OK, so definitely a TP newbie, however I have been using Mepis on my machines for a few years now.

So, I was able to ssh into the plug ( hangs head while admitting my first foray into ssh )

I was able to get ipkg up and running
http://tonidouser.com/doku.php?id=advanceduses:installipkg

I was able to install tor and polips via ipkg

And here I am stuck - any links or ideas for configuring tor and polipo and getting it running would be appreciated.