Thanks for all the inputs fellow ppruners. Even the so called "tech support" couldn't help.
As it's an old 486 with only 450MB hard drive, I saved all the files they needed, reformatted the hard drive and re-installed windows and software previously on. It's now up and running with IE5 and OE, so they're surfing and emailing away like maniacs - bit drastic I know, but just think of all the orphan files and crap I managed to get rid of for them. Now how's my PIII doing ?