Another vote for Gnome here too...

Don't give up on getting your money back will you

Trust me, I'm not making it up! The drivers for the NICs on the Dell Dimension 800s and 1000s we used in those days were NOT included with Windows 2000, as we were using at the time. XP maybe, but definitely not W2k. A clean install from the Windows disk would throw up a nice collection of yellow question marks in Device Manager that were all connected to the network card. As I said, it was really comforting to know that I could download the offending driver off their website, when I couldn't get the PC in question connected to the LAN to get onto the 'net! At least there were a dozen or so other PCs in the office that I could use to track down the driver. But if it had been a home PC (i.e. with no other computer available) it could have been a right PITA (although using the built-in 56k modem or a USB modem would obviously avoid the problem in that case!) Then again, we're talking five years ago now, so maybe Dell have learned their lesson...?

oh, i totally believe you but it's just that having stuff onboard isn't unusual an any way, neither is needing a floppy/cd to install the odd driver (especially 5 years ago) - the fact that it wasn't available in the box is pretty lame though :thumbdwn: although you should have only been in the no network situation once :P

although you should have only been in the no network situation once :P

I think I took a few more times than that to learn my lesson! But right enough, once the offending driver was on a floppy safely locked in my IT Cupboard of Doom, it made things a good deal easier!

I'm smug, me

I've send Dell the following email:

They say they'll respond to my query in 24 hours...

Nice one, keep us informed!

I'm smug, me

I've send Dell the following email:

They say they'll respond to my query in 24 hours...

I didn't need to send mine back. They just gave me the refund.

And I'm happy to report that Dell came up with the dosh

I will receive a refund of