First of all, thanks to several debian-users who tried to help me yesterday with this problem. Sadder but wiser, I was reading mail with an unfamiliar reader, and I managed to delete most of the e-mails. So, my first question today is HOWTO find the debian-user archives.
I did read Sebastian's note re telnet before the mailserver crash. So, I tried that in another console -> no joy. However, on my office machine with a full install including KDE, Sebastian's method worked. Eg, after establishing dial-up connection, telnet to my ISP will run in a console. And, I can ping ISP. Would appreciate suggestions again about running a connection with the laptop. TIA, dave