Comments on: Linksys WRT54G, Airport Express, and WDS

by: Felipe

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:29:03 +0000

Chris, your tip for the new AX with 802n totally worked!!! THat’s ultra great!! Thanks Chris and John!!!

by: Peterk

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 07:38:34 +0000

I would like to repeat (since it seemed very difficult for me to believe it and caused me several hours of futile tinkering), in order to make AP work with Airtunes & to distribute a wired connection, it is _necessary_ to hook the AP to the Linksys router with a cable when doing the settings. All things being equal, that seeemed to be the decisive part for me.

Thanks, now everything works

by: Chris

Sun, 12 Apr 2009 01:41:32 +0000

First of all, thanks to everyone for all of the useful posts. I have been running and APE with a Linksys WRT54G for over two years now and the performance has been excellent. I recently bought a 2nd APE for the upstairs loft and had the same problem with the 13 character WEP password. While the AirPort utility will generate a 26 character hex password based upon the 13 character WEP transitional password, I really didn’t feel like retyping a NEW 26 character password in my router and all my devices. Especially, since my old APE is working fine. So, after a couple of hours of digging through the Apple website, it seems that the new APE is an 802.11 N device and therefore requires a transitional WEP key. However, if you hold down the OPTION key before clicking the radio button 802.11 N is disabled and the selection reverts back to 802.11 b/g and it then allows you to select WEP-128 security and it will accept a 26 character hex password. Everything works great now. I can stream music and connect to the internet in both locations.

Note: The OPTION key works in Mac OS X, I don’t know the corresponding key for Windows, but try the CTRL and ALT keys and see if they have the same outcome.

by: Guy

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 09:49:00 +0000

This indeed was very helpful - just wanted to add my finding with an AP Extreme:

While trying to set the WEP password on the APE I had a mismatch in the password length. The APE was expecting a 13 char password, while the WRT54g was expecting 26 chars.
I was about to give up when I found this:
On the Airport configuration utility go to “Base Station -> Equivalent Network Password”. This will give you the password you just entered in 26 chars (in my case it buffed it up with the number 3 between every char).
After finding this it worked like a charm.

by: Jack Bog

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:16:32 +0000

This was very helpful.

One problem I had was that the old Airport Express I got came with a CD disk that had Airport Admin Utility 4.0, which couldn’t get the job done. (I am on a Vista machine.)

You can upload 4.1 for free at

http://support.apple.com/downloads/AirPort_4_1_for_Windows

FWIW, I didn’t need the dollar sign.

Green light, baby!

by: Adam

Sat, 27 Dec 2008 18:48:30 +0000

I have just tried these instructions, and here’s my experience using an AirPort Extreme (not express; 802.11g) with WDS and a Linksys WRT54g.

My WRT54g is version 8 with firmware 8.00.5
My AirPort Extreme has version 5.7
I am running Leopard.

First off, I can confirm that no matter what I tried, WPA encryption settings will NOT work in my case. Once I switched my Linksys to 128-bit WEP, it worked flawlessly.

No setup required for the Linksys as you say in your article.

Instructions for latest AirPort Extreme Setup Utility:

Wireless Mode: Participate in a WDS network
Radio Mode: same as linksys
Channel: same as linksys
Wireless Security: WEP 128 bit
Wireless Password: same as first 26-digit HEX key

WDS Mode: WDS remote
Allow wireless clients is checked (probably works without too)
WDS Main: wireless MAC address of Linksys

I just wish I wouldn’t have wasted a day trying to get this to work with WPA. WEP128 will have to suffice.

Thanks everyone!

by: jtriand

Sat, 27 Dec 2008 09:23:51 +0000

I am trying to connect Airport Express to my Linksys WAG200g Annex A and to a WRE54G range extender. It seems that I have a problem finding a common encryption code for all three.

After many hours working, I managed to get a steady green light on the AE, but after its updating it could not be detected in the network.

Is there a set of istructions I can follow?

by: micksabox

Sat, 06 Dec 2008 03:56:50 +0000

Yup, Im another one of those guys that took hours to eventually set this up, but in the end the replies at the end helped me a lot.

My router is Linksys WRT54G v.3 and I got the 08 version of AX.

I chose “Participate in WDS network”

Set channel and encryption type the same.

Chose a 13 digit password and did the “Equivalent Network Password” function from the Base Station menu.

Entered the given HEX password into my routers Key 1 field and saved/updated the router with the new information.

Then basically what rishi says above.

Thanks alot to all the posters.

by: Allwha

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 20:29:24 +0000

PHEWWWW!! hassle free set up.. wish i had scrolled down to the ENDDDD when i started the installation..!! thanks rjpamd for the addition!

by: rjpamd

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 05:27:47 +0000

John, thanks so much for the post, as well as to those contributing! Just had my Linksys WRT54G v7 and Airport Express “N” Base Station to work. Took me some time (3 hours…just coz i didn’t read all of the posts, haha) but finally got it to work. Just some things i kept in mind for those using the exact same setup as i am:

1. configure the setup with the WRT54G connected via ethernet to the AEX
2. use WEP (never WPA) 128bit
3. use the “WDS” mode on the new Airport Utility instead of “Create a Wireless Network”, and check “Extend existing Network”
4. after setting up and clicking “Update”, the WILL be a “WDS Error” with the amber light flashing…just let it run, it’ll turn out ok (with a green lighted AEX) in a few seconds.

Please read all the posts (especially the 2008 ones for those using the new AEX) to understand what’s going on, especially for newbies (like me!). Everything is practicaly spelled out. Thanks again to all who helped out, hope this helps others as well!!!