Networking: Apple AirPort Extreme and Linksys WRT54GL

I’ve been trying to get these routers to talk to each other for a while. I have my desktop computer sitting on the other side of the WRT54GL so I need to use it as a wireless receiver. I’m using the generally awesome Tomato Firmware for the job but the settings should follow for any router in that family with any custom firmware. I searched the internet high and low on how to set this up with security and through much trial and error found a workable solution. I didn’t find it explicitly stated anywhere so I’m going to lay out my findings.

• Apple’s AirPort Extreme will not do WDS with a non-Apple router.
• WRT54GL (and co.) don’t support AES encryption as a client (WDS, Wireless Client, Wireless Ethernet Bridge) so you must set it to use TKIP encryption in these modes.

###The AirPort Extreme setup:

• Wireless: create Wireless Network
• Security: WPA/WPA2 Personal
• Wireless Options: 2.4GHz Channel: Explicitly choose an unused 2.4GHz channel with as big a buffer as possible between the next active channels. Use a wireless survey tool to figure this out.
• Take note of the DHCP Range in the Network tab (192.168.xxx.xxx, 10.0.xxx.xxx, etc.)

###The WRT54GL setup (Basic -> Network):

• Wireless Mode: Wireless Ethernet Bridge (this makes the router transparent to the connected clients i.e. they think they are talking to the AirPort Extreme)
• SSID: same as AirPort Extreme
• Security: WPA Personal
• Encryption: TKIP
• Shared Key: same as AirPort Extreme
• Router IP Address: choose an unused IP outside the AirPort Extreme DHCP Range but in the subnet. My AirPort Extreme is 192.168.1.1 with DHCP Range 192.168.1.100-192.168.1.149 and I set the IP to 192.168.1.2. Keeping this value in your network allows you to access the configuration when your computer has a DHCP address from the AirPort Extreme.
• Subnet Mask: same as AirPort Extreme (255.255.255.0)

That’s it. It took me a frustratingly long time to figure out that you have to use WPA Personal and TKIP so I hope this saves someone else some time.