I don't say Linksys is better than Netgear or D-Link. They just build
routers which allow open source firmware to be installed and make you
independent of Linksys that way. I also had a non-open-source Linksys
VPN router which did not even support static DHCP. I gave it back
immediately. But the WRT54G/GS are my favorites at the moment.
Regarding the Netgear WG511v2: I use the older German software from the
CD because the 2.3.x has a faulty installer and won't install on my
German WinXP (It wants to set some properties for a group "Guests"
which does not exist on my windows and the install is being canceled).
So my driver version is 3.1.0.19. The config utility also shows it. The
config ultility version is 3.1.16.300. BTW, do you know if the Firmware
version becomes updated by the software?
Which driver version does your device manager show for the Netgear
driver? The bundled software version is not that important I think if
you know the versions of the single components.

Anguel