If it's had a recovery using the IBM software, the network card drivers are supposed to be under:
C:\drivers\win\ethernet\winxp

If under the Device Manager the ethernet driver is red x'd you could try re-installing and pointing the location of files to the above.

HTH

Thanks for that. It's not been restored, it's been formatted and a clean reinstall of XP. Unfortunately that's as far as he managed to get so far. He is awaiting the arrival of the driver CD linked to by AEP.

If everything else fails, it might be worth risking a tenner on this disk.

Everything else did fail. We took your advice and risked £9.99 +VAT+p&p on the CD. Everything is now working like it should.

I would like to express my sincere thanks to you, as does my friend. Thanks very much.

All's well that ends well. Well done for persevering

Glad that worked for you.