I have recently bought a new computer and it includes a VIA Rhine ll Ethernet Adapter.

Windoze XP tells me I have a local Area Netwrok but a cable is unplugged.

I connect to the internet via a USB ADSL box.

Is the local area netwrok anything to do with that? If I attempt to remove the local area network will it affect my internet connectio0n or are the two entirely separate things?

If they are separate then how can I remove the LAN as I will never network.

Thanks for any advice,

You won't need the onboard LAN, the USB will be all you need. Under Control Panel > Network Connections right click on Local Area Connection and select disable. Another option is to just disable the onboard LAN in your BIOS.

Click on "Start" and then "Run", type devmgmt.msc (you can copy-paste). The "Device manager" will open - find your Ethernet adapter in Network adapters, right click, disable. Done.

If you ever need it again - just click on Enable. You can get to Device manager through Control Panel-System-Hardware but typing is faster and next time it will come up as you start typing "de..." so you don't need to remember it.

I didn't see Twais post before.

If you disable it in Device manager you can save some start up time because windows will not load drivers for it, so don't choose "uninstall".

You can look through other hardware you might never need and do the same.

Gents, Thanks very much. The start up time seemed very long as did shut down. I have also removed lex files that belonged to a Lexmark printer as I have a Canon. That seems to have speeded things up too.

Thanks again.