My Debian box is now connected - and surprise, surprise , there was nothing wrong with it.
The problem was with Freeserve (UK) - who don't seem to accomodate Linux at all. Couldn't ping, nslookup didn't work, mozilla didn't work. Only question is how Micro$oft crap works on it. Anyway I have connected to demon.co.uk no problem - thanks to Paul at Motorola for that tip - 10 pound/ month small price to pay. Everything works as expected. Maybe nice to keep a page to "name and shame" companies who discriminate against Linux users , whether intentionally or not. Thanks to everyone for your help.
