Fixed,
http://www.eqemulator.org/forums/showthread.php?t=37817 was very helpful.
The problem was I had the wrong address set instead of localhost in:
<!-- Sets the ip/port for the tcp connections.
Both zones and console (if enabled). Defaults are shown -->
<tcp ip="localhost" port="9000" telnet="disable"/>
Poor reading comprehension obviously
Regards,
Mg