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.

I can't believe this game still has no DLC. It has only 5 boards, all of which are from Mario Party 1, 2, or 3. There are so many more boards and games to pick from! Like literally almost 20 years of history and they only choose the first few years?

it says not supported

Current Switch game release schedule from June-December 2022

Mario Strikers: Battle League - June 10
Demon Slayer (Kimetsu no Yaiba): The Hinokami Chronicles - June 10
Metal Max Xeno Reborn - June 10
Horgihugh and Friends - June 16
Fall Guys - June 21
Wreckfest - June 21
Shadowrun trilogy - June 21
Sonic Origins - June 23
AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES - June 24
Capcom Fighting Collection - June 24
Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes - June 24
Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak - June 30
Rabbids: Party of Legends - June 30
Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course - June 30
Matchpoint - Tennis Championship - July 7
Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series - July 8
MADiSON - July 8
Hell Pie - July 21
Wayward Strand - July 21
Live A Live - July 22
Bear & Breakfast - July 28
Captain Velvet Meteor: The Jump+Dimensions - July 28
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 - July 29
Two Point Campus - August 9
No Man's Sky - Summer 2022
Splatoon 3 - September 9
Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope - October 20
Persona 5 Royal - October 21
Bayonetta 3 - October 28
Pokemon Scarlet & Violet - November 18

The list will be updated soon. Post other games not listed below, and they will be added.

just now i plugged in my Switch, it was asleep and didnt wake, so i blow the charging port and cord, it reboots, closed game i was playing, has this happened to any of yall?

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.

When using BrowseDNS or Switchbru DNS to access the browser, video playback is unavailable with the following message: "Support Code: 2809-1212 This feature is not available".

However, videos do work elsewhere on the system (eg. the eShop, News app, or even YouTube app). The Switch has several different browser web applets on it, each with different permissions. Here's a table from the Switchbrew Wiki:

Screen Shot 2022-04-06 at 5.59.05 PM.png

Custom DNS settings can allow the last one, WifiWebAuthApplet, to allow the user to browse the Internet. This applet has no whitelist, and allows any URL to be visited. However, it does not allow video playback. This is done intentionally by Nintendo to limit the usefulness of playing videos when using a custom DNS. (For more on how BrowseDNS works, see this this post, or this one for self hosting).

Unfortunately, that means video playback only works if you can serve it from an Applet that only allows a short list of whitelisted domains. As all of these domains are https, there is no chance to bypass this using a custom DNS server.

As of v13.2.0, the whitelisted domains include: nintendo.com, twitter.com, facebook.com and google.com. You would have to have control over a domain or subdomain from one of these to allow video content to play. Previously, sites.google.com could be used (aka SwitchTube), however this is now explicitly blacklisted as well.

The only real hope to get this functionality working is to publicly let Nintendo know that there is user demand for a standalone web browser (like on Wii, Wii U, DS, and 3DS) that supports these features.

If you have a homebrewed Switch, the app BrowseNX also allows browser video playback, but that is becoming increasingly rarer and unfortunately does not match the ease of use of an officially available browser.

any good switch fighting games i should play?

yes im talking about pokemon arceus fight me

Anyone have a link to play pokemon emerald on switch? i'd be super grateful

just wanna know which one is better

saintrow 4 it has cheat codes
cheese code give moneys

does anyone know a way to copy and paste photos or text on the switch, or if it's even possible, because i haven't been able to.

why cant we watch video's

i am on my nintendo switch

For those who have a homebrewed Switch will probably know of BrowseNX by crc32
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and also Goldleaf by XorTroll.
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These tools can provide addition functionality over our DNS service with the ability of video playback.

Homebrew is only available on specific versions of the console you can check here if your console is able to run homebrew and if so there is a guide to help you get set up.