Hi. I have a fast Dell laptop (2ghz, >1mb memory) running Windows XP
which, at my office, connects to our Windows Server 2003 environment.
My problem is that it takes around 5 minutes for my computer to
startup, with around 4 of those minutes having the message "preparing
network connections" displayed. We have other machines where this
message only lasts a few seconds so I suspect I have an issue in this
area. I have already used various utilities to clean up my registry,
and to remove all unnecessary start-up programs, but still can't get
windows to start more quickly.

This issue is just as bad when I am out of the office (and unconnected
to my network) so the question is - does anyone know how to speed up
the "preparing network connections" bit!

Thanks


Dan

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Request for Question Clarification by landog-ga on 15 Aug 2005 03:56 PDT

Hi,
The computer is most likely looking for the network.

Does the Dell finally succeed in logging on ? Does it receive an IP number? 
Are the other computers also using WInXP?

It may possibly be a DNS update issue:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=842200


Regards
Landog-ga

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Request for Question Clarification by sublime1-ga on 15 Aug 2005 08:19 PDT

danvang...

Just for fun, go to Start -> Settings -> Control Panel
-> Administrative Tools -> Services and right-click on
DNS Client, choose Properties, and set the Startup type
to Disabled on the General tab.

Reboot and see if there's a difference.

Let me know...

sublime1-ga

Most likely it is an authentication issue , where your machine has
trouble authenticating itself , usually this is due to the way the
local machine policy is set up.

There is not much you can do about ut other then redefine the policy
or in extreme cases re-image the machine

Hi...
1. Ask your local LAN administrator to check the Switch and see what
settings are being used on the port that your laptop plugs into. Also,
ask him to compare those settings with the settings on the laptop's
Network Interface, especially the NIC settings. Sometimes the settings
on each end are not compatible, and that cause hangups, slowness,
along with network errors.
2. If you can do so in your office, try disabling the Windows XP
Firewall service/function to eliminate the possibility it is the
culprit. You should should not have to turn the Firewall on if your
LAN is already behind a corporate Firewall, AND if you are already
using Virus Protection s/w on the laptop.
3. This is basic. Do a file system check on the boot drive, and if it
needs it, do a complete defrag. A badly fragmented file system can
still cause slowdowns in the file system performance. Defrag puts all
the files back together, which make disk read/write I/O's go a lot
faster.
4. Check the Services List, and with the help of your local LAN
administrator, try turning off extra unnecessary services on things
that are not essesntial.
5. Check the system and application event logs for any error or
warning messages related to the network.
6. If your LAN administrator has a Packet Sniffer and likes to use it,
ask them if they would do a Packet Capture Session while your laptop
boots. If your office uses a network switch, some switches allow you
to configure a sniffer port that will "mirror" all the traffic that
comes across your port. they can then examine the packets, analyze the
messages, and possibly detect the cause of the problem.
7. When your system gets booted, and you get logged in, try doing an
IPCONFIG /ALL from the command line to see how the NIC is set up with
TCPIP. Try doing a PING on all the TCPIP addresses that are listed in
the IPCONFIG list.
Hopes these ideas help..........

Sounds like lovely dns... heres what you do.. match it up to the same
ip as the other computers that seem to be logging in fine.. after that
go into tcp/ip properties and under the wins tab make sure you have
default netbios running reboot and you should be golden.. also to help
run msconfig and disable unneccessary services and programs

Hi.

I've seen similar problems with some laptop, too. Would you happen to
have integrated WLAN adapter installed on your laptop?