You should look at your sources.

Use 8.04 (or 7.10 if you've got a copy). The repos for 6.10 are
unavailable. Each distro is updated for 18 months [apart from the LTS
versions].

Cheaped out and got a copy from the library. I'll order
8.04 from Amazon pronto.

First of all you can get UBUNTU 8.04 free, not even postage but it does take a
little while.

The second thing is, hope you don't use dial-up Internet because 8.04 left out
the "Activate & Deactivate" function. After a number of people tried to help me
I had to go back to v6.06 which does have it.

In reference to the comment about the repos for 6.10 being unavailable - why ?
Why in the world would anyone want to force people to upgrade? Sounds like
something Microsoft would do! I'm running v6.06 and have installed some packages
so not all are gone.

6.06 lts desktop suport ended when 8.04 came out. 6.06 server suport continues
for two more years.Lts suport is 4 years for desktop and 6 years for server.
Thats th way I understand it anyway.

I may have no of years wrong, but it is my understanding 6.06 desktop is no
longer suported.

I'm not sure how you can deduce that support for desktop 6.06 has
ended. It is supported for THREE years - 6.06 takes us to june 2009.
Ubuntu say it is supported for three years but the new 8.04 LTS runs
alongside it for a year - at least that is what the documentation
says. hense why if you install 6.06 you'll find the updates still
work! [whereas in 6.10 they don't].