We removed the original icons as they were too close to the official set of avatars on the Switch. The new ones are all fanmade or public domain art instead

Should be fixed now, sorry for any inconvenience. The total downtime was around 2 days.

We changed database hosts, and user login is broken right now. We're working on getting this fixed shortly, and until then the DNS is serving a temporary outage page with redirects to Google and the forums.

@stamp specifically, using YouTube to access DNS just means setting the DNS up in settings first, then opening the YouTube app from the eShop which opens the browser. This will also automatically re-launch the browser when the timeout occurs.

And then bookmarks can be managed like Raven mentioned, or on the https://dns.switchbru.com landing page under "Useful Links"

nooope, there's nothing! And the above screen sharing works by using HTML's canvas, not an actual video stream

maaaybe, one option is a subdomain of the site that defaults to a different layout

So there are some page errors on the 3DS browser due to it being out of date. The browser is using Webkit 536.30 (or Safari 6.0.5).

I started to fix some icon sizes / text, but I think these fixes will need a special 3ds theme that's more lightweight to work correctly.

Specifically, the main issue for the layout is CSS variables are not supported, and some fonts fail to load. Then there are some javascript issues below:

(Found these errors by using "Developer Mode" (holding A+B+X+Y while the Internet browser is loading))

Controlling/viewing a PC screen might be surprisingly usable using novnc: https://novnc.com/screenshots.html

But you'd need a computer running the VNC server, probably isn't responsive enough to watch movies on

I’ll try it on my N3DS and see if there’s any fixes to make it easier to use

I would love to further understand the conditions around the timeout via reverse engineering, but my skillset isn't really there yet.

My guess is, standby pausing the timeout is a side effect of the actual foreground app pausing. (So, the loop where it performs the check is not running, as well as no code on the page running either).

Also, if you extract the whitelist for the Social applet, it's a file called listLnsGlobal.txt with this content (as of 1/06/22, when I did this):

^https://([0-9A-Za-z\-]+\.)*nintendo\.net(/|$)
^https://([0-9A-Za-z\-]+\.)*nintendo\.(co\.jp|com|eu|co\.uk|es|pt|ch|at|de|nl|be|ru|fr|it|co\.za|co\.kr|tw|com\.hk|com\.au|ca|co\.nz)(/|$)
^https://([0-9A-Za-z\-]+\.)*nintendo-europe\.com(/|$)
^https://([0-9A-Za-z\-]+\.)*nintendoservicecentre\.co\.uk(/|$)
^https://([0-9A-Za-z\-]+\.)*nintendoswitch\.cn(/|$)
^https://([0-9A-Za-z\-]+\.)*nintendoswitch\.com\.cn(/|$)
^https://([0-9A-Za-z\-]+\.)*google\.(com|ad|ae|com\.af|com\.ag|com\.ai|al|am|co\.ao|com\.ar|as|at|com\.au|az|ba|com\.bd|be|bf|bg|com\.bh|bi|bj|com\.bn|com\.bo|com\.br|bs|bt|co\.bw|by|com\.bz|ca|cd|cf|cg|ch|ci|co\.ck|cl|cm|cn|com\.co|co\.cr|com\.cu|cv|com\.cy|cz|de|dj|dk|dm|com\.do|dz|com\.ec|ee|com\.eg|es|com\.et|fi|com\.fj|fm|fr|ga|ge|gg|com\.gh|com\.gi|gl|gm|gp|gr|com\.gt|gy|com\.hk|hn|hr|ht|hu|co\.id|ie|co\.il|im|co\.in|iq|is|it|je|com\.jm|jo|co\.jp|co\.ke|com\.kh|ki|kg|co\.kr|com\.kw|kz|la|com\.lb|li|lk|co\.ls|lt|lu|lv|com\.ly|co\.ma|md|me|mg|mk|ml|com\.mm|mn|ms|com\.mt|mu|mv|mw|com\.mx|com\.my|co\.mz|com\.na|com\.nf|com\.ng|com\.ni|ne|nl|no|com\.np|nr|nu|co\.nz|com\.om|com\.pa|com\.pe|com\.pg|com\.ph|com\.pk|pl|pn|com\.pr|ps|pt|com\.py|com\.qa|ro|ru|rw|com\.sa|com\.sb|sc|se|com\.sg|sh|si|sk|com\.sl|sn|so|sm|sr|st|com\.sv|td|tg|co\.th|com\.tj|tk|tl|tm|tn|to|com\.tr|tt|com\.tw|co\.tz|com\.ua|co\.ug|co\.uk|com\.uy|co\.uz|com\.vc|co\.ve|vg|co\.vi|com\.vn|vu|ws|rs|co\.za|co\.zm|co\.zw|cat)(/|$)
^https://(about|safety)\.google(/|$)
---- ^https?://([0-9A-Za-z\-]+\.)*google(\.[A-Za-z]+)*/(search\?|translate\?|amp/)
---- ^https?://([0-9A-Za-z\-]+\.)*(sites|mail|news)\.google(\.[A-Za-z]+)*/
^https://([0-9A-Za-z\-]+\.)*facebook\.com(/|$)
^https://([0-9A-Za-z\-]+\.)*twitter\.com(/|$)

Lines that start with ---- are overridden to be specifically not allowed, even if they match an earlier rule. Prior to this, you could serve iframes from a sites.google.com domain, and watch YT or other videos like that.

These values (again for the ShareApplet) can be overridden via AMS by putting a file at: sd:/atmosphere/contents/010000000000080D/romfs/listLnsGlobal.txt

@Chimech0 This is really interesting, thanks for sharing! Funny how well the News applet fits Plex's layout. Also useful info about which formats of video are supported.

For Videos:
For playing videos, the social applet via Google drive works alright: https://browsedns.net/topic/1905/tutorial-watching-videos-on-google-drive if not really tedious. There's no time limit on the social applet, though.

The social applet has a whitelist of which domains are allowed, and they all require HTTPS and Google Sites is specifically excluded. If it were possible though to serve HTML from one of these domains, an iframe would very likely allow sites outside of the whitelist to render.

For the timeout
I have tried messing with the overridden domains (just the ctest url though), and pointing them to various hosts / slowing them down, or blocking some but not all, and it seems to always dismiss after 20 minutes of screen on time.

Those logs are here: https://browsedns.net/post/3358

I also think that it has to do with the nintendo URL not being able to be hit, but the issue might be, as soon as it is hit, the applet dismisses itself and displays "successful connection". If it has to do with an HTTPS url though, we're even more out of luck without modding.

Still, it's worth trying changing an https URL to point to an invalid https cert and seeing what happens. Or on my modded switch I could try the some CA verification bypass. Probably that'w with these exefs_patches ?

Fixed the Discross registration URL link

It was! This is being hosted by a different group, and is working again as of April 24, 2024.

Discross is a service to access Discord on devices that don't support the official clients, such as the Switch or PS5. In order for it to work, a bot needs to first be added to whichever Discord servers that it will work with.

URL: https://discross.rc24.xyz

When you create an account, it asks you for a "Verification code". This code is what links your Discord server list to your username.

You can get this code by typing ^connect in a Discord server that has the Discross bot added to it already. For example, in the BrowseDNS Discord: https://discord.gg/Mv85Pjexfb

Direct messages are not supported, but if you make your own Discord server and add the bot, you could use it with a small group of people.

In short, to set up:

1. Get a Verification code by typing ^connect in a server that has the Discross bot added (Needs a phone or PC)
2. Register on the Discross site at this URL, using the code during signup
3. Login on the Discross site, and you should see a list of all servers that you're in, that have the bot.

Also! If you do that, please leave some feedback on your experience. We can pass this along to the Discross developers directly.

Discross is open source, and the source code is available here if you would rather self-host it.

In my experience, sleeping your console will pause the timer. But the total screen-on time should still be 20 minutes.

The countdown timers on SB and BDNS will keep ticking and become unsynced with the real one when this happens, but after 20 min it still closes.

You're referring to this one?

For me it's working if I just type the URL without the protocol (eg. "google.com" not "https://google.com"). If that's the issue you're seeing, I can fix it soon

Hello! To completely disable access to the browser, you have three main options, in order of effectiveness:

#1 Parental Controls
If you enable parental controls on your Switch, even if none of the content rating or categories are blocked, access to the Network Settings and editing WiFi hotspots will be locked behind a PIN. Without being able to access the settings, alternative DNS servers cannot be enabled, and the Connection Test browser can't be accessed.

How to Enable: https://www.nintendo.com/us/switch/parental-controls/

In my opinion, this is the intended method by Nintendo to prevent access to the built-in browser, among other network settings (like VPNs or proxies).

You can also explicitly disable the Social Media browsers (Facebook and Twitter) from the Parental Controls app.

#2 Router-Level Networking blocks
DNS requests can be overridden at any point in the networking connection chain. This would need an advanced networking setup that configured on the router. If these DNS packets are overridden, whatever DNS is entered on the device will be effectively ignored. This would only apply while using your network, though.

Essentially the opposite of this reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeNetworking/comments/q81j5v/is_there_a_method_to_force_dns_resolve_on_a/

You could also more simply only block the three IP addresses (45.55.142.122, 45.55.112.11, 46.101.65.164), if your router allows it.

#3 The "Disable Browser" (LaneChange) pages
There are three pages that control the different DNS addresses and what they will resolve for your IP:

• http://lanechange-controller.fortheusers.org/manage/
• http://lanechange-us.browsedns.net/manage/
• http://lanechange-uk.browsedns.net/manage/

These take your current IP, and tell our systems to not perform the redirect on them. So this is more of an "opt-out". The reason this wears off over time usually has to do with your IP resetting or changing. And this is also only tied to the network, not the device.

Other Info
The Switch is a video game device first, but it can also play media (such as from Hulu, YouTube, or Twitch), and it utilizes different web browser applets across the system. Nintendo contracts with another company to maintain these browsers with security updates.

Switchbru and BrowseDNS allow access to one of those browsers (the Captive Portal applet) by redirecting connection test DNS requests. To get more specific, every time the Switch connects to the Internet, it performs a check to see if it's behind a Captive Portal, and if it is, it displays the browser. This is often necessary when authenticating your device with paid Wifi hotspots, like at a hotel or on an airplane.

There are other methods that don't involve our servers that will also allow this browser to display, such as using a self-hosted Captive Portal from another computer on the network.

For this reason, I think that the Parental Controls solution is the best approach for blocking the browser, in the same way you might want to prevent unrestricted access to apps like YouTube.

Last Things!
The intent of the DNS service is to help make the Internet more accessible, but I completely understand why there are scenarios where you would want to prevent that. I'm a big advocate for Nintendo fully exposing the browser's functionality and making it less hidden, and less "cloak and dagger". Any presence of a built-in browser should be clearly presented to the user.

An upsetting precedent is that the Playstation 5 browser works in a very similar manner. This is not the direction we should be heading in! If a console includes a browser, it should be up front about it, and allow the user to control access to it directly, alongside other apps and media. Like on the 3DS and Wii U!

I hope this fully answers the question, and provides enough information on both blocking the browser, and how the browser itself works.

I still think you're way off for the size, do you mean like 5 MB? The current upload limit is 2 MB (or 2048 KB). Even high quality photos shouldn't be more than a few MB.

You can definitely do this! I went to school for Computer Science, and I can recommend that in terms of a future career.

But also, it'd be immensely helpful to start experimenting on your own making small games either with Python, Godot, random javascript websites, "helper" apps like Game Maker, or even something like TI-BASIC programs if you have a TI-84 calculator. By the time I got to higher education, I already had a good amount of experience from playing around, and that really helped learn more complicated concepts later.

For Godot specifically, I can recommend looking at some of the starter templates, and challenging yourself to change some things like, the character jump height, or firing speed, etc.