I have a Gateway Solo 2500 laptop (circa 1999), Pentium II 266Mhz,
128MB RAM, 6 GB hard drive, running Windows 98 SE.  I use a Xircom
10/100/56K
combination network card to connect to a local hub for Internet
access.

The system works fine, as long as I run it as a stand-alone machine.
Once I attempt to access the Internet using any sort of application
(telnet, ssh, Netscape, Internet Explorer, etc.), an odd problem
results.  The IP application will work for a (seemingly) random amount
of time, and then hang (usually when doing a DNS lookup).  At the
point at which the application hangs, the Windows "Start Menu" will
completely empty; all application icons and nested menus are removed.
Additionally, icons in the system tray and on the desktop disappear. 
(Files on the machine are still visible across our local network
through Windows Explorer.)

Forcing a reboot (usually requiring turning the unit off and on) will
restore the system to its original state.

I have attempted most of the usual diagnosis problems (moving all
startup items out of the Startup Menu, virus scan, running various
system diagnostics) with no success.  I have tried web searches on
various descriptions of the above problem, but with little success. 
Contacting Microsoft's technical support was unproductive.

Does anyone know how to fix this problematic behavior?

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Request for Question Clarification by lazerfx-ga on 18 Jun 2002 12:12 PDT

jkhuggins,

This is a very peculiar problem.  I can't answer directly with this
much information, so I'm going to ask a few questions and see if I can
figure out what is going on.

First, I'd like you to run the command prompt, and tell us the output
of a 'netstat -a'.

To do this, go to the start menu, run, type in 'command'.
At the prompt, type in 'netstat -a'
Copy the output here.

What this will do is let me know what you have running that is
listening to the internet.  This kind of behavour could be indicative
of a trojan running on the system that someone is using to do funny
things to your computer... funny to them, that is.

If you wish to change your IP address or computer name then please do
so, this information is not required.

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Clarification of Question by jkhuggins-ga on 18 Jun 2002 12:48 PDT

Results of "netstat -a":

Active Connections

   Proto    Local Address           Foreign Address      State
   TCP      gateway:137             GATEWAY:0            LISTENING
   TCP      gateway:138             GATEWAY:0            LISTENING
   TCP      gateway:nbsession       GATEWAY:0            LISTENING
   TCP      gateway:427             GATEWAY:0            LISTENING
   UDP      gateway:nbname          *:*
   UDP      gateway:nbdatagram      *:*
   UDP      gateway:427             *:*

[end of output]

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Clarification of Question by jkhuggins-ga on 18 Jun 2002 13:15 PDT

Results of "netstat -a":

Active Connections

   Proto    Local Address           Foreign Address      State
   TCP      gateway:137             GATEWAY:0            LISTENING
   TCP      gateway:138             GATEWAY:0            LISTENING
   TCP      gateway:nbsession       GATEWAY:0            LISTENING
   TCP      gateway:427             GATEWAY:0            LISTENING
   UDP      gateway:nbname          *:*
   UDP      gateway:nbdatagram      *:*
   UDP      gateway:427             *:*

[end of output]

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Clarification of Question by jkhuggins-ga on 18 Jun 2002 15:51 PDT

masteik: yes, I did have Novell networking installed on the laptop.  I've
just now uninstalled it (not using it on that network anymore), and after
uninstalling a couple of other things (old printers, a couple of programs,
3 versions of Java runtime), things seem to be working better.  If/when
things get bad again, I'll report back ...

I had something similar happen to me. It was resolved by removing MS
IE and replacing it with a OEM copy of the most current version. The
conflict never happen again.

To make sure that you don't have any trojan in your PC, you can
install personal firewall. It can tell you which internet-related
application doing what (does it act as a server or a client), and you
will have options to allow or deny each of them.

Did you install any HP JetDirect- or Netware- related software in that
box? It might explains services on port 427. One way to check which
app serves that port is to telnet to that port after activating
personal firewall.

Other thing to check is free disk space. How much do you have? On low
memory conditions, Windows might not be able to refresh menus/desktop.

This might be a longshot but I have seen first hand on older computers
if the heat sink for the cpu gets clogged with debris or the cooling
fan for the case stops working very strange things can happen. I
recently had a Compaq computer that did strange things only on the
internet. It turned out the cooling fan in the laptop's case had
stopped working. Once replaced it worked fine. Good Luck

Make sure your system is clean from viruses. Not all Antivirus
Utilities can detect the virus. Try to update the virus definition(if
you can). If you cannot open the antivirus application, try using
MS-DOS command prompt by using command.com on the Start -> Run menu.
Or try to re-install your Windows OS and other application. This
usually happened if a trojan virus or any source of virus came in to
your computer, try to using a firewall utilities or antivirus
utilities (etc; Norton Antivirus 2002.).