions from the Wiimmfi dev/admin team. What can I do to prevent or limit that? Which features should I avoid implementing?

      DS emulators is a topic that neither Wiimm nor me have really looked into in the past.

      As far as I know, melonDS (and/or other DS emulators) can already connect to Wiimmfi, but requires you to dump the BIOS data of your own Nintendo DS (because otherwise all melonDS users "look like" they're using the same console which has been banned long ago).

      Any kind of emulator is going to make it trivial to cheat (like with Dolphin which has easy ways to add cheat codes or modify memory); that's not something you as emulator developer can prevent if that's what you meant. As for Wiimmfi, the best method of implementing an emulator in general (for use on Wiimmfi) is to try and take as many identifiers, IDs and data from the console BIOS (or some other unique data a user has to dump from his own DS hardware), so A) not all emulator users share the same identity that would quickly get banned and B) bans on Wiimmfi are at least somewhat effective - just like Dolphin does with a NAND, you can import your own Wii NAND backup into Dolphin and it takes as much data from that NAND as possible.

      Though, without extensive patching to the game(s) and/or the emulator, I doubt we're going to get the DS (or any DS emulator) to a level where the ban system is that effective than with Mario Kart Wii and Dolphin - that only really works because there's been a bunch of patches to Dolphin and lots and lots of custom code added to Mario Kart Wii.

      DevkitPro Archiv (alte Versionen / old versions): wii.leseratte10.de/devkitPro/
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      Well yeah, the 'user identity' part is where I'm concerned. I know that the emulator is out there and it's open source and thus anyone can do whatever they want with it, but for example I don't want to let it be too easy to get a new WFC identity.

      Right now, melonDS can run without a user-supplied firmware/BIOS, but when doing so the wifi data are initialized from preset values (for example, the MAC is 00:09:BF:11:22:33). Thing is, we've had options like generating a random MAC, so that people wanting to try local multiplayer wouldn't get foiled by MAC collisions. What I don't know, and am concerned about, is how easy that sort of thing makes it to get a new WFC ID or otherwise appear as a different user and dodge a ban. I don't know how WFC IDs are generated.

      Arisotura schrieb:

      Well yeah, the 'user identity' part is where I'm concerned. I know that the emulator is out there and it's open source and thus anyone can do whatever they want with it, but for example I don't want to let it be too easy to get a new WFC identity.

      Right now, melonDS can run without a user-supplied firmware/BIOS, but when doing so the wifi data are initialized from preset values (for example, the MAC is 00:09:BF:11:22:33). Thing is, we've had options like generating a random MAC, so that people wanting to try local multiplayer wouldn't get foiled by MAC collisions. What I don't know, and am concerned about, is how easy that sort of thing makes it to get a new WFC ID or otherwise appear as a different user and dodge a ban. I don't know how WFC IDs are generated.
      I believe the game itself generates the WFC ID - it's sent during login, but that's unsure on how it's actually made.
      I'll be honest, DS is one of those platforms where moderation is a lot harder - last I checked a user basically sends their MAC, WFC ID (which could be a timestamp for all I know) which is derived from the MAC address.. somehow (according to research from SimonTime), and the BSSID of the router they're connected to and that's pretty much it.

      EDIT1: Yes, the User ID is directly sent from the user during ACCTCREATE - seen here with a randomised MAC (this could be an issue since I had to update my WFC ID and DNS settings every time I relaunched the MelonDS program since I wasn't using real firmware..), 2366805455427 is sent to the server during ACCTCREATE and LOGON:

      Quellcode

      1. POST /ac HTTP/1.0
      2. Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
      3. Host: nas.nintendowifi.net
      4. User-Agent: Nitro WiFi SDK/1.0
      5. HTTP_X_GAMECD: AMCP
      6. Connection: close
      7. Content-Length: 278
      9. action=acctcreate
      10. sdkver=001000
      11. userid=2366805455427
      12. passwd=382
      13. gamecd=AMCP
      14. makercd=01
      15. unitcd=0
      16. macadr=0009bf386710
      17. lang=01
      18. birth=0101
      19. devtime=220922193837
      20. bssid=00f077777777
      21. apinfo=00:0000000-0
      22. devname=m e l o n D S
      24. HTTP/1.1 200 OK
      25. Server: Wiimmfi
      26. Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2022 18:38:37 GMT
      27. Content-Type: text/plain;charset=UTF-8
      28. Content-Length: 88
      29. Connection: close
      30. NODE: wifiappw3
      31. Vary: Accept-Encoding
      32. Duration: D=26745 usec
      34. retry=0
      35. returncd=002
      36. userid=3040363365407114
      37. datetime=20220922183837
      39. POST /ac HTTP/1.0
      40. Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
      41. Host: nas.nintendowifi.net
      42. User-Agent: Nitro WiFi SDK/1.0
      43. HTTP_X_GAMECD: AMCP
      44. Connection: close
      45. Content-Length: 294
      47. action=login
      48. gsbrcd=AMCJ1vp1c7b
      49. sdkver=001000
      50. userid=2366805455427
      51. passwd=382
      52. gamecd=AMCP
      53. makercd=01
      54. unitcd=0
      55. macadr=0009bf386710
      56. lang=01
      57. birth=0101
      58. devtime=220922193837
      59. bssid=00f077777777
      60. apinfo=00:0000000-0
      61. devname=m e l o n D S *
      64. HTTP/1.1 200 OK
      65. Server: Wiimmfi
      66. Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2022 18:38:39 GMT
      67. Content-Type: text/plain;charset=UTF-8
      68. Content-Length: 203
      69. Connection: close
      70. NODE: wifiappw3
      71. Vary: Accept-Encoding
      72. Duration: D=1335848 usec
      74. challenge=Y0hPTVRmRVg*
      75. locator=gamespy.com
      76. retry=0
      77. returncd=001
      78. token=<snip>
      79. datetime=MjAyMjA5MjIxODM4Mzg*
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      I currently host the DLS1, GAMESTATS, and Peerchat server for Wiimmfi. if you have any issues with leaderboards (excluding MKW!), Mystery Gifts or other in-game downloadables, or Pokémon Wi-Fi Plaza, I can try to help!

      Dieser Beitrag wurde bereits 1 mal editiert, zuletzt von Billy549 ()

      @Arisotura: Do you think it's possible to sync melonDS to play online? Whenever I see melonDS (I'm using an original 3DS to play online) with default firmware names in the stat page (Setya, Bill Nye, etc), the online match doesn't make sense because it's heavily desync and laggy and basically not fun to play. When I play with other real consoles, it's all good.
      - NumeroFox_503