The setup:

Main router. Arris WTM652 (I.P. 192.168.2.1)

Bridge: Linksys WRT54-G (V8.0) (I.P. 192.168.2.2) flashed with v24 micro generic

Everything works fine as long as security is disabled for both devices.

I set them both with WPA-PSK and TKIP, same SSID name and password, and the Linksys is not speaking to the Arris, and neither is my laptop speaking to the Linksys when connected VIA cat5.

If I do a "HARD" 30 second reset on the Linksys, it reverts to default I.P. 192.168.1.1 and Xp communicates just fine.

I'm using XP and IE.

I'm obviously doing something wrong here and all help is appreciated.

THANKS...


Sorry, I am of little help. Best I can do is recommend the reading of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linksys_WRT54G_series
The article has many references to other sources of information.

Here is a You Tube video about using a wireless bridge.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWVPZSQqUZgMany thanks Geek-9pm. That wiki is the one I used in setting up. Guess I'll have to go over it again because I must have missed something and also take a look at the video; maybe the solution is there.

What I've done up to now is leave security disabled (yikes!) but as a stop-gap my SSID is not broadcast. Not much, but better than nothing and the bridge is WORKING like a charm.

Thanks again...If you do get it to work the way you want, please COME back and let others know there sis a way. I have given up trying to do it. I have some routers that can do it, but I have not had the time to get it to work. As far as I can tell, only a few special routers can do it right. You haven to have a pair of routers that work together swell.SOLVED!

The solution came about from reading this: http://www.andyfrank.com/blog/2012/03/wrt54g-wireless-bridge/

The juicy part is: "Using WPA2 Security
If your primary router is setup to use WPA2, and things didn’t work, you have a few options:

Drop to WEP security
Drop to WPA security
Enable WPA2 TKIP + AES support on primary router, WPA on secondary

So configure your primary router to use WPA2 TKIP + AES, then set the DD-WRT to use normal WPA security".

My setup is:

Primary router Arris Modem SSID Disabled
Security:
Mode: WPA/WPA2-PERSONAL (PSK)
Authentication: WPA-PSK
Encryption Technique: AES

Secondary router: Linksys WRT54-G SSID Disabled
Security:
Mode: WPA Personal
Authentication: TKIP+AES

Both modems using exactly the same network name and password.

Works just fine and security is enabled.

You might have to use trial/error (I was lucky, got it on the first try).

As usual, good note-taking is encouraged as you try options.

Many thanks to Geek-9pm for the inspiration...Thanks for sharing.