That's a real bummer. I tried to add the network, perhaps that's why it was not found. This is for a game in an office. There's a "guest" network that is intentionally open. This is the only available network (the others are only for officially approved corporate devices, and have their own unique authentication, which the pinball machine wouldn't be able to do).

I'm going to try the solution of a repeater, using a small travel router that I stuff into the game (powered from the service outlet), and then hook up the game with a wired connection to the router. I also need the capability to connect to a 5 GHz network, which I've heard the Stern Insider kit can't do by default, unfortunately.

Do you know if Stern Insider supports IPv6, or does it require IPv4 for the connection?

Hmm, how would a repeater be detected quickly and disconnected? I'm not sure how the main wireless network would be able to detect if a particular device is a repeater or not. I have disabled all of the Wi-Fi network names being served by my travel router (both regular and guest, both 2.4 GHz and 5 Ghz, total of 4 names). So, there's no Wi-Fi server functionality visible from the router. I have the router just set to connect to the office Wi-Fi network, as if it's a normal Wi-Fi client device (the office Wi-Fi network does not have a password). The router has NAT, to share the IP received from the network, so the network shouldn't detect the presence of an additional device behind the router. I will connect the router to the game using a wired Ethernet cable, so the game will think it has a wired connection. Hopefully, this will work (I haven't been back to the office to try it yet).

Fortunately, no authentication is required for this network (I think). If yours does require authentication, I hope that it will last for a long time once authenticated, and not time out. Then, you could authenticate using your phone, then set the router to clone your phone's MAC address. That will fool the network into thinking your router is already authenticated. Most travel routers have this feature. Assuming the network authenticates by MAC address, and doesn't time out the authentication, this should work as a solution for you.

It worked! I installed a travel router into the backbox of the game.

The power supply's service outlet is really stuffed into a corner and hard to get to, so I used a "squid" (little extension cord) to get easier access to it.

The travel router converts the game's wired Ethernet connection to a wireless connection, forwarding it along. The travel router correctly deals with the case of a wireless network having no password. Unfortunately, it doesn't do IPv4 to IPv6 conversion, which would have been nice, but I found another workaround for that (it's site-dependent here). As for creating a rogue access point, I disabled all the other access points that the travel router would create, so it's effectively invisible. Nobody else will be able to wirelessly get into it, for security.

Is there an opening, in the back of the game, to get the wired Ethernet cable through? I looked around. Unfortunately, it's solid metal back there. The ventilation holes at the top appear too small to get a cable through (unlike the old Williams backboxes, which had wider holes).

Also, there's no convenient Ethernet jacks nearby, at the site where the game was placed.

The game (Godzilla Pro) is now happily on the Internet. The "Test Connection" menu item works. I also updated it to the latest 0.94.0 software.

Unfortunately, ran into a problem on the Stern Insider webpage. I have the game showing registration pending, but I can't complete it. The webpage shows the error message "User address verification failed". Does anybody else get this?

I tried editing my Stern Insider account information, to try a few other mailing addresses that work for me (such as a post office box). Unfortunately, none of them worked. After address entry, Stern offers a correction feature, to correct the syntax of the address, according to some official address database somewhere that they must be using. I did that, but that didn't help either.

It won't let me finish registering the game without getting past this "User address verification failed" error message, unfortunately. So, the game still shows as offline, when somebody holds up their QR code and tries to play it.

Has anybody else ran into physical mailing address verification issues? It's as frustrating as Coinbase, sigh....

Agreed. I turned off all the wireless AP functionality in the travel router, turning it into just a wired-to-wireless adapter. So, I'm not creating any rogue AP's.

Lots of intelligence in this network as well. As for keeping it wide open, it's not my decision to make, but they definitely know what they are doing....

Really? Is it a manual process? If so, a better message would have been something like "Your address is undergoing validation, please allow X business days" instead of "User address verification failed".

However, Stern's website is full of odd decisions, such as making the friend search feature strictly case-sensitive but displaying all friend names in all uppercase, thus preventing you from searching for a friend when you see their name displayed on a game....

Not sure. I haven't been able to get back to the game. Will go there again next week.

Interestingly, on the Stern Insider website, I had entered my physical mailing address, but now, on the website, it is blank, as if I had never entered it at all. If this is how they indicate successful verification, it's strange indeed. I don't want to try entering it again, lest I break any existing verification, until I have a chance to get to the game.

Unfortunately, there is a time limit on games pending registration, and the Stern Insider website will automatically remove games that aren't registered within a period of time from when you first get them online and walk through the menu on the game to initiate the connection to Stern Insider. That's unfortunate, but perhaps for security.

Nice! I have a crimper for cable TV wiring, but not for Ethernet. I heard that homemade cables aren't as good as commercially-bought cables anymore (it's hard to get the twisted pairs to be twisted enough near the connectors), but for the fairly low-speed application of a Stern pinball machine, it should be OK.

I'll look into this, or perhaps using the topper hole (I didn't know it existed, at the top of the backbox, hopefully it's a removable and replaceable plug), if a second Stern Insider machine comes into the location. The travel router I have can support two wired Ethernet clients at once (or I could just get a cheap hub/switch for more games).

As for network security, it's fine. The network at this site also has really good security, no unauthorized wireless access points are allowed. I'm fine, though, my travel router isn't a repeater or access point, it's merely a Wi-Fi client. From the network's point of view, it looks just like any other Wi-Fi client.

I'm in the USA, but had the same issue. Eventually, I tried a PO Box that I have.

I opened a ticket on Stern's Zendesk site, and they got back to me. They said they were having a few problems on their end, and it might take several days to validate. Interestingly, the address field I now have in my Stern Insider account is now completely empty, according to the website. I asked about this, and they said it's normal (shrug). Don't change it, unless you intend to change your address, as that will reset the verification procedure and it might not work anymore.

Happily, now, it works! I returned to the game when I could, and it immediately jumped onto the Stern Insider network and was happy, the first time. So, that's good. I completed the registration process on the app, without further incident, and the game is now happy. It recognizes me (and other players) and awards achievements.