Well guys,
have deleted all the LAN connections and let windows re-install. Have the internet connected and the wizard lets me select my freeserve dial up from three options - one the ethernet card, one the 1394 net adaptor and finally the Realtek ethernet NIC. I choose the dial up and the wizard tells me it needs to create a bridge to deal with the fact that there are more than one "connection" on this computer. The next stages are fine up until I select next after choosing the workgroup name and then when the wizard is doing it's "wiz" I get this damned spooler subsystem application error every time. Then I get the option to create disc etc as the final offering say No thanks and restart the PC.
Now - all the options for TCP/IP settings are with the bridge now - the other two (Realtek and 1394 adaptor just have configuration options.
So, I set the TCP/IP on the bridge and try the pinging and all ok except the ones as mentioned before (pinging itself by name or IP). Get error 65.
All other problems vis a vis seeing eachother on the workgroup remain.....
Ugh???
Can I get rid of this darned spooler subsystem error somehow - platform re-install maybe?