OK,
if anyone is interested I managed to Flash a sky locked netgear DG834GT tonight,
had a bit of faffing around trying to do it via XP that most sites say is the ONLY way of doing it, but that all relies on your router having a timeout pause at boot,
you can do it via Linux/Ubuntu by putting the router into upgrade mode [which makes sense as the router runs on Linux], you then have a load of time to synch your PC to the router to get them talking to each other.
BTW, Ive flashed a custom firmware to see if I can get it to work as a wifi extender/repeater without being hard wired,
will maybe try see how that goes on Sunday,
got a talktalk something to try now, and a Buffalo G54 cable one to try next,