How to assign a static IP with a linksys WRT54G2?

For all my googleing it appears the best you can do is tell your computer not to use DHCP; I cannot find a way to do this at the Access Point level.

EDIT: This is not for port forwarding. This is for an internal mythTV server. Right now the DHCP server on the AP is set to assign IP's from 192.168.1.100 - 192.168.1.149. When I set a static IP outside that range on the computer that computer is unable to connect to the Internet.

I've done this before on my old Buffalo brand AP (may it RIP) without any problems. This seems to be a WRT54G2 specific issue.


From what I have found, it doesn't look like the WRT54G2 supports setting static IPs through the DHCP server. Depending on the version of the WRT54G2 you could load a 3rd party firmware such as DD-WRT onto the router to add these features. Here is a tutorial from someone who did it on a WRT54G2.


I agree with @Spooky. I'm assuming that you want to set static IP's for port-forwarding. You can set certain computers using the MAC Address (directly connected to the AP is best-case and easiest).

Or by setting the IP(s) Manually on the computer(s) outside of the normal DHCP Range (ie: DHCP set from 192.168.xxx.100 to 192.168.xxx.250, manually set the IP(s) from 192.168.xxx.50 to 192.168.xxx.99).

EDIT: Even if you set the IP manually, you will still need the subnet mask, gateway, and DNS IP's to connect to the Internet and the rest of your network. Check those settings to see if there is an issue.


I may be completely wide of the mark here, but when you say

When I set a static IP outside that range on the computer that computer is unable to connect to the Internet.

Are you also setting said computer to use a specific DNS server and gateway? It may be worth checking the DNS server and gateway assigned via DHCP and checking it's the same as what you're manually setting.


I dont have this model but a lot of routers let you assign a Static IP by MAC address. If this does not work, you have to set it in your PC.


Here's what it took to make this work:

  1. Set the static IP either in the GUI or in the text file
  2. Set the netmask to 255.255.255.0 OR 255.255.240.0 (the later works on the computer hooked into an Ethernet -> wireless bridge, the former is Ethernet straight to the Access Point).
  3. Set the DNS servers to what is listed when you http into the router.
  4. Set the Gateway to 192.168.1.1 (the access point) NOTE: This was changed to 0.0.0.192 on the Ethernet -> Access Point machine
  5. Pray

I'm no network genius, but this is not my first time doing this. Some of this makes zero sense to me (gateway address changed by OS (?) to 0.0.0.192 on a wired connection going straight to the router? subnet mask of 255.255.240.0?).

If anybody cares to comment I will continue to edit this into a decent answer.