I've managed to get my two home pc's all wired up and working ok, can access folders on each of the computers and both are able to access the internet... so far, so good.

I have another weird problem, when i first boot up the main PC (the one with the adsl connection) i get some strange delays/freezes. The PC will lock up for a few minutes, unable to do anything except move the mouse around, not able to double click/open anything.

After a couple of minutes (2-3) its fine, all releases and back to normal... this may happen a couple of times then be totaly fine for the remainder of the session.

I've disabled file and printer shareing, thinking it might be somethign to do with that, im waiting for the next freeze to see if this has worked.

Anyone have any ideas what could be causing this?

1. At what point of the bootup sequence do the freezes happen?

2. Are you able to Ctrl, Alt & Delete to Task Manager whilst the system is frozen?

Initially sounds like a process is maxing out the CPU - you will be able to see which one by doing "2" and sorting the list by "CPU"

Ive had the task manager open and it doesnt seem to ramp up the CPU usage, leading me to think its a network/comminication problem.

The freeze can happen anytime during the first few minutes of being booted up... but generally during the initial loading sequence (where it loads the tsr's/processing the content of the startup folder)

I've got the system to a minimum load for these progs, basically virus prot, spyware prot and firewall (plus the internet and network icons)

If the system freezes happen before getting to windows try an F8 at boot and do a safe mode with networking to see if you get anymore clues

If youre getting to windows and logging on - loading user settings etc when the freezes start - it may be worth taking items out of the startup folder one at a time.... pain in the arse i know but its a sure fire way of pinning it down to particular task if you cant find any clues from the task manager.

if theres alot of stuff in the folder - you could just create a new user with an empty startup folder and see if theres any difference.

Im not convinced that its a network issue as this side of the preceedings will have already been done before you get as far as loading the desktop..