Today, Nintendo released their all-new Wii U. The new console has, unsurprisingly, sparked a fair amount of commotion and interest – primarily due to its intriguing, tablet-like controller with a 6.2-inch touchscreen display. Unfortunately, as I’m sure a countless number of enthusiastic Wii U owners have come to discover, can be rather difficult to connect the console to the internet.
When attempting to connect to various types of personal Wi-Fi routers, including the Motorola SURFboard SBG6580, the Wii U either displays a red X when connecting to the modem/router or when attempting to establish an internet connection. Upon failing to connect, the Wii U will likely display one of the following error messages: Error Code 103-1001 or Error Code 103-1002.
After testing numerous methods, and even attempting the most popular one floating around on various forums, my own Wii U was unable to establish a connection. Thankfully, after spending longer than I had hoped talking with three levels of Nintendo technical support, I discovered a solution to the issue that seems to plague a large number of Wii Us.
Steps – Connect Wii U to WiFi (Error 103-1001 and 101-1002):
1. Navigate to the Wi-Fi portion of the System Settings menu.
2. Tap on or select the option to “Connect to the Internet”.
3. Press X on the GamePad to view your connections and delete every saved connection by tapping on it and opting to “Delete Settings”.
4. Once all connection settings are cleared, return to the “Connect to Internet” screen, select your WiFi network, go through the regular setup process and wait.
5. Once the setup fails – don’t worry, if you’re encountering connection errors, it most definitely will – power down both the Wii U console and GamePad.
6. Reboot the Wii U and return to the Connections portion of the WiFi settings (repeat steps one through three).
7. Tap on your saved Wi-Fi network, followed by “Change Settings”.
8. Enter your network’s SSID (the name assigned to your router).
9. Select the proper security type and input the router’s official password.
10. Change the “IP Address” option from “Auto-obtain” to “Don’t Auto-obtain”.
11. If you’re on Windows, launch cmd and type “ipconfig”. If you’re on OS X, navigate to the Network portion of the System Preferences app, highlight your Wi-Fi network, click “Advanced…”, followed by the “TCP/IP” tab (the “Router” number is used for the “Gateway” field).
12. Input your router’s IP address and add “10″ to the last digit (e.g. if the IP is “192.160.0.1″, enter “192.168.0.110″).
Note: In certain cases, exclude the “10″ – we recommend that you try both.
13. Enter both the Subnet Mask and Gateway (obtained in the eleventh step).
14. Tap “Confirm” and select the option to “Configure” once a DNS settings prompt appears.
15. Change the “DNS” option from “Auto-obtain” to “Don’t Auto-obtain”.
16. Type “4.2.2.2″ for the “Primary DNS” field and “4.2.2.1″ for the “Secondary DNS” field.
17. Tap “Confirm”, ensure that the “Proxy Settings” are set to “Don’t Use” and leave the MTU Value set to the default option (1500).
18. Press B to exit and save and press “Connection Test”.
After successfully performing the above steps, any errors pertaining to network connectivity will be resolved. I found that it’s crucial to clear all connections, establish a new connection, reboot the Wii U and edit the settings to properly connect the console to the internet. Stay tuned for additional coverage on Nintendo’s new Wii U.
