Well the church multipurpose room now has a computer with internet access. Although the room in question is about a hundred feet or more from my second floor office and is out of line of sight because it is on the far side of the sanctuary, i'm apparently getting good enough signal with just the stock WRT54G wireless router and the WET 54G wireless ethernet bridge.
There were a number of horror stories on the NewEgg comments about the WET54 so I studied the setup instructions carefully before I touched the first piece of hardware.
Finally, following the instructions to the letter, I connected the supplied ethernet cable between a spare connection on the WRT54 and the WET54. Connected the power cord to the WET54 and an outlet. Popped in the supplied CD and followed the bouncing ball (so-to-speak). The setup disc transferred all the settings of the WRT54 into the WET54 - showed a screen comparing the two setup listings - SSID, address etc. and asked if I wanted to change any of the settings - of course I clicked on no and the program promptly crashed to the desktop. Hmmmm - restarted the cd program and went through the prior steps again thinking I missed something - got to the screen comparing the settings of my current network and the settings installed to the WET54 - they were identical. Did I want to change anything - no - prompt crash to the desktop.
OK, I can take a hint, the third time around I clicked yes and the program promptly moved on to the next step. Every thing went smoothly up to the congratulations screen and the instructions to disconnect the WET 54 and take it to the device it was to be used on and install it. Did that the next day, Thursday, and got a big gotcha from the PC- cannot load the internet page connectivity poor or broken. Went through the ritual of internet options, and networks settings on the PC to no avail. Had just about decided I was too far away when the blinking of the "internet G" LED caught my attention with its regularity. This wasn't a random signal inspired blinking it was the rythmic blinking that says I'm not working correctly.
Disconnected the WET54, took it back across the street and went through the setup program again. After congratulations (and after also going through the entire on-line setup settings for the WRG54, doing ping and routing checks on both units), I did what I should have done earlier - I disconnected the LAN ethernet between my router and office pc and connected the WET54 ethernet cable - you guessed it - cannot load internet page - poor connectivity etc. As across the street, there was apparently good signal strength but something else was missing. Reconnected the ethernet between my computer and the router and internet snapped back in with a vengeance. Where's that phone number? Time to call Linksys.
The guy in India (?) walked me through all of the checks I had already run - pinging the router and pinging the bridge. Checking all the settings on both units. When we checked the WET54 everything was OK for the IP address and subnet address but there was a third address that was 0.0.0.0. He gave me the numbers to put in there (while online to the WET54 web setup page) and bang - the WET54 stopped blinking its internet g LED and gave me three solid green lights - power, network, and internet G. The guy said he would hold on-line while I went across the street and set up the WET54 again so I could let him know if it worked. It did, but by the time I got back to my phone the connection was lost. It is wireless so I tried to take it with me across the street while carryihg the WET54 and the cables etc. I think I probably hit the off button while trying to balance everything and unlock the side door of the church.
Bottom line? A critical connection address was not mentioned in the quick setup instructions. That address was missing and the software still congratulated me on my setup success. The thing wouldn't work without that second subnet address.
There were a number of horror stories on the NewEgg comments about the WET54 so I studied the setup instructions carefully before I touched the first piece of hardware.
Finally, following the instructions to the letter, I connected the supplied ethernet cable between a spare connection on the WRT54 and the WET54. Connected the power cord to the WET54 and an outlet. Popped in the supplied CD and followed the bouncing ball (so-to-speak). The setup disc transferred all the settings of the WRT54 into the WET54 - showed a screen comparing the two setup listings - SSID, address etc. and asked if I wanted to change any of the settings - of course I clicked on no and the program promptly crashed to the desktop. Hmmmm - restarted the cd program and went through the prior steps again thinking I missed something - got to the screen comparing the settings of my current network and the settings installed to the WET54 - they were identical. Did I want to change anything - no - prompt crash to the desktop.
OK, I can take a hint, the third time around I clicked yes and the program promptly moved on to the next step. Every thing went smoothly up to the congratulations screen and the instructions to disconnect the WET 54 and take it to the device it was to be used on and install it. Did that the next day, Thursday, and got a big gotcha from the PC- cannot load the internet page connectivity poor or broken. Went through the ritual of internet options, and networks settings on the PC to no avail. Had just about decided I was too far away when the blinking of the "internet G" LED caught my attention with its regularity. This wasn't a random signal inspired blinking it was the rythmic blinking that says I'm not working correctly.
Disconnected the WET54, took it back across the street and went through the setup program again. After congratulations (and after also going through the entire on-line setup settings for the WRG54, doing ping and routing checks on both units), I did what I should have done earlier - I disconnected the LAN ethernet between my router and office pc and connected the WET54 ethernet cable - you guessed it - cannot load internet page - poor connectivity etc. As across the street, there was apparently good signal strength but something else was missing. Reconnected the ethernet between my computer and the router and internet snapped back in with a vengeance. Where's that phone number? Time to call Linksys.
The guy in India (?) walked me through all of the checks I had already run - pinging the router and pinging the bridge. Checking all the settings on both units. When we checked the WET54 everything was OK for the IP address and subnet address but there was a third address that was 0.0.0.0. He gave me the numbers to put in there (while online to the WET54 web setup page) and bang - the WET54 stopped blinking its internet g LED and gave me three solid green lights - power, network, and internet G. The guy said he would hold on-line while I went across the street and set up the WET54 again so I could let him know if it worked. It did, but by the time I got back to my phone the connection was lost. It is wireless so I tried to take it with me across the street while carryihg the WET54 and the cables etc. I think I probably hit the off button while trying to balance everything and unlock the side door of the church.
Bottom line? A critical connection address was not mentioned in the quick setup instructions. That address was missing and the software still congratulated me on my setup success. The thing wouldn't work without that second subnet address.
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