thanks, I had a sneaking suspicion that was the case, phpadmin isn't so horrible if you go about it in a calm way, but I'm always uncomfortable about messing with the backend stuff.

I cannot find the place that you are talking about: extensions parameters are stored in jos_sefexts

There are no parameters to set for the extension when I look in Extensions > Plugins etc

also, I tried to send a screen shot, but this board would not let me add an attachment.