The 20 year old PSP can now connect to WPA2 Wifi Networks
Screenshot source: Zekiu_ on youtube
Acid_Snake and the ARK Development team have released a significant update to the ARK custom Firmware for the Sony PSP. Custom Firmware now allows the Playstation Portable to connect to WPA2 encrypted Wifi networks. This is thanks to the recently released wpa2psp plugin, created by developer Moment and published on the PSP Homebrew discord.
Playstation Portable gets WPA2 Wifi access
The PSP has been out of official support from Sony for years, but lots of enthusiasts keep maintaining this great handheld through homebrew and custom Firmware updates. As technology evolves around us, older devices such as the PlayStation Portable can lose some of their features.
For example, as WPA2 has become the defacto encryption standard for home wifi networks (WPA3’s adoption rate remains low), older devices such as the PSP, that do not support these new* encryption standards become technically unable to access the internet.
Wifi access was a very strong feature of the PSP when it was released, and, although it’s probably less important nowadays, losing that feature because newer networks aren’t compatible is a bummer.
WPA2 support has been a request by many enthusiasts for years on PSP discussion channels, and it seems that the wpa2psp plugin by developer Moment now brings this to life. According to Acid_Snake, the developer was kind enough to provide the source code of the plugin, which allowed the ARK team to embed it into the ARK Custom Firmware for PSP.
History was made
WPA2PSP limitations
This reddit thread by Nebula_NL covers a lot of details on how to install and use the plugin. But the bottom line is: install the latest release of the ARK CFW on your PSP, and take it from there. (Note that you can also manually install the plugin if you’re using another CFW than ARK)
This is of course the first iteration of this plugin, and it comes with limitations, specifically:
- 2.4 GHz Only
- WPA2 support works with 2.4 GHz WiFi.
- If your router uses a single SSID for both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, you may need to separate them and connect your PSP to the 2.4 GHz network.
- WPA2 AES Only
- Requires WPA2 with AES (AES-CCMP) encryption.
- TKIP is not supported and will not work.
- WEP/WPA Compatibility
- While WPA2 is active, WEP and WPA encryption will not work.
- To use WEP or WPA again, disable WPA2, and they will function normally.
- WPA2/WPA3 Mixed Mode
- If your router is set to WPA2/WPA3 mixed mode, your PSP may struggle to obtain an IP address.
- Try manually setting the IP address instead of using DHCP in [AUTO] mode.
Download and install ARK-4 + enable WPA2 Support for the PSP
- Download the latest release from the ARK4 Github releases page. (alternatively, this specific release introduced the wpa2psp plugin)
- Copy the
UPDATEfolder from the ARK4 archive to/PSP/GAME/. - Run ARK4 Updater on your PSP from the GAME menu.
- Go to Extras > Custom Firmware Settings and enable WPA2.
- Reboot VSH/PSP and connect to your WPA2 Wifi network.
- Done!
* WPA2 was certified in 2004… It’s “new” from the PSP’s perspective which launched the same year and didn’t “need” to support it at the time. WPA3 launched in 2018 but its adoption is taking time
It’s crazy to think people are still working on the psp. I didn’t even know there was a cfw that was still being worked on.
ARK is crazy good. If you have a PSP, you just have to check it out, especially since all PSP models now have CIPL and can be unbricked Pandora style.
Yeah I have an old fat PSP 1k laying somewhere. Might take it out and give it a spin again.
Wow, I was already wondering if there was a way to maybe replace the Wi-Fi chip with an esp32 but a software only approved is A M A Z I N G. Everyone who worked on this thank you so much .