Unfortunately I am no further forward, I do however thank all for their efforts and time in trying to help. I was hoping to get it working by Fri as I use it on hols but will just borrow a small laptop for that.
I think my best plan is to leave alone until I find someone local who can have a `hands on` look as I am sure it is a simple fix (for some)
My apptitude is for mechanical things and rarely do I fail to fix them, when it goes electronic it mystifies me as I cant work out any logic to the problem.
More the other way around - it allows the client of the network to ascertain that the network is in fact the genuine thing. Otherwise, a black hat could stick up a "phishing" wifi network with the same name as the company one, and wait for devices to connect and try and authenticate. Either for a MITM attack or just attempting to steal credentials.
Certificates are (sometimes) used in conjunction with with wifi networks using 802.1x "Enterprise" style authentication rather than the more typical AES / TKIP used on WPA and WPA2 networks. This type of authentication is used when you want multiple users to be able to join a network but each with their own unique set of credentials (typically username and password, but could be other things) rather than a shared wifi passphrase. Handy for not having to change the office wifi password every time a staff member leaves.
Basically massive overkill for most home networks. By default windows will assume a simpler authentication scheme needing just a passphrase. Hence why "forgetting" any stored info about a wireless connection can help - it gets rid of any more advanced setup options that may have been inadvertently selected.
If you have got certificates enabled, then there is usually a tick box you can find to turn off the attempt to validate a certificate. You could try the following steps:
To disable IEEE 802.1x authentication:
Click Start, then select Run.
In the Run dialog box type ncpa.cpl and then click OK.
Right-click the Wireless network connections icon, and then select Properties.
Click the Wireless network tab.
Click the Properties button beside Remove.
Click the Authentication tab, and clear the Enable IEEE 802.1x authentication for this network check box.
If DHCP is not working then there are a number of possibilities. Its possible if attempting certificate validation it won't get as far as being able to even start DHCP, and sometimes that option can be enabled at the wifi adaptor level rather than in the wifi configuration itself. (I have posted a guide on disabling that elsewhere)
Its also possible that the TCP/IP stack needs a complete reset. That is worth trying since it won't hurt, and can fix a number of issues. To do that from a command prompt issue the commands:
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