Here’s my notes for setting up your brand spanking new AirPort Express with your Linksys WRT54G (or GS) in WDS (bridging) mode, while still allowing AirTunes to work.
Part 1: Your Linksys WRT54G(S) setup
- Grab the most recent public sveasoft firmware from here. USE OF THIS FIRMWARE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK! MAKE SURE YOU USE THE APPROPRIATE VERSION – “G” for WRT54G MODELS AND “GS” FOR WRT54GS MODELS.)
- Install the firmware (Administration–>Upgrade Firmware)
- Set the channel on your Linksys to Channel 1 (Wireless–>Basic Settings)
- Provide the MAC address of your AirPort Express’s wireless interface on the WDS setup page (Wireless–>WDS), selecting the “LAN” option
- On the same page, toggle “Lazy WDS” and “WDS Subnet” to off.
- Turn off the loopback interface (Administration–>Management)
- Set “Ignore Anonymous Requests” to off in the Firewall setup (Security–>Firewall)
Part 2: Your Airport Express Setup
- Install the AirPort software that came on the CD with your AirPort Express
- Hook your AirPport Express up to your Macintosh via an ethernet cable
- Open the AirPort Admin Utility (Applications/Utilities/AirPort Admin Utility)
- Select your new AirPort Express from the list of found access points, and click configure
- On the AirPort tab, set:
- Use base station to: Create a Wireless Network
- Network Name to the same SSID as your WRT54G(S)
- Wireless Channel to 1
- If you’re using WEP, you’ll need to enter your WEP key.
- If you’re not broadcasting your SSID, check the “Make this a closed network” box
- Jump over to the WDS tab and check Enable this base station and set it to work as a “remote base station”
- Check Allow wireless clients on this base station
- Enter the MAC address for your WRT54G(S)***NOTE*** in the Main AirPort ID box. (or if you’re SSID is broadcast, just click browse and pick it from the list)
- On the Music tab, check Enable AirTunes and put in a nice name for your speaker connection
- Click Update and wait for your AirPort Express to reboot
- ***NOTE***(WIRELESS MAC ADDRESS… guess I thought that was a given, but seems to be some confusion – this is WDS – Wireless, hence the need for the WIRELESS MAC address…)
Once this all is done and your AirPort Express comes up, you should see a pretty blue light on the side (front) of it, indicating that your WDS connection is up and purring and you can now hook up your speakers, fire up iTunes, and rock the house.
Wireless Encryption Addendum:
Keep in mind that you can only use WEP (or no encryption at all) with WDS due to the way MAC addresses get encrypted when using WPA, which doesn’t work well when you need to hard code the “remote” WDS node’s MAC address on the Linksys… also, please read the comments below regarding the WEP key and a nasty little $ that is needed for this to work.
Problem:
Upgraded WRT54 to 4.01.
WDS menu with its LAN doen’t appear.
hi folks,
thanx for all the good advice and hint on the ae/wrt54g problem, but still, the shit is not working at my place!!!!
i have a wrt54g v2.2 with the sveasoft alchemy firmware, and a ae with the latest firmware and upgrade. i use a wired pc that is connected to the wrt54g and a powerbook that is wireless connected to the wrt54g.
i want to use the ae as a bridge/repeater in wds with the wrt54g, i followed every step that you posted, but still not working!!!
i think i have twp major problems: wep encryption does not work, with or without the $ prefacing the key, and in wds the two devices do not communicate at all.
anyone has some good advice???, i am sure that it can work, it is just that i make some mistakes i do not see at the moment…
many thanks, malte
Did the job.
Thanx!
Ryan….
You’re the best!!!! Thank you so much! I had been spoiled on the ease of use ofa Buffalo Tech router and a Belkin router. The Linksys setup was a nightmare to figure out until I found this tutorial!!
Thanks a ton!!!!!
Jeff
You rock! These where the only instuctions that I’ve found which work!!! I had to restart my network to make the router recognize the AE in WDS and it worked like a dream.
Can you work your magic on boosting the signal strength of the AE (I know it has juice that we are not tapping into).
Many Thanks!
maceddie
Thanks to Ryan & others. I struggled for hours (many) trying to install AirPort Express on my Windows XP network with WRK54G Router and WPC54G Notebook Adapter so I could use iTunes to wirelessly play music thru my Sony home theater system.
Only after I took your advice and connected the Router to the AirPort Express using an EtherNet cable did the AirPort Express show up in the AirPort Admin Utility. I set up the AirPort Express as a “client” on my wireless network and then disconnected the EtherNet cable & hooked AirPort Express to my home theater system with an optical cable. Everything worked!
I did however, have frequent AirPort Express dropouts and had to change the “channel” setting in AirPort Admin Utility and in WRK54G Setup several times to find a channel that worked consistently.
Thanks again for your help.
Please tell me this works not only on the WRT54G but on the WRT54GC? I would think the compact version would allow for the same settings as the WRT54G. I don’t want to fry my router by installing the wrong firmware.
Thanks!
Shaun:
No clue, perhaps someone else can comment.
Clear and concise. Thanks a lot Ryan. My only hitch was the operating frequency; I had to go up to 9 to get a good clear connection. Learned a lot, and had lots of fun (when it was all working)!
Thanks for the awesome advice. But here’s a question from a wireless newbie, how do you know if your computer is getting it’s wireless access from the airport express (bridged), or from the wrt54g directly?
You don’t, and it doesn’t matter, since it’s the same SSID.
First – Thanks for the great instructions.
One problem – When the AX is connected via a cable to the WRT54G router, I get all sorts of packet loss and intermittent outages. I also can’t access the AX Admin Utility. But when, I disconnect the ethernet on the AX, everything works like advertised. Any reason why I can’t hard line the AX during a WDS setup? I assumed that wireless clients can connect to the AX and the AX can send the info back to the WRT54G via the hard line rather than the wireless signal. Also, thought my bandwidth on the AirTunes would be more reliable with a direct connection from the PC to the AX. THanks!
Hey! It worked. I had spent all day going from Google hit to Google hit and your explanation was the only one that worked! Thanks
Any ideas if I have a dlink router of how I can accomplish this same task?
Hi,
Do you know if this works with the WRT300n Router and Airport Express?
Thanks!
rantanplan
rantanplan,
Sorry, No idea.
-Ryan
For anyone else who has a Belkin F5D7230-4 Wireless G router, it works with that too! No special firmware required. (I’m using an AX with firmware 6.3)
Don’t know if anyone has mentioned it yet, but the SSID’s don’t need to be the same for this to work properly.
I found that it worked better if I used different names (one is called ‘Access’ and the other ‘Access Jr’), because my AP’s are close together, and the wireless signal between up and downstairs is wonky. I had a lot of skipping in my airtunes before I did this.
Oh, and I’m using DD-WRT on an Asus WL500G-D.
Thanks for putting up this great guide!
WRT300n Router and Airport Express
Hi, hell i need help, and this sems as the place were i can get it, i want to configure mi WRT300n Router with mi Airport Express, haw can i do this (if posible at all)
Thanks
Okay, the links for the firmware router upgrade don’t work and I don’t get Step #5.
Alex: Wrote this article almost 3 years ago now – Google for updated firmware bud. As for step 5, just connect the dots – you need to provide the MAC address of the AirPort Express so that it can connect via WDS.
Got all this to work but this is an old article… a few notes:
- The newer WRT54G routers (V8), support WDS out of the box indeed, BUT I could not get it to work with an Airport Express if WAP was enabled.. you are limited to WEP or no encryption. Some other places on the web state that WAP is possible.. I do not believe this is correct.
- Its been said before but its easy to make that mistake.. you need the MAC address of the WIRELESS interface. When you click on Status, the one that appears right there is the MAC of the WAN port.. click on “WIRELESS”, and then you will see the one you need.. do NOT input the local LAN MAC address either (so bottomline, there are 3 addresses… you want the WIRELESS MAC address)… so simple, yet so easy to forget that detail.
perfect !
i fiddled around for two days – and this is just working !
linksys wrt54g v2 airport EXTREME BASETATION
Internet is working on LAN and WLan
ah btw – for the mac adress of the basestaion i used the lan number ..
thank you, you saved my day
Hi Ryan
just to let you and everybody here know, I’ve successfully set up a WDS some time ago using the Express G version. I ordered the new Airport Express N the day it became available and have since unsuccessfully tried to integrate it into the WDS network.
Can anyone confirm this?
Sorry if I double post but my previous wording triggered the moderation mode. Here goes:
Hey Ryan, chiming in again. You might want to update your guide to reflect the new situation with the N version of the Express. I finally figured it out, however there is no logic to the solution:
- Set up the Express N as stated above.
- Make sure to run it in b/g compatible mode. I’m not certain if the “n (b/g comp)” mode also works.
- Make also sure to enter the WEP key with a prepended $ sign.
- Now the weird part: In your WRT54G setup you have to add the LAN MAC address of you Express instead of the WLAN one. I’ve currently entered both of them so I’m not sure about the effect of leaving away the WLAN one.
Voilà!
When I find time I’ll dig further into this and post more findings. For now I won’t touch the **** thing anymore since I already spent too much time figuring this hack out.
The LInk to the WRT54G Direct Firmware does not work…