Connecting Mobile Phones to Airport Express takes down my internet

[blue lines]

The internet connection in my home remains stable until I join either one of my cell phones to my Airport Express. It shows that my Android phone and my wife's iPhone are connected to the Airport, but they immediately kill the internet connection to all my internet connected devices until I reboot my Linksys BEFSR41 router.

Here is how I have my home network setup. I have a Comcast cable modem connected to the WAN port on a Linksys BEFSR41 four port router. I have an XP PC and an Airport Express connected to the LAN ports on the router. The Linksys router is setup with DHCP enabled. The router IP is 192.168.1.1 with a lease range of 100-150. The Airport Express is setup in bridge mode with a static IP of 192.168.1.2. Right now, my MBP (192.168.1.102), my wife's MB (192.168.1.103), and my PC (192.168.1.101) are all browsing the web. As soon as I join the iPhone 4 or Android phone to my wifi, it kills the internet connection to every device. The IP address leased to the iPhone is 192.168.1.104 and the Android 192.168.1.105. When the internet is down, I can still ping all of the addresses on my network, but can't ping outside my network.

Does this sound like a DNS issue? If so, what is causing it and how do I fix it? If it's not DNS related, what am I doing wrong?

BTW...I attempted to set my Airport Express up in DHCP mode and it was leased an IP adress from my Linksys router of 192.168.1.100, but then immediately disconnected from the network. I couldn't ping it any longer. I tried rebooting my router and the Airport Express and nothing brought it back on the network. I ended up having to do a hard reset on the device.

Thanks in advance.

 

[blueroom]

Set the Airport Express up as a router and remove the ancient WRT54G and see if the problem goes away.

 

[blue lines]

Set the Airport Express up as a router and remove the ancient WRT54G and see if the problem goes away.

I know it's old hardware, but it's been working fine for me up until now. If I need to change it out, I will. However, I can't go your route without putting in a wireless card on my PC, which I don't want to do.

 

[waw74]

i use exactly this setup and have no problems,
I have G from the linksys, and 5GHz N from the express, and my devices setup to connect to the appropriate network.

why aren't you using the wireless from the linksys?

also look at dd-wrt, it's an alternate linux based firmware that runs on the linksys.

also have you tried powering down all the network gear (linksys, modem, and airport) letting it say off for 30sec or so, then powering it back up? just incase something has gotten a bit off

 

[blue lines]

i use exactly this setup and have no problems,
I have G from the linksys, and 5GHz N from the express, and my devices setup to connect to the appropriate network.

why aren't you using the wireless from the linksys?

also look at dd-wrt, it's an alternate linux based firmware that runs on the linksys.

also have you tried powering down all the network gear (linksys, modem, and airport) letting it say off for 30sec or so, then powering it back up? just incase something has gotten a bit off

My bad, waw74. It's not a WRT54G. It's a BEFSR41. Basically, the WRT54G without the wireless capabilities.I'll edit my original post.

I tried powering everything off and back on with the same results.

Thanks for the input though.

 

[blueroom]

On such an old router I'd certainly try dd-wrt if it's available for it.