Determining Your Gaming Device's Wireless Physical Adapter Address

Overview

Steps to connect your gaming device to RPI wifi

PLEASE NOTE: Although you may choose to connect your gaming device to Rensselaer's wireless network, please keep in mind that using a wired connection will generally give you a better gaming experience.

Procedures

Before you can register your gaming consoles to use Rensselaer's wireless network, you need to know how to find the wireless physical adapter address for your device. Two short set of instructions appear below.

For an Xbox 360...

From the Xbox Dashboard:

1. Select System.
2. Select Network Settings.
3. Select Edit Settings.
4. Select Advance Settings.
5. Select Wireless Information.

The wireless physical adapter address is labeled "MAC address:" and will look something like this: 01:23:45:67:89:0a.

You may also find this YouTube demonstration helpful for determining your adapter address.

For a Playstation 3...

1. Power on the unit without any disk in the system.
2. Select Settings.
3. Select Network Settings.
4. Select Settings and Connections Status List, and then scroll to the bottom of the screen.

The wireless physical adapter address is listed under "MAC Address" and will look like this: 01:23:45:67:89:0a.

A YouTube demonstration for the Playstation 3 is also available.

PS3 setup steps for connecting to rpi_netreg

1. When the PS3 is started, go to the Settings tab (second from the left) and scroll down to the bottom, which should say "Network Settings" and select X.
2. Choose "Internet Connection Settings" and ignore the warning about wired connections, as this is a wireless network.

3. If it says UPnP is Not Available, that is fine.

   1. You should have two options - Easy and Custom.
   2. Choose Custom
   3. Now select Wireless
   4. Now select Enter Manually and then enter in "rpi_netreg"
   5. For the wireless security select None
   6. For the IP Address setting select Automatic
   7. For the DHCP host name Leave blank and do not set
   8. For DNS Setting select Automatic
   9. For Proxy Server Leave blank - Do Not Use
   10. For UPnP select Enable
   11. Now test the connection 

For a Playstation 4...

To locate the MAC Address of your Playstation 4 console:

1. Arrow up and over to Settings in the PS4 menu.
2. Scroll down to Network.
3. Scroll down to View Connection Status.
4. The MAC address will be listed next to MAC Address.

For an Xbox One...

To locate the MAC address of your Xbox One console:

1. Navigate to My Games and Apps.
2. Select Settings.
3. Select Network.
4. Select Advanced Settings.
5. The MAC addresses for the wired and wireless adapters should be displayed.

For a Wii U...

To locate the MAC address of your Wii U console:

1. From the Wii U Menu, select System Settings.
2. Using the left stick, select the Internet icon and press the A button.
3. Select View MAC Address and wait a moment for the MAC Address to be displayed.

For a Nintendo Switch...

To locate the MAC address of your Nintendo Switch:

1. Select System Settings from the Home Menu
2. Select Internet.
3. The MAC address will be displayed under "System MAC Address"

To Wii users...

The Wii will not work with RPI wireless, as the Wii will only transmits at data rates of 1 to 2 Mbps [source].

After testing, DotCIO's ITI staff determined that enabling the lower Wii data rates detrimentally affects other wireless users, and as a result, Rensselaer's wireless network does not support connecting at the lower data rates required by Wii. Please use a Wii LAN adapter to connect to RPI's wired network. 

Registering your game console

We usually recommend that you connect your wireless devices to the wireless network rpi_wpa2, as that will provide an authenticated and encrypted connection. However, if your gaming console does not support WPA2 Enterprise you can connect to the SSID rpi_netreg, which will require MAC address registration but does not provide encryption. To register your MAC address please follow this link.

Last Reviewed: 25-Jul-2018