I would like to request assistance with a strange networking problem in
Windows XP.

The environment consists of 3 Windows servers and about 30 workstations.
About 1/2 are Windows 2k, and the rest XP. There is 1 PDC only (Win2k), and
the other two servers are just member servers (no BDC).

There is one particular workstation that can take anywhere from 15 to 45
minutes to login to the domain. The window comes up saying that it is
applying computer settings, and it sits there. Sometimes this happens prior
to the screen to press Ctrl-Alt-Del, and other times after pressing Enter
after specifying the proper user id and password. If one logs out and back
in, the login period os normal (about 20 secs)

If the machine is disconnected from the network, then the user desktop comes
up in a normal fashion, but there is no task bar for at least 15 minutes.
New tasks can be launched from the task manager, or apps can be lauched from
shortcuts on the desktop while waiting for the taskbar to finally make its
appearance. Once logged in, the network cable can be plugged back in to gain
normal network resource access.

I've located an MS bulletin that describes a similar situation and it is
recommended that the proxy settings be checked. They are set to auto in this
case, but disabling that makes no difference. DNS1 points to the PDC, and
DNS2 points to the ISP's DNS. The article also points to the WebClient as
the likely culprit and recommends that it be disabled to test, or the timeout
period shortened. I've tried both without any improvement.

Has anyone ran into this before, or have any recommendations? Many thanks
in advance.