just go to /etc/e-smith/web/panels/manager/cgi-bin with winscp and edit the file sme6admin and comment out line 181 & 182 with a hash(#) at the begining,
# $record = $smedb->get("ExternalIP");
# $ExternalIP =$record->value;
this stops the error and allows the admin panel to function although you don't get the graphs to do with the external IP stuff (you don't have 1 anyway!!). all the other stuff works great.
this may not be the correct file to edit as expanding of templates somewhere might break this (i'm new to e-smith and how it handles templates and then expands them into /etc) if anyone could point me in the right direction i'd be glad to go & have a read.
im running smeserver 7.0b8