I'm assuming you're logging in to a Windows 2000 domain? If that's the case, it's probably a DNS problem. Make sure you have your Win2K DNS server listed on the workstations. Check the event viewer and you'll probably see some activity going on when you log in that is slowing down the log on.

Nope, noy using a Domain at all; I have one machine that has a direct connection to my ISP via a wireless antenna; this machine is 192.168.0.1. The other machines got static IP numbers from 2 to 7 and use the 0.1 machine as the gateway; those are the only settings on the whole network, so I'm all out of ideas
 
Thanks for the reply, by the way.

;( Run into the same problem myself the XP Pro machines on the network take AGES to login I mean like in excess of 15 mins. I like you have wireless -satellite based Interent access. If the XP machine is logged in as local administrator then loged - out; then logged back in as domain user then the login only takes a few seconds - as expected.
 
If you login to the PC when its not connected to the network then - Hey presto - instant login with no delay. So the you tend to conclude this may be something to do with the internet access.
 
But if anyone has any ideas or pointer for a solution I'd be most grateful. Network is static IP's, roaming profiles not used

I'm not sure how I missed this before, but oh well . This is an issue that's been confirmed by MS (at least with an AD tech I spoke to) with regards to ridiculously long logons and network services taking forever to start up on servers. Since your system is configured to be in a workgroup, it is going to *look* for it all over the place, and try to hit as many NetBIOS sources as it can. The MS tech told me to just disconnect the network connection if it ever happened to me (which it hasn't, as I run internal domains and name resolution), so that's a quick patch for you. The only other thing I could think of is to simply disable NetBIOS if you aren't using it and see if that will speed things up. If you have only one box that you are using, then you really shouldn't have NetBIOS bound to your NIC anyway, so just deselect it in your network properties and see what happens.

Thanks for your thoughts, but not using Netbios as a native protocol, just TCP/IP. In the WINS Tab on advanced TCP/IP settings the Default of "Use NetBIOS settings from the DHCP server. If static IP address is used ...." is set, are you suggesting altering this?
 
The other thing I'm a little unsure of is what the DNS seeting should be. You really get the impression the PC is "looking" for something.
 
Whatever, its real boring and giving out local admin passwords to users isn't ideal.
 
Any more suggestions?

Well, if you don't have NetBIOS installed at all (by default, it is installed and would have to be removed) then just set that to "disabled" there as well. And yes, Windows is indeed "looking" for something, namely an autheticating server/workstation. So, if you're just using a single workstation attached to an Internet connection that hands out IPs via DHCP, then just leave the DNS settings along other than "Disable NetBIOS over TCP/IP."

If you have been setting up user policies then you might consider setting the service "Security Accounts Manager" to Automatic.