Having been a proud owner of a Nintendo Wii since launch, I've recently been intrigued by the investigative work in this thread regarding the use of a third party USB Ethernet adaptor on the Wii:

Confirmed, Non-Nintendo USB to Ethernet adapter working

Unfortunately the KINAMAX USB Ethernet adaptor mentioned isn't readily available in the UK let alone the majority of Europe.

Knowing that the KINAMAX adaptor is based on the ASIX AX88772 chip, I decided to give the D-Link DUB-E100 Ver. B1 and the Linksys USB200M Ver. 2 USB Ethernet adaptors a go on my Wii as they're both based on the same chip. Sadly I had no luck with either adaptor as it appears that even though the same chip is being used the USB vendor and device IDs aren't being recognised by the Wii.

The KINAMAX adaptor presents the following hardware string to the Wii:

USB\VID_0B95&PID_7720

The assumption that any other USB Ethernet adaptor that presents the same hardware string will work on the Wii is a reasonably valid one. I offer the following information for others to compare:

• D-Link DUB-E100 Ver. B1 (USB\VID_2001&PID_3C05)
• Linksys USB200M Ver. 2 (USB\VID_13B1&PID_0018)

If I have any luck with any other adaptors I'll post back my results. Until then have a read of WiiLi the rapidly expanding Linux for Wii project.

Tags: Nintendo Wii, Linux, USB, Ethernet