Hi buddy,

Did you load the default settings in BIOS after update? If not go into BIOS and load the default settings. You can enter the BIOS if you press F2 key before Windows start and then press F9 key to load the default values. Then save & exit BIOS setup.

Can you access the Internet now?
Do you try to access the Internet with WLAN or LAN connection?

Also check the device manager if all devices are recognized properly.

You can create the Toshiba recovery disk everytime. Just start the preinstalled Toshiba recovery media creator and follow the screen instructions. You need just some blank DVDs to create the disks. The disks contain an image of factory settings that can be restored everytime and how often you want so with these disk you are on the safely side

In device manager under Network Adapters you will find the WLan and LAN card (Ethernet controllers)
Please update the drivers for both cards;
Wlan driver can be found here:
http://aps2.toshiba-tro.de/wlan/
LAN driver can be downloaded on Toshiba European driver page in your notebook series download section.

Note; If you use WLan to connect to internet you have to ensure that Wlan is enabled!!
Fn + F8 enables the Wlan… you should also read the user manual to get some basic information about your notebook because it looks like you are not familiar with that…

Thanks everyone
Seems I am a total non PC but have managed to follow all instructions you have kindly offered and to date -

The wlan is already switched on and Device manager says network adaptors are working properly
I downloaded driver updates but I remembered that I had done these updates just a short while ago and I was correct cos they were already up to date
I still cannot get past the fact that since the BIOS update everything just stopped working - even the Toshiba users manual wont open directly from desktop - some message about a launcher not working flashed on screen for a second In fact every Toshiba 'programme' such as Tempro, reeltime and Bulletin board wont open
None of Windows network diagnostics work - error messages appear and say that troubleshooting wizard can't continue so no way to find out what problem is
My last hope seems to try to restore to factory state from harddisk by pressing F8 but if there is already an error that stops me creating a rescue disk will I do any more damage?

I think I am going to have to find the box and throw myself on the mercy of John Lewis computer dept if that is not an option
(By the way I am using a 10 year old VGN PC which has never ever let me down to get try to get help for this fairly new and hardly used Toshiba Satellite)

Thanks for help
I eventually decided to restore to factory settings from hard drive and managed to do so fairly easily but still unable to create a rescue disk as I get same error message that prevented me doing so at beginning so I think I must contact Toshiba help desk to find out what and why the error message means No sooner got up and running but got infected by rogue antispyware but think I have sorted that by changing date to a week ahead