Oh hang on, there's one more just come down.
I'll try this and post back here with the result.
I bet it won't even download catalogues or install them. The machine is a duffer. But we won't totally give up until I've tried this suggestion of yours.
Thanks Benson.
Back soon.

Oh dear dear dear..... Take deep breath and mutter a few expletives!
I did all that. Fetched the file you asked for in the Directory Tree and didn't know where to put it.
So I chose to dump it in Documents.
Went there after closing browser and ran the Content Armel gz gizmo. It said no application to run it, so I asked Application Manager to Run it.
It fetched it in and supposedly ran it but then told me the File must be corrupt and couldn't install.
Well knock me down with a pidgeon feather!

I then did what you said and went to the Log and cleared it.
When I tried to refresh the Application Manager it refused.
There's still osso-xterm and tutorial home applet in the Application Manager but I have no idea what they're for so I dare not delete them.
Obviously when you asked me to clear the log and then post up the log, I won't need to post it up as it contains nothing, as I cleared it. It only has one line at the top hildon application manager 2.0.2

If this is what Linux is all about (though I suspect it's not) then I'm not yet convinced I want to be much of a fan of it. It does seem immune to windows viruses but on this device I can only think that it's not quite been perfected.

I won't go on, it'll seem like a rant. But again I find myself going to bed with a large chunk of disappointment. My efforts came to nothing.
Never mind. I think the Application manager repair is beyond the average user. It's certainly beyond me.
All the best
Plado.

Forgot one last thing you may find interesting
Not a solution but a good reason why it's time for me to throw this N800 back at the supplier.
I found this in the Maemo site FAQ - I've no reason to suppose it isn't good sense. It says this...
Application Manager
The Application Manager (also known as AM) is an end-user friendly graphical front-end to the standard Debian package management infrastructure. When using the Application Manager, the end-user does not have to use the apt-get tools.

Sections
By default, the Application Manager only shows to the user packages in certain sections. This has been done to hide the existence of the hundreds of system packages making up the IT OS itself. The AM is, at this point, not intended to let the user manage the whole system, only a smaller set of third-party applications.

The AM only shows packages in the "user" section. Thus, the "Section:" field in the control file should be of the form
UNQUOTE
What was I saying about it locking out the average user?
It's not user friendly at all when it goes wrong is it? It's too exclusive for me to want to interact with it. I just feel like clouting it round the ear!
hey ho.

P-

I think you'd find the average user is fine using App Mgr on a machine that works! People have taken you through reams of fairly advanced stuff that would normally be irrelevant. I've installed dozens of apps simply via clicking on Da Big Arrow in Firefox and then "open" and "ok". Using ebay is harder.

Oh - don't waste money on a solicitor (unless you have one on retainer). Trading Standards is free and scarier. Feel free to start phone conversations by telling the other guy you're recording them for legal purposes...

I will add that it looks like there are some really wonderful apps for photo editing on the N800 - you shouldn't be disappointed in the end.

Well, you weren't supposed to run it, just download it. If you were able to download it, and it turned out to be 10kB in file manager, then that worked. (What you're doing here is trying to manually download exactly the file that apt-get couldn't get, to see if the same problem exists.)

The plan was to clear it, then update packages, then look at the log to see the errors generated by the attempt to update. If it's still blank, then that means that it had no errors; strange indeed.
Understood. I assure you this is not what Linux is all about, and mostly such troubles are not had. It is certainly beyond the average user to get through this mess...
The point here is that everything on the system is made of packages; it doesn't make sense for a user-level tool to show you everything on the system, when 90% of them couldn't be removed anyway.
Any application made to be installed on the system should be in the user section, and thus visible in the App Mgr. The libraries required for some application (equivalent to shared DLLs in Windows) shouldn't be visible, because they will be brought in silently and automatically whenever you install an application requiring them.

About the time you get advanced enough to want to see those other packages, you're usually advanced enough that other limitations and difficulties are chafing at you, and you wind up using apt-get and friends directly.

The only reason anyone ever needs to go to "red-pill mode" (a way of getting around that restriction) is to deal with packages that were broken by the author.

As for user-friendly when it goes wrong, well, this is irrelevant to your current spot of trouble. Even if it did show all those, you'd still be unable to do anything.

Conclusion thus far:
It may well be a problem with the wireless hardware; to me it feels more like a problem with the network configuration somehow, but it seems improbable that that should have been messed up.
If you can return it for a new unit, that may well be the best course. I'm really at a loss, now that it's not even logging errors anymore.
And even if it is a software configuration trouble (which somehow evades reflashing -- that should give you a factory config), a new device will start out clean. Hopefully your next experience is less frustrating. :/

Talking of Image editing, I just played with MyPaint - I'm impressed!

Well folks again thanks for all your input. Latest news is that I phoned Expansys this morning and told them what I think was wrong with it.
They agreed with me that as it's inside the 10 days since receiving the item in the post I have a right to return it for replacement or refund. Obviously it looks better for me if I say I want a replacement as it shows I'm not just throwing it back at them because I don't like it, if you get my meaning?

So they issued me with an email containing a returns form with a .doc attached which I duly filled in with all the serial numbers and in the next 24 hours they should issue me with a returns code to post it back to them and get another one.

I'll post back here what the outcome is.
I'm very interested to see if it all goes wrong again when I next try to set up SKYPE. I want to do a slightly more detailed response to Benson's reply about my procedure which I will do after I've had a meal.
As I want to take issue with one or two things that need putting straight for the record.
Back later.

OK now I want to examine this long and comprehesnive reply from you, taking issue is perhaps the wrong word because I know you're talking a lot of sense and I'm not in a position to contradict you on these topics. But I do want to add a little bit of self-defense which I know you understand me on.
>[QUOTE=Benson;167129]Well, you weren't >supposed to run it, just download it. If you were >able to download it, and it turned out to be 10kB >in file manager, then that worked. (What you're >doing here is trying to manually download exactly >the file that apt-get couldn't get, to see if the >same problem exists.) UNQUOTE
Sorry the chevrons don't work in replies properly

For the record here, I hadn't a clue what else I was supposed to do when I had downloaded something and then been asked by the device to run it. The only instructions I'd been given by people here so far seemed to suggest I should not to SAVE but RUN the applications from the server after I clicked the big green arrow. This was where they were being fetched from but not my idea of how you fetch new software. It made no difference I should add here, whether I Saved, Downloaded, or ran them the outcome was always the same.

So I began Running them in their home location instead of fetching them. They all wanted to be put in on the Nokia in the root drive and then I had to go to find them, and then what? Just staring at them didn't seem to do anything so I assumed they need running. Application manager always opened once I tried to do anything with them. So the end result was the same, a progress bar stuck on 1kB and then after a long wait it tried to add it to the Application Manager and failed to refresh the list out of not having the Repository or the Catalague or whatever else the system thing wanted and couldn't find.

You see for the last 15 years I've been used to fetching software by downloading the installation files and then running them locally. I keep the installer application in case I ever need it again. This is how they get installed on my computer. If the system in the Nokia requires that things are done radically differently from this then I'm sorry but it's not my remit (having bought it) to learn how to program it to do peculiar processes that are not listed in any of the Help files or Manuals on how to do them.

It should be as you have rightly pointed out, an automatic system that fetches itself when I ask for it and then it should appear. When it isn't going to play ball like that I start to lose the will to live with it. Life's too short to sort this stuff.

And as someone else said on here, maybe I should have got myself an iPhone but I don't need a phone I want a mobile internet and email with the facility now and then to use a Skype phone on it.

>The plan was to clear it, then update packages, >then look at the log to see the errors generated by >the attempt to update. If it's still blank, then that

Oops here we go again sorry to carp on about this.
That's exactly what I did. But the packages wouldn't complete the job and update or even appear in the Appl Manager. It doesn't want to Refresh its own list. So where does that leave me? Stymied. What confuses me is that when you click on DOWNLOADABLE APPLICATIONS it says nothing to download. Why?

So having cleared the log, you wanted me to paste what happened after update. Well sorry but if the device won't update itself due to corrupt files in the system I'm not going to have anything to show you in the log, because I just emptied it, and without a refreshed list the log only appeared to have nothing in it. It had one item and that wasn't very informative and I posted it here.

And I only had two items visible in the A.M. and it refused every atttempt to install any more.
1. osso-xterm X terminal emulator (which I presume is the thing I used to enter commands to ping)
2.tutorial-home-applet.
That's all it had and still has.

We could go on like this all night. But if the replacement Nokia won't connect to Free Wi Fi spots in town, and will connect to my home Wifi and if it also loses it's bluetooth settings the day after I put them in despite a full "pairing" which really did get up my nose, then the item goes back for a refund and it will be off my list of reliable products. They will be categorised by me as "not of merchantable quality".

Sorry for such a long post.
I'll just add on the end here if you've had the patience to read this far! Today my broadband ADSL ISP shut me down a day before the date they said they would. I was simply switched over at my choice to a new provider and the migration process went ahead with less than two minutes outage. I just re configured the Router Modem with the new user name and password and it connected and is still connected now. Very nice speed of connection and well worth paying a bit more per month to get out of the trap that was my previous ISP.

They got too big for their servers to cope shortly after they took over a system that was already at capacity. These jerks who think they can improve and fix something that was not yet broke really make me laugh. Especially when they don't understand the technicalities of what they're playing with. They'll fall over like their servers keep doing. I think it was sabbotaged by the outgoing staff to be honest, who lost their jobs in the takeover.

Regards to all

Let's hope I can come back with some better news when the new N800 replacement arrives.
If you have any tips of what not to do when I get it, or how to make sure it doesn't get confused I'll be glad to read them here while I await the postage system.

Plado

I'm pleased to report that Expansys have agreed to replace my N800 with a new one.
It does seem that they agree it is faulty. I left them the log list on the hard drive so they could see for themselves the failed entries for software downloads.

It will remain to be seen if the new one performs better than the previous one. I'll flash upgrade to 2008 software if need be and then see if I need to do any Firmware upgrade.

Don't be surprised if I'm back here asking more questions about how to make it work properly?

An alternate way of editing pictures is to use a good, online, (and free) website that offers this function. I read about www.picnik.com in PC WORLD magazine recently. I have not used it myself, but their website looks promising. Obviously the use of an online service may compromise personal and confidential images, since you're uploading your images to that site. If you try it, please share your experience with us.