Why won't Maven download jar files but does download plugins fine?

Question

Ok I'm moving my development environment from my laptop to my desktop.

I've got the exact same projects on both machines but when I try to run maven's update dependencies through eclipse on the desktop is just complains about "missing artefact" for every single dependency!?

I've checked the local repo on the desktop and sure enough, there are NO jars!? All the pom's are there but no jars!

I went back to the laptop, deleted from jars from the local repo on that machine and called the update dependencies again and bang, the jars download just fine, but the desktop can't seem to download any of the jars?

Both machines are on the same network/router so it can't be hardware firewall/proxy but is there some eclipse setting or windows firewall setting I'm totally forgetting about??

Lastly, I've been deleteing the repo on the desktop and using mvn -up clean install on the project, I notice that it downloads the PLUGIN jars just fine, but then continues to only download poms for any and all dependencies!?

My settings.xml is as follows (kind of a mashup of suggested repos);

  <settings xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/SETTINGS/1.0.0" 
      xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/SETTINGS/1.0.0http://maven.apache.org/xsd/settings-1.0.0.xsd">

<pluginGroups></pluginGroups>
<proxies></proxies>
<servers></servers>
<mirrors></mirrors>
<profiles>

    <profile>
        <id>standard-extra-repos</id>
        <activation>
            <activeByDefault>true</activeByDefault>
        </activation>
        <repositories>
            <repository>
                <id>net.java.download</id>
                <url>http://download.java.net/maven/2</url>
                <releases>
                    <enabled>true</enabled>
                </releases>
                <snapshots>
                    <enabled>false</enabled>
                </snapshots>
            </repository>
            <repository>
                <id>org.apache</id>
                <url>http://maven.apache.org/</url>
                <releases>
                    <enabled>true</enabled>
                </releases>
                <snapshots>
                    <enabled>false</enabled>
                </snapshots>
            </repository>
            <repository>
                <id>org.codehaus.mojo</id>
                <url>http://mojo.codehaus.org/</url>
                <releases>
                    <enabled>true</enabled>
                </releases>
                <snapshots>
                    <enabled>false</enabled>
                </snapshots>
            </repository>
            <repository>
                <id>com.jboss.repository</id>
                <url>http://repository.jboss.com/maven2</url>
                <releases>
                    <enabled>true</enabled>
                </releases>
                <snapshots>
                    <enabled>false</enabled>
                </snapshots>
            </repository>
            <repository>
                <id>com.springsource.repository.bundles.release
                </id>
                <name>SpringSource Enterprise Bundle Repository -
                    SpringSource Bundle Releases</name>
                <url>http://repository.springsource.com/maven/bundles/release
                </url>
                <releases>
                    <enabled>true</enabled>
                    <updatePolicy>daily</updatePolicy>
                    <checksumPolicy>warn</checksumPolicy>
                </releases>
            </repository>
            <repository>
                <id>com.springsource.repository.bundles.external
                </id>
                <name>SpringSource Enterprise Bundle Repository -
                    External Bundle Releases</name>
                <url>http://repository.springsource.com/maven/bundles/external
                </url>
                <releases>
                    <enabled>true</enabled>
                    <updatePolicy>daily</updatePolicy>
                    <checksumPolicy>warn</checksumPolicy>
                </releases>
            </repository>
            <repository>
                <id>com.springsource.repository.libraries.release
                </id>
                <name>SpringSource Enterprise Bundle Repository -
                    SpringSource Library Releases</name>
                <url>http://repository.springsource.com/maven/libraries/release
                </url>
                <releases>
                    <enabled>true</enabled>
                    <updatePolicy>daily</updatePolicy>
                    <checksumPolicy>warn</checksumPolicy>
                </releases>
            </repository>
            <repository>
                <id>com.springsource.repository.libraries.external
                </id>
                <name>SpringSource Enterprise Bundle Repository -
                    External Library Releases</name>
                <url>http://repository.springsource.com/maven/libraries/external
                </url>
                <releases>
                    <enabled>true</enabled>
                    <updatePolicy>daily</updatePolicy>
                    <checksumPolicy>warn</checksumPolicy>
                </releases>
            </repository>
        </repositories>
    </profile>

Answer 1

Hmm not sure if this is a no brainer but I WAS using maven 3.0.1 on the desktop, I downloaded 2.2.1 again to match the laptop and BANG, dependency jars download just fine now! So much for "backwards compatible" maven 3!!!!

Answer 2

Have a look at the content of the downloaded POMs. Sometimes Maven try download them, even create them on the file system, but if you look at the content you'll find some server error code, maybe that can help..