Configuring Airport Express

[david06]

I am in college and my roommate and I have a set of good speakers hooked up to an Airport Express that we can both use from our Macbooks. This airport express does not have any Internet connection ... our connections are very bandwidth-limited, so my roommate and I each use our own connection plugged into a seperate wall jack.

I have a WRT54GS router that I have hooked up to my Internet connection. I have been running my Internet through it to allow me to connect to different devices, but I have been connecting my laptop to the router with a ethernet cable. I would like to be able to use the Internet wirelessly, but still be able to use the speakers on the airport express. As it is set up now, if I have connected to my WRT54GS by airport, I cannot connect to the airport express to use the speakers.

Is there any way to connect the airport express to the WRT54GS? Anything connected to the WRT54GS should be able to use airtunes, but the Airport Express should not let anyone use the Internet connection that the WRT54GS is hooked up to. The WRT54GS is completely locked down now (no SSID transmitted, WEP2, MAC restrictions, etc.) The Airport Express is pretty open because it only has speakers on it.

Basically, I want to be able to connect to the WRT54GS by airport and use my Internet connection and the speakers on the Airport Express. I want my roommate to be able to connect to the Airport Express and just use the speakers (his Internet will be hooked up to his computer by ethernet.) Is this possible without sacrificing security?

 

[mad jew]

Oooh, tricky. You can connect the Express wirelessly to the Linksys through what Apple calls WDS (although technically this won't be WDS). This will basically mean that the AirPort simply jumps onto the same network as the Linksys. Connecting the network gives people access to the Linksys internet connections + the AirTunes. You can limit people from joining this network, however as far as I know it's an all-or-nothing situation. In other words, you can restrict people from using both the internet and the AirTunes, but you cannot make them mutually exclusive.

If your room mate is honest, they could connect to the wireless network as well as be hardwired to their own internet (two wireless connections would not be feasible). The Mac can then get the 'net from the ethernet port but still use AirTunes via the AirPort. Is this an option? Sorry, I know it's a bit crappy.