R. McCarty said:
Could be a delay while the ISP provides your Network Interface Card
(NIC) with an IP Address. The connection icon in the System Tray (2
small monitor screens) will show movement around the monitors as the
connection receives it's assignment from your ISP's DHCP server. But
this should not hold up the PC for the time you indicated. Are you using
any Security software beyond the native XP Firewall ? Once you get
online you might want to open a Command Prompt window and do a
Ipconfig /all to see the assignments for your NIC card and note the IP
Address, Gateway and DNS Servers. Something isn't quite right if the
connection/config process takes 2+ minutes to complete.