Does anyone have some more concrete information on when this appears?

There's a project here: switch-gba by BFriedrichs for running a GBA emulator within the switch browser. I haven't tried it yet, the requirements are Docker + a PC with ROMs on the same network.

Because of that last requirement it's not going to be easy to have a simple link for playing a GBA game without having a locally networked PC serving the copyrighted content as well.

Also worth mentioning: the GB Operator is one legal option for getting a ROM file from a physical cartridge.

@lollapalooza Just wrote a post on self-hosting here: https://browsedns.net/topic/88/how-to-self-host-a-dns-server-for-web-browsing

tldr: Switchbru/BrowseDNS both use LaneChange to handle the landing page redirect, but for most use-cases (that don't need to handle different user preferences) just a DNS server that redirects to an HTTP page that then links to Google / other sites will do.

Described in the BrowseDNS post, the Switch will display a web browser applet as a part of its built-in Captive Portal functionality. The connection test domains are redirected when in a captive portal, and allow you to display your own web content inside the applet.

The BrowseDNS servers will provide this redirect, but if you want more control or cannot access external DNS servers (eg. if there's a router/ISP override on outbound DNS requests), then you may want to self-host from another device on the network.

Below are two ways to do this!

The Easy Way (GUI)

There's a Linux/Windows/Mac/Android app called YourFriendlyDNS by softwareengineer1 on Github. it can be downloaded here.

After running the app, it will display the IP to enter on your Switch under "Listening IPs" in the top-left. This is the IP of your computer which will need to stay online for the DNS to continue resolving

Advanced (Command Line)

If you have a raspberry pi or a pi-hole, you can manually configure a DNS override for the following two connection test domains:

• conntest.nintendowifi.net
• ctest.cdn.nintendo.net

These will need to be pointed to a reachable IP with an HTTP server listening on port 80, which will serve the web content that you want to appear in the browser applet. BrowseDNS uses LaneChange for this purpose, which will perform a redirect to another URL, or allows a custom response to be configured.

You can use any HTTP server though, such as python simple http server, and serve a static index.html page from the current directory.

For the DNS server, pi-hole uses FTLDNS. Other common Linux DNS servers are dnsmasq, bind, or systemd-resolved. Any should work well, a DNS server responds on port 53 via UDP to a domain query with a response IP, and in this case only the Switch connection domain needs to be overridden. There are approaches to do this directly in python as well.

The DNS servers are running the same software, so from a technical perspective they are very similar. As others stated, the main difference is which landing page you get.

Switchbru:
45.55.142.122 - the original server we've been running since 2017, located in NY, USA
This server also provides update blocking.
Info page: https://switchbru.com/dns/

browseDNS:
45.55.112.11 - new server located in California, USA
46.101.65.164 - new server located in the UK
Info page: https://browsedns.net/topic/8/browsedns-enable-access-to-the-open-internet

Both landing pages also link to each other, so you can use whichever server one is fastest. In theory, that's the one that's physically closest to your location, however there might be other networking factors that make it not that straightforward.

@SnowRunnerLegend No worries. Will have to mention this explicitly in our rules in the near future.

This thread is intended to be a pinned index of the above basic sites. For other sites, they should have their own thread.

For any 18+ sites, please wait until we have a new category or Adult Only filter, given the potential for younger audiences to stumble upon this. This is still being discussed and worked out by the moderators.

@Maxthegamer4548 Are you able to access your router settings and check if there is a feature to force override DNS queries? This is sometimes presented as a safety feature to prevent DNS spoofing (which is what a captive portal utilizes.)

@Maxthegamer4548 No, the secondary field is only used when the first server can't be reached. Since you're connected, you are getting the DNS to resolve from somewhere.

UK server didn't work either? The other wifi hotspot?

@SnowRunnerLegend said in DNS doesn't take me to go to the browser:

@Maxthegamer4548 i think its because you didnt set it to manual, i dont know why, but it does take its sweet time to reload when timer hits

Oh definitely double check this too!

The 46.101.65.164 one is a UK server and may have different results. The other two are east and west coast US servers.

But, your Wifi router or Internet Service Provider may also be overriding the DNS packets. Some routers provide this as a feature and it can be disabled in router settings. If it's the ISP there aren't a lot of options outside of contacting them.

Which DNS server are you trying to connect to?

BrowseDNS:
45.55.112.11
or 46.101.65.164

Switchbru:
45.55.142.122

If none work, can you try another wifi hotspot or phone tethering and see if the same problem happens?

Sorry to say that Nintendo intentionally disabled this feature in the browser used by the DNS. The only thing we can do is let Nintendo know, message them, ask them, sign petitions, convince more to do the same, and so on.

Videos used to work, and worked great in firmware 2.0.0! It was disabled after that. I wrote some more in this post.

@graham I would love it for this to work, but it's not supported by Nintendo's browser.

Netflix is also a bit tricky because they have pretty strict DRM requirements and probably usually make a licensing deal with Console manufacturers to get their app on those platforms. Really it's up to Nintendo and Netflix to make that work.

It's not unheard of though since Nintendo has worked with Netflix in the past for the Wii and Wii U. The most we can do to help the Switch browser play videos and have other features is to get more traction on this petition.

Yep, this used to work very early on in 2017 but was disabled by Nintendo in an update for the WifiWebAuthApplet, which as pwsincd said is how the DNS browser works. More technical info on the different browser applets here.

Video playback does however still work in other applets, like the LoginApplet (this pops up when you click "Link to Twitter/Facebook") and NewsApplet (what the News app uses).

The LoginApplet's ability to play videos is almost useful, however it has a whitelist and will only work with certain top-level URLs (only Google, Facebook, Twitter). This trick is how the old SwitchTube worked (hosted on a Google Sites page, that you had to go through Facebook to get to) before the YouTube app was available.

For Discord, it's technically fixable on Discord's end if they provide a polyfill for the Switch's browser, but this isn't a priority for them either.

EDIT for Feb 3rd, 2024:

The summary of this thread's findings is:

• This notification will appear after 20 minutes of screen-on time using the browser
• The browser will always immediately close after the pop-up
• Nintendo has ignored so far the petition asking them to enable the browser

Tips:

• If you lock the device, you can stretch the total time you have out longer
• If you launch the YouTube app, and access the DNS that way, it will automatically re-display the browser after timeout happens
• You can add top sites and bookmarks to Switchbru for faster access

About the browser:

• The timer is built-into the Switch, and enforced by the Switch's OS
• The browser itself is called NetFront, and is made by ACCESS Co
• It's possible that there is a deal between Nintendo and ACCESS that limits the usage of the browser (This is only speculation)

Homebrew workaround:

• If you have a Switch that can run homebrew, then the browser can be accessed with BrowseNX, which bypasses the timeout and allows video content
• Configuring homebrew however is much more involved than just using the DNS, and should only be done by advanced and/or technical users

Original post:

This is a thread to talk about the browser closing on the Nintendo switch when using BrowseDNS or Switchbru DNS... This appears to be a timeout added by Nintendo in FW update 10.0, but the mechanisms of when/why it closes are not known.

In my experience, I have had both web pages live for a long time (even overnight!) by sleeping the switch or pressing home, and when it decides to close always seems a little random.

It seems like no matter how many page loads occur, or clicks/scrolls I make, it's determined to shut down. Does anyone have any other experiences or theories about whne it decides to close?

If the timeout can be better understood, then we may be able to discover a workaround to it. If it's something networking related, for instance, maybe there are changes that can be made to prevent it from closing.

It would also be interesting to know if this same timeout occurs when using "normal" captive portal airplane/hotel hotspots (which is what the browser applet was made for).

I will also again plug the petition to Nintendo to unlimited this browser, including removing the timeout.

Space Game was released in February 2016 (...too many years ago) as a Wii U homebrew / demo of what could be done with early homebrew exploits. With this port, it is now playable on more devices, including the web.

URL: https://vgmoose.com/space-game/

Controls: Left stick to aim, Right stick / Touch to aim and rapid fire. A and B for handling Menus, or Enter and Backspace on PC.

This requires WebGL, and so it does not work on the Switch or older browsers.

Screen shots:

Source code and writeup on how it was ported from an OSScreen homebrew is here: https://github.com/vgmoose/space-game although I would recommend using Godot directly if you're looking to start a new project.

On the Wii U, if you open the browser and go to the Settings, there's an option to "Enable Developer Tools". This starts an http server which you can visit from a computer on the same network, and view web inspector information about pages being rendered by the Wii U browser.

Example output from Google Chrome on PC after visiting the IP that the Wii U gives you in its browser settings:

Here we can debug and see the full error that the Wii U webkit instance hit when trying to render the page. In this case, it does not support the let keyword, which was introduced in ES6 in around 2015. Previously this part of the page was broken, but with this information, this bug is able to be addressed.

It's a pretty cool feature tucked away in settings, and would love to have something similar for the Switch browser.