just alittle note to grandpa, the installer has changed. the first pre-installer doesnt require java. its just a little stub installer that downloads the real installer from the network then runs it. the second post-installer is what actually does all the work. untill someone gets to that stage of installation, all of your previous helpfull guides are rather useless.

although i would have thought the same if i didnt know that either.

but good work on trying to help. atleast you have the patience unlike me

the only help that i would have been able to give with this problem is to disable all firewall software including but not limited to winXP SP2 firewall.

that may have been the problem here. but the installer is pretty new so it may have some unnoticed bugs still awaiting to be found. but sofar i have had complete success with it. great download speed too. maybe a sticky should be posted about this problem with a link to the offline installer?