Hello again
Yaaaay!!
Well! The firmware update did the trick. The printer is connecting (or at least it did the first time I tried it - I'll have to wait and see if this continues) and the upload speed is holding up well. In addition, a couple of other niggling connection issues involving a netbook and my desktop seem to have cleared up.
Thanks again to Joanne and all those who took the trouble to respond.
Cheers
Tom