Yep it's worked before and I haven't changed anything. No drops, swapped cables around, still using the external mains belkin hub, same connection routine. Basically the same setup as before. After 8 %^&*^ hours and a new PCMCIA card later (which I spent 4 hours trying to get to work and will be going back (*&%$%&*) ) I plugged the old firewire card back in and it worked.
I've contacted Stefan Mike and we're trying to sus it out.