Mine still isn't connected to the interwebz.

i generally only use any of the internet stuff if i happen to be using the Wii at the time and don't feel like turning off the Wii and turning on the computer just to check the weather or news. etc.

I did until I sold it for not having any games I would play for more than a couple of days. Going on youtube is a fun thing to do. Also the VC is a must if you are a die hard old school Nintendo fan.

Damn, it didn't let me finish my lil' story. I hooked my friend's up to the net. He's got cable internet just as I, and I was taken abake by how much his connection seemed to suck compared my my PS3's wi-fi.

It will be fun seeing if the Wii can handle the might of SSB. I predict alot of pissed off people.

@ballaboy311:

That troll statement gets real fucking old dude.

The VC is a must have for all the retro fans who denied existence of ROMS.

i've used it for a couple VC titles, weather, etc. i just got galaxy wars, which claims it uses online capability, but i haven't looked into it yet. oh, and my bro-in-law and i have exchanged emails.. that's about it.

i only use it to get VC titles

Meh, surfing the web on a TV is lame. I've tried it with the Wii and the PS3. Maybe if you had a wireless mouse/keyboard setup and an HD TV. (Oh and here is a pet peeve. It seems like more and more developers are designing game text to be read in HD. I have a modestly sized SD tv and there are a number of games I have a hard time reading.)

However, I missed several generations of console, including Super Nintendo and the 64, so the VC has been a good thing for me.

Every once in a while I'll participate in the voting channel, and I've downloaded a few VC titles just for kicks (and to catch up on things I never got to play when I was a kid), but it's not really a regular thing for me to do. As far as games that support online features, I've got NiGHTS set up to access the weather channel for real-time weather effects in My Dream. And, uh... I've tried connecting with a friend of mine in Endless Ocean, but we've yet to have any success with it.

in my rabid determination to get the wii online withinthe shortest time after launch, i imported a lan adapter from japan(wireless is the son of satan) for 40 quid. thats $80. It was worth it. Ish.
Okay it wasn't worth it. Especially now that i have bought the DS/Wii wifi adapter.
"Why didnt you just buy a wireless router?" i hear you ask.
There is no answer except quiet sobs.

Having the Wii connected to the Internet is very important in our place. Just because of the variety of Miis we found, the girlfriend-and-I rivalry on the voting channel (she's winning, 150 polls in), and the weather network. I mean, the VC is great - "Do a Barrel Roll", etc. - but I'm really finding Nintendo's bonus online offerings a lot of fun still.

Besides, that new Check Mii Out channel is how I finally got Miis for Stormtroopers, the cast of Family Guy, David Letterman, Spiderman, Dr. Zoidberg, and Robocop. It makes for a fun tennis match is all.

Virtual Console mostly - I don't have any friends for Metroid Prime 3 goodies. ;_;

Brawl will become the primary internet hog pretty soon closely followed by Mario Kart. (if it's any good)

@gMC: It might cheer you up but a wired connection is significantly faster than a wireless one. The Wii isn't exactly a bandwidth hog, but nevertheless...

Seriously, once you experience the wonder of a Mii Parade, you wonder if you can ever look at life the same way. Actually, the Everyone Votes channel is strangely addicting. The wife and I are pretty competitive about guessing the results of the polls.

I'm online with my Wii on a regular basis - reading the news (exciting i know!), checking long range forecasts, browsing the net (Kotaku is a regular stop), then onto a VC title and then into a Wii title.

It's a pretty complete experience for me.

I'm pretty jealous that you have a Vonnegut index card and a Christmas card from Ray Bradbury! Two of the greatest writers of the 20th Century. How does one manage to get a Christmas card from Ray?

@WoodyNvincible: Not really man, I'm surprised I still have my Wii as well. Yes, it's on the internet. Whoopdie do. Notice how Bashcraft is talking about Wii Sports (A system release) and Mario Galaxy. Surprise, those are the only games I have as well, and in my opinion the only ones worth having. That's pretty shameful for a system that's been out for over a year. SSB is going to be ok at best (but at least fun, and not a collection of minigames). It's no UMK3 or SF.

sorry for the dbl post - but Homestarrunner is great on the Wii.

TEEN GIRL SQUAD!!!

Do yourself a favor and google that - then watch on your Wii.

So what are you waiting for, Bash? Post your Wii friend code! :D

@WoodyNvincible: How the hell is that trolling. That is my opinion and the Wii just doesn't have the type of games I am interested in. I gave it a chance and actually said a couple of good things about it.

@Atrius: i was determined not to buy a wireless router for that same reason, and in a way i'm glad i didnt, but to spend 70 quid in total on USB lan adaptor and ds wifi adapter seems a bit mad in retrospect when i could have just bought a wireless router and still had devices using the lan ports as needs be, with the occasional ds and wii use on wifi. its like i know i made the right choice, but damn, it cost 70 quid.

I've used it for a handful (3) of VC titles and for my Guitar Hero 3 online profile. I've actually played many online GH3 games with immense success. If that is any indicator, then I would expect the SSMB online to be fluid.

@ballaboy311: Im just waiting for SSBB and I might check out no more heroes, I already beat galaxy and I lent one of my friends zelda.
All in all there aren't many good wii games. And NO i will not play Dragon ball z or spongebob.EVER.

Get ready for the constantly blinking blue LED from their almost weekly updates.

The only think I liked that I saw with my friend's Wii online was that the browser could show imbedded videos, so we could watch random youtube stuff on his TV instead of smaller monitor.

VC download is a little slow, but the selection is great. The Everybody Votes is fun (but I like statistics, so take that with a grain of salt). Mario Strikers had the occasional bit of lag when it launched, but it's been rock solid since then. Beyond that, that's the extent of my Wii internet connection (browsing the web at 480p is just silly).

Bash, I'd love to see that Vonnegut signature. I hope people realize that one of the greatest American writers has just passed on and embrace his work for the genius that it is. I recently finished The Sirens of Titan and was blown away.

I had to do the same thing with my PS2. After the gaming router I got was shit. I ended up connecting my PS2 to my VAIO and doing a network bride.

I was going to do it with my future 360 and my desktop, so I wouldn't have to go and pay $100 for that wireless thing.

Sin and Punishment. That and a couple other N64 titles I never bothered to buy but was interested in playing.

The kids love the Check Mii Out channel.

I don't usually connect my Wii to the internet. When I want to download some VC games, I pack the Wii up and head to my friend's house. I don't have internet at home and don't really feel the need to have it. The only time Wii-wise it's been an inconvenience was when I couldn't cash in on those friend vouchers in Metroid Prime 3, and when I couldn't share my Elebits levels.

But I think Brawl will be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

I've used the online play for GHIII on my Wii and intend to use it a lot for SSBB. But other than that, I've downloaded OoT from the VC, gotten the weather, news, voting, internet, and Mii-show-off channel. I used to check the voting and Mii channels frequently, but I've kind of calmed down recently. Other than to look up the occasional stuff due to my being too lazy to go to my computer, I don't use the internet channel much. I did use it when I was making my Japanese PSN account - I would switch in and out the video input from the Wii with the guide up and the PS3 with the sign in page.

I like to download the Mii's. Some of them are really awesome and creative. It's also a challenge to find the pornographic ones before Nintendo deletes them.

Mine has been connected since day one.

The internet browser plays youtube videos fine, which is fun for dinner parties, you can never laugh at star wars kid too much ;)

Its great as a quick to boot internet appliance when you need to check train timetables and such like. Much faster than either of my Linux notebooks.

Itinial connection to my WLAN was a piece of pie, everything ran very smoothly.

I have it set up to point at a Linux server running Jinzora so that I can stream music through the browser and into my home cinema kit. Works a treat and impresses everyone who sees it.

Plus, the Opera browser supports the HTML5 canvas tag which is convenient at the moment as I am developing stuff using that and wanted to check that the Wii would render it properly.

VC is pretty fun, Guitar Hero online is a great time right there!

the email thing is kinda useless the average email address is super long.

@smitty1123: ... MY VC downloads games in about 10-15 seconds. That isn't the service that is giving you the problem.

We do the Everybody Votes channel and Show Mii Off channel. We have allot of fun with both. With the Show Mii off channel, we all choose a Mii we like for judging and see how well we did. We also make separate miis for the contests. It is great family fun.

I use the Wii for the stupid "Check Mii Out" channel (I can't help myself -- I enjoy making Miis) and to download the occasional VC game. The downfall is that the Wii gets pretty damn warm when it's in standby mode and I worry it's going to shorten the life of the hardware. I could turn WiiConnect24 off, but then all the fun stuff like Wii Parade goes away. I guess that stuff isn't that fun. I think I'll disable WiiConnect today. It will give me an excuse to use the console -- if only for a minute.

I actually go online on my Wii like everyday. It's faster than turning on my laptop when I just want to do something like browse Kotaku. It's also pretty cool to watch YouTube vids on it. Me and my friends message each other all the time, as well. Hell, we do it just to turn on the blue light and mess with each other at night when we're trying to sleep.

@imbusion: Have you downloaded any bg Neo Geo Games? Its pretty slow.

Been using it for flash games recently, but that's about it. To be perfectly honest, I'm rather disappointed how Nintendo have utilized internet connectivity outside of VC titles. Maybe I dreamt it, but I remember getting pretty excited over Nintendo telling us how they were going to make WiiConnect24 do neat things. All I've seen it do so far is overheat consoles!

Maybe it's just me but in my experience in multiple locations is that the Wii's internet, or at least the Wii Shop is so laughably slow that it literally feels like 28.8k dialup. Bear in mind that in all these locations I've played PC , 360, and PS3 games online at perfectly normal speeds. When I go to the shopping channel though I seem to be starting at that rotating THING for 5 minutes, then when the store front finally loads, it does it again! I mean seriously, the Sega Channel for the Genesis was far faster than this. Don't even get me started on how long downloads take. I really hope that internet speed within actual games isn't so appallingly slow.

Beyond the initial wave of nostalgia from buying some VC titles that were favorites as a kid, I haven't really been impressed too much by the Wii's online capabilities. The Metroid Prime 3 demo was a nice idea... until I saw it was just a gameplay video and not a gameplay video. I'm hoping WiiWare will be good, though.

I use my Wii connected wirelessly to an Apple Airport Express. What trouble were you having?

VC and Mario Strikers.

@Robotube: Yeah, I haven't had any problems with them. The biggest download was like 30 seconds... certainly no more. I went to a friends and it took him like 20minutes to get one of the channels... but that was just his connection.

I dont actually have a computer outside of work, so I use my Wii if there's any need to surf the net after work hours. Which, after 8 hours of sitting in front of this screen, there usually isn't. Unless it's porn, but that goes without saying.

I use it to check Kotaku headlines, and maybe watch some youtube videos. I've snagged a few VC games, but I've owned/beaten most of them, so there isn't much new for me there. I use it for quick lookups, but never any serious surfing.

I'm looking forward to Brawl, but the online play feature for that game might end up being more of an afterthought than anything else.

I'm nearing 600 career wins in Mario Strikers Online. So yeah, I connect my Wii to the internet every once in a while.

VC for older games and the everybody votes, Mii parade and for Super Smash Bros when it comes out. Also I used it for Metroid Prime 3 to trade the achievement things to unlock the extra's.

VC is great, and my wife and I both use the Everybody Votes Channel (her idea not mine).