[FASTBOAT TOUGH]

Andy/Don,
My hint of the "right path" in my post was correct. The path that came up was noted in #5 of my post as well. The fix after Andy's answer pointed me to Mobhack from last years patch addressing Win 7 and Vista download file issues. The following has to be inserted for XP (And prior?) before the FINAL STEP in the download process as follows for both WinSPMBT and WinSPWW2...
C:\Program Files\... downloads to both games done started OOB checks for WinSPMBT, new equipment is there. Don't know about game play but if the first two steps are met the rest should be fine as well.

I gotta get the ... going, work doesn't like us being late.

Regards,
Pat