Anyway to speed up boot when not connected to LAN?

I noticed that, when my computer isn't hooked up to my school's LAN, it takes longer to boot. I think this is because of the NIC taking time to find a connection. Is there anyway to tell the NIC to not look for a connection? Any help would be appreciated.

Email me if need be.

I don't know if this applies to you, but I've seen the CMOS boot sequence been configured to boot from LAN first. If this is so, change it to 'C only' or 'A,C' depending on your preference. I prefer 'C only' as it doesn't waste time looking for a floppy disk. If something goes wrong, you can always change it back. This will probably cut some boot time.

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Heatsinks, fans & whisky...Everythings Cool!
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Exactly. Windows has a timeout of about 60sec when the DHCP drivers are loaded. If no DHCP server responds, you are just sitting there waiting. By setting the IP to a static number (if you are not connected, it does not matter what it is), then this timeout period is avoided. This could be more hassle than its worth, as you would be constantly changing the network settings.

If the NIC is a PCMCIA card, see what happens if you boot without the card. I don't have much experience with these, but it might cleanly boot if the NIC is not present.

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I have not yet begun to procrastinate.

You can put :

Ip : 169.254.134.1
Subnet : 255.255.255.0

It's better to be rich and healthy than poor and sick!

There are some ip address reserved for private use. Anyone can freely use an IP from one of these ranges:
10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255
172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255
192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255

However, if you are not connected to the internet, it does not matter what is there. 0.0.0.0 will work fine, and not interfere with your modem.



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I have not yet begun to procrastinate.

Uhhh, how do you do that?

If it's a really indepth procedure, save your breath...I'll just be content with setting a static IP.