Netgear WGR614 incompatibility with Linksys Router BEFSR41

Here's a challenge for everyone out there.

Let me start with the background of my dilemma. I have two offices at
home, one upstairs (2nd floor guestroom) and one downstairs (basement).
I have the Netgear MR814 802.11b wireless router in my basement so
that I can cover the basement and first floor wireless-ly. I have 3
desktops in my 2nd floor office which are all hard-wired to my Linksys
router (BEFSR41). My initial set-up was that my Linksys router
(BEFSR41) is directly linked to my Cable Broadband modem, and my
Netgear wireless (MR814) router is linked up to the Linksys router.
This configuration worked.

I recently purchased a Netgear WGR614 802.11g wireless router for my
second floor, so that I can work in my bedroom adjacent to my office.

Here is where my problem arose. When I hooked up the WGR614 to the
Linksys router, it wouldn't function. I tried hooking it up to the LAN
port on the Linksys router (BEFSR41), and then I tried to connect it to
one of the available ports... none worked! It was only when I
connected the WGR614 directly to the modem did the LAN work. However,
the Linksys router did not work when I linked up to the Netgear WGR614
router. In addition, the Netgear indicated that the Linksys link was
at 10Mbps (because the indicator light was amber, and not green). The
Netgear MR814 connected fine with the Netgear WGR614 (not
surprisingly).

Are there compatibility issues with the Linksys BEFSR41 and the Netgear
(wireless) routers? Has anybody seen this problem, too? What is the
resolve?

I know that the easiest answer is to ditch the Linksys and just use the
two Netgear routers, since they work. I just don't want to part with a
perfectly functional router (Linksys). And for practical reasons, I
just don't want to reconfigure all the port-forwarding (for VPN) for
all of the desktops after I worked out all the kinks with the Linksys
router.

Any suggestions and/or comments would be greatly appreciated.

-Lon
--San Francisco, CA