Laptop: Installing Pre-Reqs... only not so much...

[C-Dog]

Have an older laptop I wanted to load the game on, but it's freezing immediately after uploading game.

When the loader launches, first action is "Installing Pre-Reqs"... but it stops there. No load bar, no net or harddrive activity, not a twitch.

Laptop exceeds the min system reqs, I turned security down to "practically none at all" in case it was something there (I'll turn it back later, thx), no proxy, Firewall turned off (for now), connecting via cable directly ISP (bypassing router), XP sp3, pretty vanilla, can open Firefox and connect to web np - any guesses?

(Also, at that stage can open but not interact with Options dropdown to General/Repair/Proxy. Can't click on Community, Account or Support, altho' they light up when I mouse-over. If I try to click (say, in Options) the x-window goes grey briefly, then nothing has changed.)

Edit - when surfing, some sites are balking at "older security authorization" or some such, can't seem to turn that off - do I need to put in an "exception" somewhere?

[C-Dog]

Appears to me that I can connect to general Turbine via the Internet (to download the game) but not to the Game Server(s) (to upload pre-reqs or adjust "my" account options) - Windows Firewall is turned off, Norton is turned off, so... what does that leave?

(Edit: I feel it's GOTTA be some box I need to unclick somewhere I'm just forgetting, or some permission/exception I need to manually enter somewhere else - what is the URL for the game servers in question?

Agh, I'm out, and now this is gonna bug me all day long.)

[C-Dog]

Almost 100 reads over the weekend, but no suggestions? Ouch.

Tried fresh download - no luck.
Tried Stoner 81's DDO Wrapper, but, unfortunately, while the machine has ample free room for the files, it doesn't twice - so can't run install once downloaded.

Was hoping some guru would have the magic trick I need.

Anything?... Bueller?...