I'm afraid I can't offer anything terribly constructive to this thread other than to say
to millenp and also to you Martin (just in case you haven't already had a welcome!).
@Martin:
There are a lot of NTL bods on here who know a darn sight more about this sort of thing than I could ever hope to, if one isn't along shortly with some good advice then just bump the thread tomorrow an hopefully somebody should be able to help you get this sorted.
Hope everything works out ok for you and your friend (I'm sure it will).
Raist.