How to Get RSS Feeds on a Wii

Everyday, the Nintendo Wii gets feeds for news and weather. While these feeds are nice, some people think it would be better to get the RSS feeds they really want in addition to the feeds Nintendo decided they would want. With a few modifications, you can set up your Wii to get RSS feeds on everything from college hoops to the latest Hollywood gossip.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Valid SMTP-based email account
• Python 2.x

1. Establish a new email address that can be accessed via SMTP. If you like, you can use an existing email address, as long as it can be accessed via SMTP. If you can check the email address through a different email, you are set.

2. Turn on your Wii and go to the address section on the main menu by selecting the envelope in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. Select the memo icon on the left side of the screen, and then click on the right-hand option.

3. Turn on your Wii to bring up the main menu.

4. Register your new email or existing email to be used with the RSS feeds on the Wii. Go to the address section on the main menu by selecting the envelope in the bottom, right-hand corner of the screen. Select the memo icon on the left side of the screen, followed by the right-hand option. Choose the option to "Register," followed by "Register Other," which is shown as a cell phone/computer icon.

5. Type in the email address you will use by clicking the letters and numbers on the virtual keyboard. Confirm your address by clicking the button. Name the account on the Wii. You can use "My RSS Feeds" or "New Info" or whatever you'd like.

6. Check the email account you just entered into the Wii system. You should have an email from [e-mail]. This email came from your Wii. Write the [e-mail] address down carefully and double check it. Reply to the email to send a message to your Wii.

7. Check the messages on your Wii by selecting the envelope icon in the bottom-right corner of the main menu.

8. Download and install the latest version of rss2email. The rss2email program converts the RSS feeds you select into an email automatically sent to you when the feeds update. You may also need to install the latest version of Python if you have difficulty accessing rss2email (see Resources below).

9. Edit the "config.py" file on your computer. Set the "SMTP_SERVER" to the outgoing SMTP server address of the email you used to reply to your email from [e-mail]. Make sure "AUTH_REQUIRED" is set to "1." Provide the username from your email account (not @wii.com) for the "SMTP_USER." Type in the password for the account at "SMTP_PASS." Add your email address to the "DEFAULT_FROM" space. Set the option for "HTML_MAIL" to "0" so you don't get HTML-based email, which is hard for the Wii system to read. Turn the "DATE_HEADER" off by setting it to "0."

10. Open the Python command line. Windows users add "r2e new [e-mail]" to set up a database for RSS feeds. Non-Windows users type in "./r2e new [e-mail]" at the command line.

11. Add the RSS feeds you want to check. At the command line, type "r2e add [RSS feed address or URL]" to add one feed at a time. Non-Windows users should type "./r2e add [RSS feed address or URS]" in the command line. After entering all of the feeds you want to check, enter "r2e --no-send" or "./r2e --no-send," depending on your operating system.

12. Automate the process of checking the feeds and having them sent to your Wii's email. Windows users will use the task scheduler run the "r2e.bat" file however often the feeds should be checked. Manually run the task, and then go back and edit the task to "r2e.bat run" so you will only get new feeds sent to your Wii. Non-windows user automate "./r2e.bat run" on their systems.

13. Read the RSS feeds delivered to the message center on your Wii.

Tips & Warnings

• Getting information from RSS feeds will add clutter to your system. Go back and edit the files stored on your Wii to clear out unused or old data.