The USR robotics 8054 crashed, but I got it working again with a 15 second push of the hard boot button. It configured ok for the LAN, plus a couple laptops with WEP encryption. Gave it a fair try, but, nope. It simply doesn't measure up to the Netgear 614v3.
The Netgear has a better thought out front end, clones network MAC address automatically so you can exclude other MAC address--great for wireless setups. In my neighborhood, I'm picking up as many as 5 wireless signals.
I also picked up a "g" USR wireless adaptor, which gives better reception than my Sony laptop's internal WiFi. That unit is pretty nice.
The USR router is going back to the store as a trade in on some other toy!
Sticking with Netgear--at least for now.