System hangs after connecting to dial-up ISP

[Guest]

I installed SP2 yesterday. Now, for about 5 minutes after I connect to my
ISP (I am on dail-up), I cannot start any programs. My post SP2 critical
updates are up to date. If I open the browser before I connect to the ISP, I
am able to surf. After whatever it finishes running in the background, the
list of programs I've been trying to open will all start running. I have run
Ad-Aware and Spybot to ensure that nothing untowards is going on in the
background. How can I pinpoint what is going on (what service is running)
and get rid of it if it's not needed?

 

[Guest]

I installed SP2 yesterday. Now, for about 5 minutes after I connect to my
ISP (I am on dail-up), I cannot start any programs. My post SP2 critical
updates are up to date. If I open the browser before I connect to the ISP, I
am able to surf. After whatever it finishes running in the background, the
list of programs I've been trying to open will all start running. I have run
Ad-Aware and Spybot to ensure that nothing untowards is going on in the
background. How can I pinpoint what is going on (what service is running)
and get rid of it if it's not needed?

I have almost the same problem with my Win XP Pro, except my ISP is a
broadband provider and the connection is with PPPoE.

it seems this is not a very unusual Windows XP bug. I wonder why Microsoft
seems unaware of it, or choses to do nothing about it.