Slow bootup due to Subnet Mas I think.

Hello gang!

Last year I bought this here Dell system and it had a problem when booting! Well.......it had all kinds of problems actually, that led me to just now, today,replacing the hard drive. I have installed Windows XP Home  on my new drive but that old problem has crept up again.

Here goes.

After the fresh install of XP Home I setup my connection to the internet with my service provider using the "Connection Wizard".The problem is now when my system reboots it takes way too long. It seems to me that when I had this problem before ...somewhere in these forums someone had told me to do something with my IP settings or something that involved a "Subnet Mask"???

I cannot remember what that was so if any one could explain this to me ( as to why this slow down happens ) and the fix for it, it would be very helpfull!

Thanks

Dell 4700c,Pentium 4,3.00 gigahertz, 512 MB RAM,
Win XP Home, TSSTcorp CDRW/DVD TSL462C(CD-ROM drive). High
Speed D-Link ADSL modem MODEL#DSL-300G
Norton Anti Virus 2004, Spybot, AdAware.