I have a networked camera that I was connecting to my wireless network with a LinkSys WET11G, which worked great. Now I've upgraded my network to use WPA instead of 128-bit WEP (currently PSK-TKIP, but I intend to use RADIUS in the future), and rather than spend $119-$150 on a WET54G which has gotten mixed reviews, I thought I'd try out the $59 WRT54G with the third party firmware from SVEASOFT.
The results have been quite disappointing. Since I'm only using a single device with the bridge I'm not concerned about that limitation on the SVEASOFT firmware (I've tried both Satori 4.2 and Alchemy
6.0rc1), but I've found it to range from highly unreliable to completely unusable.Using WEP, it's highly unreliable. The camera appears and disappears intermittently from the network.
Using WPA (PSK-TKIP), it's completely unusable. The device associates to the network but never authenticates (so far as I can tell, it never even tries to authenticate).
The WAPs I'm connecting to are Apple AirPort Extremes in WDS mode, which work fine with a variety of wireless cards and connecting OS's.
Has anyone had any luck using the WRT54G in client mode (either as a router or a bridge) with WPA? I've thought about using it as another WDS station, but I really don't want other clients to be able to connect to it (especially since it has only one radio). Any suggestions? Should I go ahead and fork out the money for a WET54G or WET54GS (despite some bad reviews I've read)?