WRE54G without (too many) tears
Well, it’s not often I get to disprove a statement made at Tom’s Hardware, so allow me to refer you to page 2 of the Linksys WRE54G review, where they say:
One other “feature” is that the Expander does not have an Ethernet port. This means that it can’t be used as a wireless bridge to a wired LAN and you must set it up from a wireless client.
Well, I just did it… and I can say without reservation that the proceeding statement about needing a wireless client to set it up is not at all true.
As a result of moving to a new house (which, as you may recall, Desiree and I did in October) our wireless network had to cover a lot more territory through a lot more interference. The repeater seemed like a sensible way to improve coverage, so we purchased a Linksys WRE54G to add some more ‘oompf’ to our Linksys WRT54G’s range.
Our home network topology is tailored to our needs; our primary gaming computers are wired directly into to the LAN, as are our 3 infrastructure servers (a topic for another time). This allows us to eliminate the latency inherent in wireless networks and go beyond the 54mbit/sec bandwidth limit of over-the-air 802.11G. [Believe me, when you’re poking your head around a corner in a tense LAN game of Raven Shield you’ll want the lower ping time, and if you’re streaming movies to multiple clients off of a fileserver, you’ll be happy for the bandwidth.] The upshot of this is that our only wireless clients are our Xbox, our Tivo, and Desiree’s Apple G4 Powerbook. None of those are going to be able to run the windows-only setup disk, so what are we to do?
How to configure a WRE54G with a wired client
(Note: this explanation will assume you know how to make IP address and subnet mask configuration changes to both your AP/router and your wired client. If you don’t, then ask a friend who does for help, or seek to learn more.)
- Log in to your wireless access point/router from your wired client.
- Disable WEP on your AP/router. If this scares you, then remember it’s only temporary. If you don’t have WEP configured on your WLAN, then do the world a favor and either start using it or unplug your WLAN from the Internet.
- Change your AP/router’s subnet to the Linksys default - 192.168.1.0/24 - and give it an IP address in that range (if you’re not already configured to use it), then save your changes. Make note of your router’s settings before you change anything.
- If you had to change your subnet to 192.168.1.0/24, then you will also have to change the IP configuration of your wired client. If you are configured to use DHCP, request a new IP address. If you are using a static address, then give yourself an address in the 192.168.1.0/24 range that isn’t the address of your router or 192.168.1.240. Make note of your client’s settings before you change anything.
- At this point, both your wired client and your AP/router should be on the 192.168.1.0/24 subnet. Verify this by logging in to your AP/router’s administrative interface from your wired client.
- Plug the repeater in at the location where it will reside.
- Press the “auto-configuration” button on the repeater and hold it down until the link light starts blinking.
- Wait 60 seconds, then go back to your wired client and point a web browser at the repeater’s default address, 192.168.1.240. (Log in using no user name and the password “admin”.)
- If you weren’t using the Linksys default subnet before, change the repeater’s IP address to something on your preferred subnet and the default gateway to the default gateway on the preferred subnet. You will be temporarily unable to connect to the repeater from your browser after you do this.
- If you changed your AP/router’s IP subnet in step 3, then change it back to its original settings.
- If you changed your wired client’s IP address information in step 4, then change it back to its original settings also.
- Now your AP/router, wired client, and repeater should all be in the same subnet. Verify this by logging in to the repeater at the IP address you assigned to it in step 9.
- From the repeater configuration screen, enter the security settings and use the same password and encryption type you plan to use on your AP/router. (If you were using WEP before, then use the same password unless you feel like reconfiguring all of your wireless clients.) Don’t forget to generate the keys and save the config. You will be temporarily unable to connect to the repeater from your browser after you do this.
- Log in to your AP/router and configure it with the same encryption type and password. The keys you generate should match the keys generated on the repeater.
- Verify connectivity from AP/router to repeater by logging in from the wired client, through the AP/router, and to the repeater. While you’re there, change the default password for goodness’ sake.
At this point, everything should be working fine - your repeater should be amplifying your wireless network’s signal. However, WEP is still disabled, so you’ll want to turn it on, starting with the repeater first.
It worked for me, so hopefully it will work for others in this somewhat unusual situation.
March 1st, 2005 at 11:15 pm
Do you still like your WRE54G after a few months?
I’m looking at a big house (but with high ceilings and large wide-open stairs). I think I’ll possibly need three radios to get complete coverage. Based on your experience should I really try hard to get the wired AP in the middle? (this isn’t a high perf situation). And does the Linksys box actually work?
March 2nd, 2005 at 1:02 pm
My setup is actually a little different - I have a WRT54G wireless router/access point in the south side of my basement, the WRE54G in the center of my ground floor, and then a wireless/ethernet bridge (WET54G) in the north end of my 2nd floor. (Think of it as a diagonal line from one top corner to the opposite bottom corner if you were looking at the house from the front.) I’ve had no problem getting coverage anywhere in the house this way.
To answer your other question, the Linksys box does really work - there are areas in my home where I have the option of connecting to the WRT54G or the WRE54G and the difference in signal stregth is pretty significant when I am closer to the WRE54G than I am to the WRT54G.
July 12th, 2005 at 9:11 am
You should check your facts before badmouthing tom. The 1st version of the WRE54G does NOT have and ethernet port. Given that tom wrote up his article when the device originally came out he was not, as you claim, wrong. Given that they are still selling v1’s, you are likely misleading people into assuming the device they buy will have an ethernet port.
July 31st, 2005 at 2:37 pm
Re: Check your facts. I think if you read more closely the above, the reference is to setting up the unit without using a wireless client. I also was successful in doing this (no, there is no ethernet port but the unit appears on the network via the wireless router).
October 13th, 2005 at 12:30 pm
My store’s experience with the WRE54Gs amount to that of a worthless product. I have been unable to connect two of them straight out of the box with two WRT54G products straight out of the box, even with the above advice, CD or the EZ button. We will be returning all of them. I will try to procur the update version with Ethernet ports, but the version 1 is without merit.
December 5th, 2005 at 9:27 pm
In response to Devin: You evaulation is both hasty and correct at the same time. If you purchased Ver 1 WRE54G’s than yes, they probably will not work quickly and easily out of the box. But after a couple quick firmware upgrades, I think you would be quite happy with the performace.
April 8th, 2006 at 11:17 pm
After weeks of fooling around with my WRE54G, finally I got it working today, including 128 bit WEP encryption.. Here is how I did it -
1. On a XP Home laptop that had both wireless networking and a NIC card, I booted the laptop and allowed it to log into the wireless network via the wireless card.
2. Using Network Connections, TCP/IP for the NIC card, select “Use the following IP address”. Use 192.168.1.240 for the IP Mask, and 255.255.255.0 for the Subnet Mask. Connect the WRE54G to the laptop via ethernet cable (the version of WRE I have has the ethernet port.). The lights on the laptop NIC card, and on the WRE should begin to flicker. If not, something is wrong in the above setup.
3. Opening my browser, I tyoed 192.168.1.240 into the URL. The WRE54G was found. I used admin for a password, and was into the web based setup utility for the WRE.
4. First, I set the WEP encryption, which is found lower down on the first Setup page. Once input, the WRE will reboot. Once it had rebooted, I was still able to log in as the NIC card did not have any encryption setup.
5. I changed the IP from the default (my wireless router is set to 192.168.200.100) 192,168.1.240.
6. I renamed the SSID to what I use for the wireless router and wireless network SSID.
7. Press “Apply changes”. The WRE will reboot again.
Disconnect the ethernet cable. Through TCP/IP for the NIC card, select “Obtain an IP automatically.”. You may need to reboot the laptop.
Once all the above is done, both lights on the WRE should be blue.
If anything fails, use a pin to depress the reset button for 10 seconds or so. The WRE should reboot, and all settings you have netered to that point will be lost. You will need to restart from the beginning all over again.
April 8th, 2006 at 11:18 pm
After weeks of fooling around with my WRE54G, finally I got it working today, including 128 bit WEP encryption.. Here is how I did it -
1. On a XP Home laptop that had both wireless networking and a NIC card, I booted the laptop and allowed it to log into the wireless network via the wireless card.
2. Using Network Connections, TCP/IP for the NIC card, select “Use the following IP address”. Use 192.168.1.240 for the IP Mask, and 255.255.255.0 for the Subnet Mask. Connect the WRE54G to the laptop via ethernet cable (the version of WRE I have has the ethernet port.). The lights on the laptop NIC card, and on the WRE should begin to flicker. If not, something is wrong in the above setup.
3. Opening my browser, I tyoed 192.168.1.240 into the URL. The WRE54G was found. I used admin for a password, and was into the web based setup utility for the WRE.
4. First, I set the WEP encryption, which is found lower down on the first Setup page. Once input, the WRE will reboot. Once it had rebooted, I was still able to log in as the NIC card did not have any encryption setup.
5. I changed the IP from the default (my wireless router is set to 192.168.200.100) 192,168.1.240.
6. I renamed the SSID to what I use for the wireless router and wireless network SSID.
7. Press “Apply changes”. The WRE will reboot again.
Disconnect the ethernet cable. Through TCP/IP for the NIC card, select “Obtain an IP automatically.”. You may need to reboot the laptop.
Once all the above is done, both lights on the WRE should be blue.
If anything fails, use a pin to depress the reset button for 10 seconds or so. The WRE should reboot, and all settings you have netered to that point will be lost. You will need to restart from the beginning all over again.
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November 7th, 2006 at 5:10 pm
One thing to keep in mind when configuring manually; you must configure with the name of the WRT or WAP (case sensitive), ssid, channel, and security settings. After saving the configuration you should see two blue lights and not amber over blue.
November 20th, 2006 at 4:07 pm
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