Hello,
After some research I decided to stay closer to home and used a "USBCNC" controller, which is produced in Holland, and has UK distributor. The controller inccludes its own free software to do the same job as Mach3, and it also uses USB connection instead of parallel port.
I am not too conversant with electronics, and needed a lot of help from the supplier, which was excellent by e-mail.
You can download the software and try it in "demo" mode, and also the user manual.
It works fine.
Rgds
Mike