kair: AirPort Express and D-Link routers

How to make the Airport Express work with Windows XP and an existing D-Link router

Aim and scope
The Airport Express is perfect for Apple networking, but is also compatible with Windows XP and third-party wireless routers. However, many users that have: D-Link, Linksys, or other types of non-Apple routers find the Airport Express is not plug-and-play. One of the issues that can cause difficulties is related to differences between the default DHCP address range used by the Express and those used by third-party routers. Thus, this tip details a method to overcome this difficulty, using a D-Link router as an example, and is based on the excellent advice given by the Apple Discussion User: aaron m..

By default the Airport Express is set to only use IP's in the 10.0.1.2-10.0.1.200 range. If your DHCP Server in your wireless router is not set up to hand out IP's in the 10.0.1.x range, then the Airport Express will never pull an IP from the DHCP Server in your wireless router, and, unfortunately, by default most DHCP Servers in wireless routers are not set up to hand out IP's in the 10.0.1.x range.

Method
1. You will need to find out the general range of IP's that the DHCP Server in your wireless router uses. It's either: 10.0.x.x (This is the default for your Airport express, but not the default for most wireless routers), 172.16.x.x, or 192.168.x.x (This is the most common setting in wireless routers., and is used in our Tip example, the D-Link DL-514)
2. Plug in your Airport Express to an electrical outlet and hard reset it with a paper clip in the reset button for 10 seconds. Plug a wired Ethernet cable into the Airport Express and into your router.
3. Launch the Admin Utility (C:\Program Files\AirPort\admin.exe). Make sure you disabled your software firewalls first (Black Ice, zone alarm, Windows Firewall). Also make certain you have run the latest Airport Express updates.
4. Click the configure button
5. On the AirPort Tab select 'Create a Wireless Network' in the 'Use base station to:' box (trust me on this setting, we will change it back to 'Join an existing Wireless Network' in a few steps.)
6. On the network tab select the 'Distribute IP addresses' check box. Select the 'Share a single IP address (using DHCP & NAT)' radio button.
7. Select from the drop down list the range of IP's that your DHCP Server in your wireless router hands out (192.168.x.x is the most common)
8. On the Airport Tab change the 'Use base station to:' box back to 'Join an existing Wireless Network'.
9. You will also need to type your SSID back into the 'Network Name' box. The 'Network Name' gets deleted when you toggle the 'Use base station to' drop down box.
10. If you go back to the 'Network' Tab, you will notice that everything is greyed out, but your new IP Range settings are still set! Unplug the Ethernet connection and you are ready to go.
11. Click update, wait 60 seconds and launch iTunes. You will see your Airport Express in a box in the lower right hand corner of the bottom status bar. If 'My computer' is shown in the status bar, click on 'My computer' and select your Airport Express instead.

Notes
After you have clicked the 'update' button. When you go back into the Admin Utility, the Network Tab will show the wrong IP range that's being used. It will show the 10.x.x.x Range. The Airport Express will still have the correct settings set inside of it, the Admin Utility just won't show the correct settings. Lastly this is only pertinent if you followed the steps above correctly.
Everytime that you select the 'Create a Wireless Network' option in the 'Use base station to:' box it will reset the default IP Range of the wireless network card in the Airport Express back to 10.x.x.x and you will have to follow these steps again from the beginning.

For Steps 10. and 11., you should click the update button before you unplug the etherenet cable, and wait 60 seconds, or so, for the Express to boot up.