During the coming weeks we're planning on writing up some information on utilizing the WiFi Capabilities of the NintendoDS and Wii using generic wireless adapters vs the "official" Nintendo WiFi adapter that can retail as high as $80 USD.

For our beginner test, we plan to utilize the Belkin F5D7050 which we picked up on eBay for $16.99 (for two adapters).

From what we can tell, the official Nintendo WiFi adapter is just simply a Wireless-G Keychain USB 2.0 Adapter. You can obviously notice the similarities in the two, and the official adapter makes referance that it's powered by Buffalo Tech (there is also a decent Wiki article here).

What it looks like at this point is that the NDS tries to connect to an Ad-Hoc network to connect to the internet; this is my belief as the "network play" games connect DS' to each other, which is done with standard network cards through an Ad-Hoc network; so it makes sense that they wouldn't try to reinvent the wheel.

My initial tests will be to do thus:
1. Install the new USB adapter into a WXP SP2 machine.
2. Setup the adapter to use ICS and bridge the connection to my standard networked connection (as my primary network connection connects to my network and to the internet, I need to bridge the connection to the network card so it can utilize the network).
3. Test the connection by creating a 64 bit WEB encrypted 802.11B connection for the DS.

If all goes according to plan, the DS (utilizing MarioCart) should connect without issues.

I will then take and fiddle with the Nintendo Software that is actually used on the stock adapter (the software can be freely obtained from their site) and try to hijack the network connection and have what seems like the default ui on the Nintendo connections... This will be merely for visual noting of who's connected and to fiddle wiht Nintendo's software.

Got all of my hardware ordered last night, currently awaiting delivery (not to mention that my wireless adapters are waiting in customs)