Sony PSP Connect to the Wifi Internet?

That's what this article is about. It will show you, step by step by step, exactly how I took a brand new Sony Playstation Portable (aka Sony PSP), selected my own local 802.11 wifi wireless network, entered the network password, saved it, and then used it to connect to the Internet and go to the Sony Web site.

It's pretty easy, but I will warn you in advance that there are a lot of steps involved and -- perhaps more importantly -- you will need to have access to a network that doesn't require a password, or the password to your network. If you don't have that, you will need to get it before you can succeed with this process. Here's one way to do that: how to find your wireless WEP password. Failing that, ask your Dad or Mom for help with this step.

Now, let's start the process. Sorry the screen shots aren't great, it's hard to take photos of the Sony PSP screen and have them look perfect. Ready?

Odds are pretty good that when you turn on your PSP, it immediately starts up the game you have inserted. Not good. What you want to do is click on the "home" button:

In my experience, it can be a while before you realize that there are tiny little buttons along the bottom of the screen that actually do stuff. :-) Find the "home" button, push it, and the PSP will ask you if you really want to quit your game. Choose "yes" and proceed.

Now you're on the top navigational area: press the left arrow button repeatedly until you get as far to the left as possible, it's the "settings" area. Now move down by pushing the down arrow again and again until you get to the "Network Settings":

Choose it by pressing on the "X" button (on the right of the screen). Now you'll see:

As you can see, the Sony PSP wants to set up a PSP to PSP "ad hoc" network, but that's not what we want to do, we want to set up an actual Internet connection, so you'll need to push the down arrow once to select the oddly named "Infrastructure Mode":

Now click on the "X" button to proceed.

Since you probably have a brand new Sony Playstation Portable unit, like I do, you'll see an empty list of existing network connections and the option to set up a new one:

No surprise, choose "[New Connection]" and press "X" to set things up:

You can choose a bunch of options, but the easiest is to choose "Scan" and let the device do the heavy work! It takes just a few seconds to scan, and then you'll see a list of Wifi networks that are detected and within range:

My network is called "Aerie".

Important note: if your Sony PSP doesn't find any wireless networks you cannot connect to the Internet without going somewhere else. If you don't have a wifi network in your house, for example, you'll need to find somewhere (the library, a cafe) where there is one.

To select the "Aerie" network, I press the "X" button again. Now I see this:

Now we're in a different part of the Sony PSP interface, so to proceed, you'll need to be using the right arrow rather than the "X" button. Yeah, it's a bit confusing.

Press the right arrow to proceed:

You can see that the Sony PSP has successfully identified the encryption standard that's in use by my wireless network. You should find that your PSP does the same without any problem.

Once you agree that it does have the correct wifi network protocol (which is only relevant if you have a password set, by the way) press the right arrow again:

Now it's time to enter the password for your wireless 802.11 network:

It's a bit tedious, but you need to enter your password letter by letter, as I have done here (I masked most of my password in the screen image: you won't see the black bar on your PSP). When you're done, move up to the "Enter" button and press "X" to enter the password and proceed.

We're getting there. Over halfway done.

The next thing you'll see is:

Sure enough, it shows you that you have indeed entered a password. Press the right arrow to continue.

We're getting there. Choose "Easy" by simply pressing the right arrow again:

Sure enough, we'll call the network on the PSP the same as the network itself, so this is another point where you should just press the right arrow once again.

Looks good, let's keep that thumb in good shape: press the right arrow yet again. And...

As it suggests, press "X" to save the network settings you've made and, congratulations, you've set up your Sony PSP for Internet access.

Well, we're not quite done yet.

You've saved your settings, let's have a quick test. That's the next option it offers:

Do it by choosing, you guessed it, the "X" button.

Now it starts the test:

and....

and, finally...

When you've gotten here, you're done and you have an Internet connection configured, saved, and tested positively. Hurray!

I warned you it was quite a task.

I'll stop here and let you enjoy your new Internet connectivity with your Sony PSP, but check out my many other articles here on the site for lots of free PSP help too!