Are you stuck trying to connect your Nintendo Switch to public wifi? if that is the case you are not alone.
A handful of users have also complained about coming across the error message “registration is required to use this network“
Since that has prompted you to search for how to connect a switch to wifi that needs registration, you are just in the right place since I will be walking you through some proven steps you should take to get your Nintendo switch connected.
How to Connect a Switch to WiFi that needs Registration
Most public wifi usually requires that you log in with a username and a password. And to do that you can only do it via a website.
While your Nintendo switch usually comes with a hidden browser that you can use to access the login page, some networks are beings coded in such a way that you might have to visit a specific website like globe, google etc
Due to scenarios like this, your Nintendo Switch can get stuck and trigger the “registration is required to use this network” message”
That said, here is a proven way to get it connected
- Press the home button. Over here you are not connected to any network whatsoever.
- Now, tap on the “gear icon” indicating “system settings”
- On the next screen, under system setting scroll down to “Internet” and click on it
- On the right side of the screen, navigate to “Internet settings” and select it.
- The switch will begin to search for any available network
- Once it loads you will see the networks you’ve registered on before and any other available wifi network you can connect to.
- Now, if you are staying in a hotel and you know the name of the hotspot network select it
NB: Some hotels require a password as you will see a padlock beside the wifi name, while some won’t if yours doesn’t require a password, select the network and click on “Connect to this network“
- A dialogue will appear showing that your console is connecting to that network name.
- After waiting for close to 2 minutes and you see the same error message “Registration is required to use this network” click on Next
Now it will take you to some website usually the hotel hotspot login page.
Simply fill in the details on that webpage, like your first name, hotel room, or other related questions.
If you are unsure of any of these questions you should ask any of the hotel staff
After entering all these details, it will take you back to the connection screen and in a few minutes, it will be connected.
How to connect a Switch to WiFi that needs Registration (2nd Method)
One thing you’ll notice is that you have to sign in through a webpage.
While it might not go smoothly for some, here is an alternative way to do is by switching your Nintendo switch to your web browser.
- Click on the home button and click the “gear icon” indicating the system settings on your Switch
- Scroll down till you can see “internet setting“.
- Now select the public wifi network you want to connect to
- Now select the option that says “choose settings”
- Click on the DNS settings and then change the settings from Automatic to manual
- Now, set the primary DNS to 045.055.142.122, then save.
- Wait for 10 seconds to be reconnected.
- Now go back and try reconnecting to your hotel wifi through the website.
- After this has worked, you can go back and change the setting to “Automatic“
This shouldn’t be much of a fuss to do. However, if it doesn’t work as expected, there are other alternative steps you can try to get your Nintendo switch running which will be listed below
Error message “Registration is required to use this network”
If your switch console is not connecting to public wifi, there are a series of tricks you can try to get it running.
While some might be quite daunting they all work, That being said, let’s get into each of them
Connected to your switch manually
Yes manually.
Most people feel the only way you can connect to a hotspot is automatic. But you can do that by entering the IP, Subnet Mask, and DNS.
Let me break down how to carry that out
To carry out these steps you have to use a smartphone or your PC.
Now that you are aware of that, here is how you can go about it
- Connect to the public wifi using your smartphone or your PC
- Once it is connected, check your Connection Status. Over there you would see information like your IP, Subnet Mask, and DNS in the connected device.
- Now grab your Nintendo switch and initiate a manual connection.
- What you will do here Is to copy the Network Name, SSID (usually the same as your network name), IP, Subnet Mask, Gateway and DNS.
- When you get to the secondary DNS, simply copy the primary DNS and replace the last number by the increment e.g 4 becomes 5.
- Test the connection from your Switch and disconnect your phone or computer from the public wifi
Connect to your Nintendo Switch using USB tethering
Connecting to public wifi using your Android phone or your PC might not be an issue.
But using your Nintendo to connect might be giving you a connection error. And since that is the case, you can simply connect your Andriod phone to the public wifi and then enable USB tethering on your Nintendo switch.
Carrying it out is pretty simple as you only need to enable “tethering on your Nintendo switch.
Must Read: How to connect to your device internet by enabling USB tethering
However, to connect to your Nintendo switch you need these
- USB C to USB A adapter
- a USB A to ethernet adapter
- an ethernet cable
- another USB A to ethernet adapter
- USB C to USB A adapter
Plugging all these together will grant you access to an internet connection via your smartphone to your Nintendo Switch. But you need to Enable “USB tethering on your device after making the connections.
While this might seem daunting and stressful, it works and the internet connection is usually fast too.
Use your iPhone as a hotspot
Another alternative is to turn your iPhone into a hotspot for your Nintendo switch. Over here, you are basically using your mobile network to access the internet while turning on your iPhone Hotspot to share the internet with your Nintendo switch, here is how to do that.
- Navigate to settings
- Choose Mobile data and tap on the personal hotspot
- Toggle it ON, and also adjust the settings to ‘allow others to join’
- Now, set up a password for your device hotspot
- Next, get your Nintendo Switch
- Tap to “system settings“
- Scroll down to internet settings and search for all available hotspots
- Connect to your iPhone hotspot, and enter its password.
Using an android device
If connecting to your public wifi seems insurmountable after going through all these, you can simply connect to your mobile internet if you have an Andriod device.
Here is how to do that
- Navigate to your settings
- Select Network & internet
- Now, tap on “hotspot & tethering”
- Tap on Hotspot and turn it ON
- Now, get your switch
- Tap to “system settings”
- Scroll down to internet settings and search for all available hotspot
- Connect to your iPhone hotspot, and enter its password if it requires one
Use a Third-Party Hotspot
If you’ve ever thought if there was a way to share the internet of your PC which is connected to a hotspot network. Most will say it is very daunting or impossible to do.
But then it is very possible to share your internet on your Laptop when you are connected to public Wifi.
But you have to use a third-party network and one of the best and free ones out there is a software called “Connectify”
The Connectify Hotspot software app gives you a way to access WiFi through a Windows laptop. It basically does that by making itself a hotspot for other devices that wants to connect to it.
It is basically like a two steps hotspot and it works with Nintendo switch.
But to carry this out successfully, you need to install the Connectify software on your laptop and connect it to your Home wifi.
Now, connect your Nintendo switch to your Laptop. The connectify software turns your Laptop into a hotspot even if your Laptop is getting its internet from another hotspot.
If you’ve done this, when you are at the hotel you basically need to connect your Laptop to the Public wifi and connect your Nintendo switch to your Laptop.
Nintendo Switch hotel WiFi white screen
If you are struggling to connect your Nintendo switch lite to public wifi, probably your college wifi or hotel wifi. Maybe you are seeing a white screen while trying to connect to the wifi network and it just stays blank then here is something you can do to resolve that.
- Click on the home button and click the “gear icon” indicating the system settings on your Switch
- Scroll down till you can see “internet setting“.
- Now select the public wifi network you want to connect to
- Now select the option that says “choose settings”
- Click on the DNS settings and then change the settings from Automatic to manual
- Now, set the primary DNS to 045.055.142.122, then save.
- Wait for 10 seconds to be reconnected.
- Now go back and try reconnecting to your hotel wifi through the website.
- After this has worked, you can go back and change the setting to “Automatic“
Final thoughts
By now you should have figured out How to connect Switch to Wifi that needs registration. If by now you are still having an issue connecting your Nintendo switch to public wifi, feel free to drop your challenges below.