This thread inspired me to take another whack at setting up a second router as an AP at the far end of the house.

Cabler modem > wire > DIR-655 > wire > DIR-825.

The 825 was nutered by disabling its dhcp, upnp, and setting a static ip. That last is what stumped me before. In this mode of operation the 825 cannot pull an ip via dhcp from the 655.

I noticed while digging around in the 655's configuration, there was a setting "Local Domain Name" setting.

The help says:

Local Domain Name
This entry is optional. Enter a domain name for the local network. The router's DHCP server will give this domain name to the computers on the wireless LAN. So, for example, if you enter mynetwork.net here, and you have a wireless laptop with a name of chris, that laptop will be known as chris.mynetwork.net. Note, however, if the AP's settings specify "DHCP (Dynamic)" Address, and the router's DHCP server assigns a domain name to the AP, that domain name will override any name you enter here.

Is there a benefit I'm forgoing by omitting this?