When I use my laptop & wireless card with my friends access point I can connect to the web with out a problem. When logged into eBay viewing an item hyperlink I then try to look at the item i.e. cgi.ebay.co.uk page it fails. This does not happen when I an on dial up. Several other pages fail, like, after I enter a site username & password I do not get access whilst on wireless connection.

Generally, wireless is just a method of transport and shouldn't affect your "browsing" at all. Have you tried to use a wired connection on your friend's network? There are rare cases where changing the MTU causes odd problems with some applications but unless your friend changed from the default on the wireless router I really doubt your wireless is the cause. A more likely scenario I would consider is if there is something about your friend's ISP that does additional filtering that perhaps you don't see when you go back to your place and use dial-up. Try connecting on a wired side instead of wireless on your friend's network and see if you get the same result. If you do then I would tend to lean towards an ISP filtering problem.