can read, but not write

["Julian Darley (mail.com)" <jdarley@mail.com>]

2 problems, possibly linked or not:

when i first start slapd, slapcat produces a result, but a java openldap 
browser doesn't connect. when i issue the slapd command a second time (and 
thus have two slapd processes running), the java browser will connect.

but, even though i have put

access to * by * write

in slapd.conf, i cannot write a new entry to ldap from the java browser, 
though i can edit existing entries. i don't yet have an explicit acl file, 
but i had hoped that the above statement in slapd.conf would be good enough 
to get going.

any help would be most appreciated,
julian