I needed to tell wicd to use eth1 not eth0, then it connects happily. But no actual internet traffic arrives - I cannot open any url.
I can just use Windows (as we speak ...

A quick search just now revealed a mass of information I haven't yet managed to narrow down sufficiently to be useful.
To sum up, having to use Windows for a week won't kill me, but if anyone does have any suggestions I'd be grateful!