It's not about them staying in sync with each other, but how often they are individually updating their timers. Anyway this conversation got boring a long time ago. Let's pretend we're the NSA and take a peek inside some SSL traffic.
The first part of going online for most games involves logging into WFC. A new SSL connection is made to "naswii.nintendowifi.net", using the default root certificate authority (Nintendo, of course) to verify the remote certificate and using the wii's default client certificate to identify itself to the remote. After the handshake, the wii sends a request that looks something like this:
After that the game goes off and talks to its own servers, no other WFC activity seems to occur.
The first part of going online for most games involves logging into WFC. A new SSL connection is made to "naswii.nintendowifi.net", using the default root certificate authority (Nintendo, of course) to verify the remote certificate and using the wii's default client certificate to identify itself to the remote. After the handshake, the wii sends a request that looks something like this:
Quote:POST /ac HTTP/1.1So there's a lot of crap in there... some of it related to the console, some related to the game (SZAP = Rock Band 2, makercd=69=Electronic Arts) but the important thing is the "action"; decode it from base64 and it's "login". Here's what naswii responds with:
Host: naswii.nintendowifi.net
User-Agent: RVL SDK/1.0
Host: naswii.nintendowifi.net
HTTP_X_GAMECD: SZAP
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Content-Length: 283
action=bG9naW4%2A&gsbrcd=&userid=MjkzMDE4MTg4Mzc3MQ%2A%2A&ingamesn=&sdkver=MDAxMDAw&gamecd=U1pBUA%2A%2A&makercd=Njk&2A&unitcd=MQ&2A&2A&macadr=MDAxZGJjNzRhMjFl&lang=MDE%2A&devtim=MTQwMzAxMDEwNjUw&confmethod=MDA%2A&csnum=TEFIMTAzNzM4NDM1&cfc=Mjk4MTkwOTEwMjUxODIwNA%2A%2A®ion=MDI%2A
Quote:HTTP/1.1 200 OKSo we got a challenge ("EXPK0WSG"), a locator URL? ("gamespy.com"), a returncd/return code (001) and a token (big long string that looks like encoded binary data). Fun. So that SSL session gets closed, then the game creates a new one using the same parameters and sends this:
NODE: wifiappw3
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Length: 235
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2014 14:05:12 GMT
Server: Nintendo Wii (http)
challenge=RVhQSzBXU0c*&locator=Z2FtZXNweS5jb20*&retry=MA**&returncd=MDAx&token=TkRTTDVtdnhCMDVpSHVVaVFEaVNEU1ZJa3ZLRlZMVlVNZU5RUOdoQjIxQWJGamdrM2tzajVPREJLckFMQUNIeXZnbkh2QjZrMXhUZmFZZGd3c1pYcnhkaGc9PQ**&datetime=MjAxNDAyMjgxNDA1MTI*
Quote:POST /ac HTTP/1.1Pretty much the same as before, except this time the action is "svcloc". Which gets this reply:
Host: naswii.nintendowifi.net
User-Agent: RVL SDK/1.0
Host: naswii.nintendowifi.net
HTTP_X_GAMECD: SZAP
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Content-Length: 268
action=c3ZjbG9j&svc=&userid=MjkzMDE4MTg4MzcMQ%2A%2A&sdkver=MDAxMDAw&gamecd=U1pBUA%2A%2A&makercd=Njk%2A&unitcd=MQ%2A%2A&macadr=MDAxZGJjNzRhMjFl&lang=MDE%2A&devtime=MTQwMzAxMDEwNzAx&confmethod=MDA%2A&csnum=TEFIMTAzNzM4NDM1&cfc=Mjk4MTkwOTEwMjUxODIwNA%2A%2A®ion=MDI%2A
Quote:HTTP/1.1 200 OKSo this time there's a return code of 007, a service token, statusdata="Y" and svchost="n/a". Nothing real intuitive.
NODE: wifiappw2
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Length: 219
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2014 14:05:22 GMT
Server: Nintendo Wii (http)
retry=MA**&returncd=MDA3&servicetoken=TXJ1bkRsVWQ4czJZT2RVaEJjNy84dGdnK1BUbWhteEdjSGZpQ2lScWpCL3hwSnNENlZXd0VndGdOam9LZW1ad2ZCd21nckoxUlR4YlI2M0UzR3VubGc9PQ**&statusdata=WQ**&svchost=bi9h&datetime=MjAxNDAyMjgxNDA1MMjI*
After that the game goes off and talks to its own servers, no other WFC activity seems to occur.