How To Manually Set up the Linksys WRE54G Wireless-G Range Expander
Step 1: Reset the WRE54G to factory defaults
Use the reset button in the hole on the side of the Expander. Push and hold the
button until you see the Link light turn steady red. If the Link
light starts flashing and/or turns blue, repeat the reset until you get a
steady red Link light.
Step 2: Set your wireless client to a static IP address
The WRE54G comes set to a default IP address of 192.168.1.240. Since
you'll need to make a direct wireless connection to the WRE54G and it doesn't
have a DHCP server, you'll need to
nail down your client's IP address info. Use an address in the 192.168.1.X
range such as 192.168.1.239 with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. The
Gateway and DNS settings won't matter for now and you can leave them blank.
Step 3: Configure WDS bridging on the target AP
Devices joined in a WDS bridge usually require that you enter the MAC address
of the device at the other end of the bridge into each device. Some devices
also include an "allow any client to connect" or "allow
anonymous" mode that doesn't require entering MAC addresses, but I've
found it more reliable to enter the MAC addresses, especially when trying to
bridge products from different vendors.
You can find the WRE54G's MAC address on its bottom-side label above the bar code labeled MAC. Enable the Bridging feature on your target AP and consult the target AP's documentation for where (and in what format) to enter the WRE54G's MAC address. I suggest starting by using the Point-to-Point bridging feature or its equivalent, since it's the simplest and most likely to work.
Step 4: Find and connect to the WRE54G
The Expander's factory defaults set it to operate on Channel 6 with an SSID
that consists of "linksys" plus the last 6 characters of its MAC
address. Use your wireless client's utility or WinXP's Wireless Zero
Configuration utility and run a site survey.
Select and connect to the 'linksys' network
/ AP that has the additional 6 characters. Wait until your client
utility tells you that you have a connection before proceeding.
Step 5: Connect to the WRE54G
Open your web browser and point it at 192.168.1.240. You should be
rewarded with a login popup and be able to log in and access the Setup
screen shown in Figure 2.
Steps 6 - 9
Step 6: Configure the WRE54G
Make sure that the Channel is set to the same channel as the AP or
wireless router you want the Expander to connect to.
Tip: I recommend leaving the WRE54G's SSID set to its default or changing it to something other than your WLAN's SSID. The SSID isn't used by the WDS bridging function, and setting it to something different will allow you to force your wireless client to connect to the Expander instead of staying locked to your main AP, as most wireless clients prefer to do.
The only other setting you need to change is to enter the MAC address of the target AP / wireless router into the Access Point MAC address box. You'll need to get this information from the target AP's admin screens. It's also usually printed on a label somewhere on the outside of the product. Make sure you enter it using colons between each pair of characters, i.e. 00:0e:ef:fd:a2:3c. When you're done, save the settings.
Step 7: Test the connection
Go to your wireless client, rescan for wireless networks and connect the client
to your WLAN's main AP / wireless router, i.e. the "target AP". (See
how handy not having the same SSID for your Expander and main AP is?) Your
client should still be set to the IP address in the 192.168.1.X range.
Open a Command (or DOS) window and ping 192.168.1.240 and if the wireless bridge is up, you'll be rewarded with ping replies.
Step 8: Migrate the WRE54G to
your LAN's IP subnet
At this point, the WRE54G is successfully bridged to your LAN's main AP or
wireless router. If your LAN already uses the 192.168.1.X subnet, you should be
able to force the wireless client to connect back to the main AP, set your
wireless client back to being a DHCP client and successfully get an IP address
and proper Gateway and DNS information.
If your WLAN doesn't use the 192.168.1.X subnet, leave the wireless client set to the static IP you've used so far, force the wireless client to directly connect back to the WRE54G and change the WRE54G's IP address and Gateway to match your LAN's setup. After you've double-checked the entries, click the Save Settings link. Wait at least 10 seconds to make sure that the WRE54G successfully got the message, then force the wireless client to connect back to the main AP,set your wireless client back to being a DHCP client and successfully get an IP address and proper Gateway and DNS information.
In either case, once you've successfully leased IP address info, check that Internet and network connections work and ping the WRE54G's IP address to make sure that the wireless bridge is up.
Step 9: Configure the WRE54G as desired
Now that the bridge is up and the WRE54G is integrated into your WLAN, you
can log back into it and enable WEP or make other setting changes. If you're
enabling WEP, make sure you set up the WRE54G first, then make the the
corresponding changes on your wireless client.
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