[deflon]

I'm giving it a go right now, and yes the rootfs that you last linked me is the most current working one out of all that is available. I'm just as baffled as you are that with PPP patched in to the rebooting rootfs, I should be expecting the adverse effect instead of the actual effect. Anyway I'll report back as soon as I've completed the instructions in your post and once again, many thanks.