I hope someone can help - I am getting desperate!

I have promised to do some work for someone developing an ASP.NET
application.

I have VS Studio 2002 installed on my pc which is running XP-Pro (and
therefore IIs 5.1) and have installed .Net framework v1.1.4322.

I canot create a new web project - I get the error

"unable to validate the file path....does not match url path..."

Having scoured the web for answers (I have spent HOURS on this!) I
believe it is something to do with VS trying to create a tmp file  in
the \inetput\wwwroot folder to validate IIS is running and failing.

I have checked IIS is running ok (I can open and run ASP pages ok).

I have :

* checked my user is in the VS Developers Group
* run aspnet_regiis -i in the
\windows\microsoft.net\framework\v1.1.4322 folder
* loaded the latest vs updates
* iis has a default web site running on port 80
* I have tried disabling mcAfee person firewall - no difference
* I don't have Zone Alarm
* tried both with file share and fronpage sevrer extensions options
* checked the 'write' option in the default web site
* made sure user and the ASPNET user has permissions to wwwroot (do I
need a wwwroot$ share?)
* tried substituting '127.0.0.1' for 'localhost' in the new project
name

PLEASE HELP!!!