I DOUBT in all caps that DD-WRT will ever be made for the Apple AE or any Apple router. They can not even be accessed with the Airport Utility. Check the list on the DD-WRT site. I turned 2 Linksys Newer WRT54G's here into DD-WRT and they do everything and much better than the new WRT54G could ever do with it's stock firmware. Access Point, Bridge, Repeater and many other options. I found an WRT54G for $5 at a thrift store and flashed it. Excellent Wireless Bridge!!!
If you live in a place like I do where you can't run cable all over the place, the Wireless bridge is so cool and the price was right! I have found many of the WRT54G's at thrift stores here for $5-7 in perfect shape!
Jrmiller was mentioning flashing his WRT54G's firmware. Not sure if he meant new Linksys (Cisco) or DD-WRT firmware.
Aah...my head is exploding trying to get this stuff to work...and I knew this would happen. It always does (for me) when trying to do home networking with a combination of Apple & non-Apple hardware.
As far as the DD-WRT & Apple products. It seemed to me when I was reading various articles...that most "consumer-level" wireless routers do not support WDS...and the firmware flash with the DD-WRT basically enables lower cost/consumer level routers to act like a wireless bridge (if the router supports the DD-WRT firmware flash).
When it comes to Apple products...since they (at least the Airport Extreme Bas Station I have) support WDS...then they don't need to be firmware flashed with DD-WRT because the Apple Airport Extreme base station already has WDS built in...so it's already capable of acting as a wireless bridge.
I think where I'm stuck is...I have a Belkin wireless "n" router as my "main" router. According to the one article I linked above, the "main" router does not need to be flashed with the DD-WRT firmware...just the 2nd router used as the wireless bridge. I happen to be using an Airport Extreme Base Station as my "2nd router" the old "Flying Saucer" type...and since it already supports WDS...it does not need to be flashed (plus there is no DD-WRT firmware for it anyway).
So basically it seems that I cannot get the Airport base station properly configured to act as a wireless bridge.
Just to make things more complicated. I do have a 2nd option. Some time ago I purchased a Linksys WET54G Wireless-G Ethernet bridge which I can't get configured correctly either. The plan was to connect a Buffalo USB Print Server to the Linksys WET54G...and plug my USB laser printer into the Buffalo.
It would be pretty awesome if I could find a Linksys WRT54G in my local thrift stores for under $10 bucks...and flash it!
I'm pretty much about to give up on this project...wasting a whole Saturday on it is MUCH more of an investment of time than I wanted.
Maybe someone's head will explode reading this post!!!
- Nick
p.s. In case it isn't clear...my project is to get my older USB laser printer to print wirelessly on the 1st floor of my home. Currently the laser printer is in my basement connected to one of my desktop computers...so I have to go into my basement to print from my MacBook Pro (plug the USB laser printer into my MBP) to print...rather than wirelessly on the 1st floor.