'From what I have been reading about the base station it should be possible to link it to an ethernet network while the Netgear has autosensing ports. Any views on this?', I have connected an (original) Apple Airport Base Station, and then replaced it with a wireless 'b' LinkSys router, to a wired Vonage VoIP LinkSys router - and a wireless based PowerBook accesses the internet, and other network based Macs (via 'file sharing'), as expected.
'... then me not being a network expert ....' ... '... but use the wireless connection of the Netgear for the rest since the old base stations seem to be not very secure to me as far as encryption goes.'; yet, the
dg834g_ref_manual.pdf shows the DG834G router to only incorporate WEP; whereas, the Airport Extreme, via
Designing_AirPort_Extreme_Networks_v3.4.pdf, allows one to incorporate WEP or WPA.
Additional links:
Netgear
DG834 web page.
Airport Extreme
Setup Guide [manual].
WEP vs WPA search results.