Socket Error

My apologies if I've posted to the wrong group ...If so , please advise ?

I set up a neighbour's computer with Home Premium Today. I established the
Admin account and wanted to set up a Standard Account for 'daily' use.
When I set up Windows Mail with the account information and performed a mail
check , it returned the Socket Error message similar to the one in XP when
there is no internet connection available.
Internet Explorer could not connect either. There was a " Check Network
Settings ' link I believe that was visible in IE ( sorry , I'm doing this
from memory ) and it came back OK?

I then logged into the Admin account and was successfully able to connect to
everything ( email , browsing etc ) so my assumption is that the Standard
Account doesn't have permission to access the Net ?
( Hence my confusion about which group to post in )

The owner of the machine will be away for a week , so I won't be able to try
anything for a while. Any suggestions are as always , most appreciated

Tom