Bypass The Firmware Requirement For The PSN

Back on the Wololo forums again, The Dark Wings has posted a tutorial that originally stems from the one posted months ago by - on the PS3News forums. Although the method is old, it works in a similar fashion to Yet Another Bypass and other bypass tricks for the PS3. Underlying, it's the same thing that's released, gets patched and then re-released when a new firmware becomes available. It's pretty much the same story here. If your Vita isn't on firmware 1.80 for whatever reason, you can still get to enjoy the services available on the PSN.

With a proxy and a couple of tweaks, you can get your Vita back on the network:

1. Download the psp2-updatelist.xml for your region: (US | UK | EUR | JP | AU | SA)
2. Open psp2-updatelist.xml with any editor (i.e. notepad, gedit) and look at line number 3. Change the value of level0_system_version, level1_system_version and level2_system_version to “01.000.000″. On line number 4, change the value of system_version also to “01.000.000″. Save and close the file afterwards.
3. Download and install Charles Proxy. (Here)
4. . (Optional) If you do not know the IP address of your computer you need to find out what it is before we can continue. In Windows, open up a command promt (Start -> Run, enter “cmd” -> Enter) and type “ipconfig”. Your IP address is noted at IPv4 Address.
5. On your PS Vita, go to Settings -> Network -> Wi-Fi Settings and setup a working internet connection. However, go into Advanced Settings and select Use Proxy Server. There, you need to fill in the IP address of your computer (the one where you will be running Charles Proxy on) and the port number 8888.
6. Start Charles Proxy on your computer and restart your PS Vita. Let the PS Vita connect to the internet (by using Connection Test or something similar) and watch Charles Proxy for any request to http://fxx01.psp2.update.playstation.net/ (Depends on your region). Once you see this, navigate the folder in Charles Proxy (it should be expanded already) all the way to psp2-updatelist.xml and right-click on it.
7. Select Map local and choose the file we’re downloaded and edited in steps one and two at Local Path.
8. On the same item, right-click and select Edit from the menu.
9. The right window will now have some tabs in the lower center of the screen. Select Query String and press Add in the new tab.
10. Under name, type “var”. Under value, type “01800000″ (current firmware 1.80 as of the writing of this guide). Now click Execute.
11. You’re now able to browse the PS Store, PS Friend List etc. without being forced to update to the current firmware.

No reports have came through of this being patched by Sony yet but it won't come as a surprise if they decide to take care of that during the rounds tomorrow. Since this has been a method that worked with previous firmwares, this could be an ongoing method with future updates.

Source: Wololo

Original Source: PS3News

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