Linksys Wireless

Umm, configure the Linksys wireless router through its built in webpage?

You can't do this though. You have a wireless router. It pretty much is going to hand out private IPs on the wireless, and NAT everything into its WAN address. Being a fixed config box, this is all it does.

If you want your laptop to be on 172.17.18.x, you have the wrong hardware.

You need a wireless Access-Point, which is just a bridge, and its not a router. A bridge (or access-point) doesn't route (obviously), it doesn't do NAT, and it doesn't hand out IP addresses via DHCP. It will bridge the packets from the wireless onto the ethernet segment.

A wireless router OOTH, will get in the way, will force you to NAT, and won't do what you are asking.

Consumer grade stuff, like the Linksys are made for home users that don't have any other router, and they want the two functions together.

More enterprise stuff, like the Cisco AP1131AG, is a pure access-point that bridges the packets onto the wire, because enterprise people want to let their main routers take care of things like NAT/DHCP/filtering. But its a bit more expensive than the linksys router, which is aimed at the home market for somebody without any other routers on their network.

What model? You could connect one of the LAN ports to the switch, then it would be transparent at L3, which I think is what you're wanting to do. Some models of router can have third-party firmware installed, which give more flexible configuration options.