Vista network connection hangs at startup

I hope you guys can help. I have a newish install of Vista on a 2.4GHz quad with 4GB RAM. I connect through a SMC broadband router. Other computers connect through this fine. A few months ago I noticed intermitently when Vista booted it seemed to be waiting for the network (meaning the network symbol bottom right remained with a cross). This can take 3-4mins to clear and then works fine. Sometimes it works straight off.
It doesn't affect the rest of the computer, other programs open fine except IE8 and Outlook 2003. Skype seems OK.
I've tried restarting having turned off all services and startup programs through MSCONFIG. The problem remains.
I use AVG Free and windows firewall. I've removed AVG and the problem remains.
I can start in Safe mode with networking and all is fine.
I don't have a lot of knowledge at resolving problems at this level. I can usually root out rogue programs but this seems at a different level.
Task manager doesn't seem to be indicating high CPU use, but there seems to be something that IE8 etc are waiting for.
All windows updates have been applied and AVG runs daily.

Helpful thoughts gratefully received!

Is this a wireless network that you are trying to connect to?

***PLEASE KNOW OR HAVE THE PASSWORD HANDY WHEN DOING THIS***

If so go into the network and sharing center > on the left column there will be an icon that says manage wireless connections or networks > click on that > find your network and delete it from the list > and now when you try to connect you have to type the password for the wireless > type it once and type it correctly > did this help?

Thanks for advice. it was a LAN network connection. I've since resolved the problem by upgrading to Windows 7!

agillett said:

Thanks for advice. it was a LAN network connection. I've since resolved the problem by upgrading to Windows 7!

Click to expand...

Drastic solution but it works I suppose.