How does my Sony PSP find wireless wifi networks?I'm baffled: on my Sony PSP, when I try to connect to the network, it says that there are no access points detected. What shall I do? I'm surprised by how often I see this question submitted or added as a comment on other Sony PSP discussions, actually. I think that the problem here is that a lot of Sony PSP owners aren't necessarily the geeky computer contingent that the Sony marketing team believes us to be. To a computer savvy person, you say "wireless network" and they instantly know that we're talking about an 802.11 or "wi-fi" network and that they require both a physical network connection -- a modem, cable model, DSL line, etc -- and what's called a "wireless base station" that communicates with all the wireless devices and relays their network requests onto the physical network connection. In our offices, for example, we have a cable modem line that plugs directly into a wireless base station. It's having both of those that give you a wireless network connection: If you have either alone, you'll either have a network connection but no way to connect to it wirelessly, or a wireless local network that isn't actually hooked up to the Internet at large. On the Sony PSP unit, it supports wireless networking with its built-in wifi network capabilities, and now with the 2.0 firmware update, it also includes a reasonably powerful Web browser, but just as you can't watch a movie without a UMD or memory stick, you can't actually use the PSP to connect to the Internet without finding a local wireless network to join. And that's where you are: If you're seeing "no access points" displayed, it's because you aren't within range of a wireless wifi network. Make sense? Now, it turns out that there are two basic types of wireless networks that a PSP can connect to: an "open" network and a network that has what's called a Wireless Encryption Password, or WEP. The latter is a bit safer from the geek perspective, but if you're just plugging in to grab a download, can be more of a hassle because you need to find out the network password and enter it on your PSP so you'll be allowed on the network. An open network, one that doesn't have any password requirement, is riskier for regular computer usage, but a ton easier for us Sony PSP fans wanting to get onto the Internet. As a result, my recommendation is to check out some of your local coffee shops, computer stores, and even small business centers or hotels to see if you can find an open network to use. Our office is around the corner from a popular Irish pub, for example, that has an open wifi network, so you could indulge and play on your PSP while sipping a nice cold Guinness, even! :-) I hope that helps clear up this common point of confusion with the Playstation Portable and its networking capabilities.
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Never miss another useful Q&A article again! Subscribe to AskDaveTaylor with Google Reader. u know dave i heard that u can get wirless internet acces by putting in some numbers on your Today i went to my library and i asked about a wifi accsess point and she said there was a box where it said ssid and i went on the internet and it went to the library site Posted by: deion at January 12, 2006 6:54 PMIf you buy a wireless adapter for dial-up could you use the internet on your psp. Posted by: jay at January 22, 2006 6:27 PMTheoretically, but I've never seen a wireless access point that could handle such slow bandwidth, and they all only have an Ethernet "in" plug, which dialup modems don't work with. Cool idea, though! Ah, actually, the original Apple Airport base station had dialup capability combined with a wifi network. Maybe you could cobble something together after all! :-) Posted by: Dave Taylor at January 22, 2006 11:38 PMHEY DAVE I FOUND SOMETHING IN MY LIVING ROOM NEAR THE WINDOW FOR THE PSP. I THINK IT WAS A ACCESS POINT OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT. I WENT ON MY PSP AND IT HAD A STRONG SIGNAL STRENGHT, BUT I WAS STILL UNABLE TO CONNECT TO THE INTERNET ON THE PSP. I HAD MY SETTINGS SET TO EASY AND I HAD A SSID ALREADY. I WANTED TO KNOW WHAT WAS GOING ON WITH THE PSP, DO I NEED SOMETHING ELSE OR DO I NEED MY SETTINGS CHANGED? IF YOU CAN CAN YOU EMAIL ME AT CWILSON0149@ESAGELINK.COM AND TELL ME WHATS GOING ON? THANKS Posted by: JOSHUA at August 8, 2006 6:25 PMcan i get a wifi connection in my house and if so how do i do it??? Posted by: andy at October 21, 2006 11:33 PMHey yeah I am in a rural area and I get a neighbors open wi-fi connection, sometimes when I scan it says SECURITY:NONE and its @ 25% then later its @ 70% and when I try to connect it says "A CONNECTION ERROR HAS OCCURED. yeah mike i am having the same problem on both of my psp. one is the black us one and the other is a white psp i think for overseas. i got them for free with a promotion. but i am having the same problem, exactly the same problem. let us know dave. thanks. Posted by: Tony at November 23, 2006 1:47 AMHEY!!!! i know how to use a psp but, when im in school my psp finds a wifi signal with no protection but i still cant access the internet! it finds the name and every thing but nothing works! i tried putting in the DNS or DSN number i have the one that says 66 68 192 98 and it still dont work. HELP Posted by: ed at December 5, 2006 1:56 PMHow am I on internet browser right now with a psp, but I can not play Metal Gear infrastructure online game? Posted by: Tommy Caesar at February 16, 2007 12:14 PMas far as getting on the internet on the psp,but not being able to play games,it's probably that your signal is to weak for games but not for the net,remember it takes a lot better connection to stream 3d graphics than it does to get online Posted by: greg at March 10, 2007 5:17 PMwhen i connect to the wireless on my playstation portable it says"A CONNECTION ERROR HAS OCCURED or i.p addres is required so please others help how to connect to the wirless and what is the best way to use the wi fi safley through my playstation portable. Posted by: des at April 3, 2007 3:02 AMHey Dave, I've Got A PSP And Every Time I try To Connect To The Internet It Says "A CONNECTION ERROR HAS OCCURED. Yo i was just looking at my PSP one day and i desided to fiddle with the settings, so looked at the internet and stuff i saw a conection "WLAN" appear and i tried to conect, looked at about 20 "how to conect to the internet with your PSP" google answers, nothing works, i don't ahve a router, do you think i'll be able to conect with this stange "WLAN" connection, it goes from 12-100% randomly, your help would be greatly appreaciated. ~Michael Posted by: Michael at May 12, 2007 3:44 AMI get a connection signal of 75 to 100% when I select test but when I go to update the unit I get a DSN error message. I've tried other settings and it ask for a WEP Key. What is the WEP key? Posted by: Bob Kiess at May 14, 2007 8:24 PMi cannot get a signal Posted by: eazy-e at June 30, 2007 10:22 PMi was wanting to get a psp and i have just found out that it has wifi and i just wanted to know what sites does it let you go to? Posted by: alex at July 5, 2007 10:33 PMwat sites does the psp let u go to? Posted by: alex at July 5, 2007 10:36 PMmy psp system is a junk!!!!!!! HELP!!! everytime that i scan, i always find an access point from my neighbors, well i tried connecting my psp to them but it just won't work... maybe bcoz their security is WPA-TSK(TKIP) or bcoz there's something wrong w/ ma psp.. i tried connecting but my psp keeps on asking me the WPA key which i really dont know. With my PSP, I can connect at home...I am connected to Sympatico with my computer, but I don't have wireless. How is it I'm able to connect at home, yet when I go, say to Tim Horton's for tea, I'm unable to connect no matter what I do? Thanks for your response. Posted by: Bill at August 11, 2007 3:44 PMhi dave. i am getting this error i have a wireless network thingy set up in my house through a router and it has WEP key...i followed your steps on how to set up the internet but it still doesn't work!!! please help! Posted by: Ishaan at August 26, 2007 12:35 PMhow do i get internet in my sonyy psp with a wire please can you tell me how do i get internet in inside psp THANK Hi Dave, i been had diffulcult time been doing that for 3 month it keep say " A connection Error had Occurred. The connection to the access point timed out. " what did i left out or where do i need to fix it? thank Posted by: Richard Jeffreys at September 23, 2007 4:51 AMMy psp is also saying that the connection to the access point timed out. Any help would be appreciated Posted by: Jon at October 3, 2007 5:12 PMi cant get on the interent with my psp i dont have wifi or a router can i still get on there without out that and can you get on the interent with youre regular aol Posted by: Mj at October 10, 2007 6:39 PMmy psp keep saying cannot obtain address whats the wep to local areas? Posted by: jason singleton at October 14, 2007 2:29 PMthere is wi fi near my house it gives strngth but men i connect it says go yo security settings it is main problem an d i bought the psp only for internet Posted by: hassan at November 1, 2007 11:17 AMim hassan again plz send the information on my id and wat is dns and dsn an d tell the information about wi fi max Posted by: hassan at November 1, 2007 11:22 AMi have a dialup connection at home we use for our pc.can a psp work online when it is near the computer using wifi.and without any wifi max.if i am asked for a security code where do i get it from. Posted by: jatto at November 21, 2007 1:24 PMI get a neighbors open wi-fi connection, sometimes when I scan it says SECURITY:NONE and its @ 25% then later its @ 70% and when I try to connect it says "A CONNECTION ERROR HAS OCCURED. Im getting a psp for christmas this year and i have a few questions. I have wireless internet at my house, and my Nintendo ds was able to connect without a problem. Will the psp be able to also? Now, i have itunes on our main computer. Am i able to directly download them from itunes on to the memory card, or do i have to burn them onto a cd and then transfer them to windows media player before i put them on? I ask this because i have a mp3 player that doesnt take itunes. Ok, i have a massive dvd collection, and all of my computers run on windows xp, how do i get the dvds on my psp? When playing games that have the option to let u play online, do you need to be in an area that has access to a wifi connection, or can u play online anywhere? Is the psp worth all of the hassle of trying to figure out how it works? And when you are able to surf the internet, what kind of websites can u go to? Posted by: derek at December 4, 2007 11:35 AMwhen ever i try to access my psp's internet it says that DNS Posted by: nitya at December 4, 2007 9:37 PMI have been playing psp since december 2005 and at first i was able to conect with my verizon signal then after a while it wouldnt let me do it and i had to use my neighbors and i am pissed because my whole christmas gifts were gonig to be ps3 and accesories but now i can not connect wireless so i have to change my whole list is there anything i might be doing wrong that my wirless verizon signal won't work? Posted by: ACE at December 16, 2007 11:15 AMhay how do i connect to a access point on my psp slim Posted by: tyer at December 25, 2007 12:00 AMHey Dave, I've Got A PSP And Every Time I try To Connect To The Internet It Says "A CONNECTION ERROR HAS OCCURED. heyyy hw do i hget da wifi 2 coonect i want mispace yaaa digg pplz Posted by: shawn at December 25, 2007 10:23 AMI'm having problems like some of the others on this site.... HELP, i have a wi-fi at my house but when i use it it says error: your psp didnt connect to anything!!!??? Posted by: michael at January 7, 2008 5:08 PMcan i connect my desktop to my psp wifi connection? Posted by: nick at February 3, 2008 9:35 PMYou guys trying to use your neighbor's wi-fi that is encrypted are retards. Buy your own damn wireless router and internet service. People like you are the reason I have to habitually change my passwords Posted by: tim at February 6, 2008 11:47 AMCan i connect my psp to the web throw my e65 by wlan? Posted by: Akash at February 9, 2008 6:42 AMOkay, so my problem here is that my big brother owns a PS3 that he got about 2 years ago, and i just got a PSP for christmas. We connect the two together ALL the time, and i know about everything about the PSP, i am very good at computers, the PSP and such. Me and my brother love Sony. Anyway, my question is, i can play games, read e-books and manga, listen to all my music, look at all my photos, and watch some videos, but i can't go online. I really want to go online with my psp, and i have dial-up for my family's home computer. I live in a little town, with no wireless hotspots. I can't get a connection. Then i found out i could connect my brother's ps3 with my psp and go online! But, my brother has this cable thing that came with his PS3, and it somehow connects with a DSL cable thing. I'm confused. My brother won't connect to the internet because he is WAY to overprotective with his PS3 and he thinks that anything would hurt his PS3. I am thinking about buying a wireless router from Wal-mart so i can go online with my PSP, but they cost like $50-$100!! my family is poor, and we can only aford things (like my psp) around christmas time. i don't want to spend my whole christmas money (around $100-$200) on a wireless router. you may not be able to help me, probably because i wrote too long of a message, or because i'm confusing you, or because there is no help without spending money. Thank you for reading this message, you are cool for puttting this site up, i have found out how to put my collection of dvds on my psp, but it still doen't work. the dvds still won't read although i put the dvds in my computer and tried to transfer the file to my psp, i tried diffrent steps and everything. i even got this one folder and i can play game trailers i got from playstationstore.com but not movies. oh well. thank you. hey this is eric when i go to get on the internet with my psp it will give me 100% signal but it wont obtain the ip address whats wrong with it Posted by: eric at February 15, 2008 5:43 PMhey dave keep up ur good work i m haven problems with my black psp am trien to get on the internet im pretty ticked off so have broadband it has ethernet,dsl power and actvity what do i do howi get on net its broadband i have have plz reply at fordgtpboy@hotmail.com and other people out there who know how to use plz reply at my email ford gtpboy@hotmail.com or zakeel_g-uint@hotmail.com Posted by: zakeel at February 16, 2008 1:25 PMI go to the enable wma playback an i press on it then the user agreement pops up then it asks me if i agree i do then it tells me that i have to amke a connection but i don't know how. Posted by: Paul Perez at February 16, 2008 2:20 PMI still don't get it what if you have a computer windows 2000? will that cut it Posted by: marcus at March 1, 2008 2:37 PMHey Dave, I've Got A PSP And Every Time I try To Connect To The Internet It Says "A CONNECTION ERROR HAS OCCURED. hi i have a cable modem and a wifi and i still have a problem i cat get my wifi to connect to my dsl or my psp can u email some info to me my email address it is moeen_mani@hotmail.com if any one read this please email me thanks everyone for their time Posted by: moeen at March 20, 2008 1:22 PMHow do you get 2 PSPs to connect to play games againt eachother???? Posted by: lisa at April 2, 2008 3:45 AMI got My new PSP slim and elite. I wanted to check the Wifi.When I tried to connect it shows..."make sure that ASOS access point is turned on " what does that mean,., Please elaborate!! Also list me some cool games for ma nu ISP.Am from Bangalore,India.Thanks a Ton! Posted by: Liz at April 11, 2008 7:13 PMI want to buy a PSP also for this reason (Wi-Fi). After what you all said, should I buy one? Posted by: NICU at April 16, 2008 11:41 AMuse 127.0.0.1 as the DNS address ... it solves most of the problems you guys are having Posted by: theproblemsolver at May 7, 2008 12:33 AMhi, NOT.. Posted by: NICU at May 7, 2008 12:43 AMI have a lot to say, but ...
I do have a comment, now that you mention it!
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