[still_thinking]

Well, I seemed to have solved some of the problem.

I bought a new NIC, installed that, and it works, (kind of!)

I now have a problem, that I can only put down to something to do with the length of the cable.

The cable to my machine is to the switch is about 15 metres. If I hook my machine up to a cable that is shorter, say around 5 metres, it all works abcolutely fine.

I made another cable up today that is about 12 metres long, ran it along the floor (as I wasn't going to get under the floor!) and the same problem, put another machine on that cable, same problem again.

I think I am about to give up lol!