Thanks to Google and the Usenet Groups that are hosted here, I was able
to decide to buy and make operational an Apple Airport Express last
weekend. I skipped the hard part initally, and configured it to act as
a client device so I could stream my iTunes music to my wife's surround
sound system. There were a number of posts available describing how to
configure the Airport Express as a Wireless Access Point using WDS to
bridge back to my WRT54G, but I wanted to accomplish something specific
and achievable in a 1 afternoon period.
The webpage that describes how to do this is:
http://rgbdream.com/?p=44
Tonight I found a website that pointed out that the stock WRT54G
supports WDS, but only as a 'main base station'. For example, if you
have an Airport Express and a WRT54G, the Airport Express can act as
the 'remote base station', but you cannot reverse the roles.
It would make sense to assume that if you have two WRT54G, you would
need to download one of the custom firmware modifications to allow one
unit to act as a 'remote base station', but you could leave the other
one with stock firmware now acting as a main base station.
Three comments on the webpage:
(1) Pay CAREFUL attention when it tells you to enter the MAC address of
the WIRELESS
side of your WRT54G into the configuration screen for the Airport
Express. I wasted
about an hour because I entered the MAC address of the INTERNET
side of the
WRT54G, and that just does not work.
(2) The website says that your only choice for security is WEP 64-bit,
and later on the
author points out that you can also fly naked with no WEP. I got
it to work with WEP
40-bit. Only because we have a number of laptops and I did not
want to reconfigure
them all tonight. Despite the fact that 40-bit is not that great,
it is somewhat better
than no security at all. At least my neighbors can't free ride on
my network.
(3) I upgraded my WRT54G v4.0 to firmware rev 4.20.7. I was running
4.20.6 before, and
I am fairly certain that I figured out the MAC address mistake, and
it still did not work,
and then I upgraded the firmware, but I'm not the sort of person
who takes notes, at
least not until I get majorly frustrated.
If you want to figure out what revision of WRT54G you have, check out
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WRT54G. Then you will have to examine the
underside of your WRT54G closely to get the first 4 characters of your
serial number. Take a flashlight, and if you are as old as I am, your
reading glasses too.
As I mentioned in my post to the audio groups, you can also use an
inexpensive Toslink cable from Walmart (or possibly radio shack) to
connect your Airport Express to your stereo system, if your system
supports digital/optical connection. Also note that the Airport
Express has a DAC built in.
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