woah! ooo aahh wow! got it working.

my pc was already connected to a wifi network once i disconnected it works.

i put my n900 into tablet mode as per the screenshot using some plugin i downloaded ages ago. can't remember what it was , but it disables the phone and allows wifi..

then fire up mobile hotspot which complains about the phone but still loads.

then go to pc simply connect to the mobile hotspot network.

i then started tinysmb gui on my n900 and i was able to see mydocs from my pc by entering "\\<ip address of n900 as given by tinysmb" into windows explorer.

simples! :-)

I did have have to reboot my wireless router later bizarrely though, when i went back to use it, like it got jealous of another hot spot. maybe it's possible we have a wifi jammer in the n900 too!