Start-up & Shut Down

Faster Startup After Adding Network Card

After adding a network card to your Windows 95/98 installation you may notice a 10 to 20 second delay when Windows is loading at the graphic splash screen. This is caused by Windows attempting to poll your network for a TCP/IP address. Under normal circumstances Windows will not be able to find one and will manually assign you one. The delay you experience is the process where Windows is polling the network.

To eliminate this polling follow these steps:

1. Go to your network neighborhood, right click and bring up the properties dialog.
2. Scroll down in the install protocols list until you see an entry marked "TCP/IP -> [Network Card Name]". DO NOT select the one marked "TCP/IP -> Dial-up Adapter" as this is your modem and your Internet service provider will normally assign you a TCP/IP address upon connect.
3. Click on the property tab for this protocol and go to the "IP Address" tab.
4. Click "Specify an IP Address" and type in any IP address. Do not include "zeros" in any of the four fields. For example, mine is set to 192.198.1.11.
5. Change the subnet mask to 255.255.255.0
6. Click "OK" and Windows will inform you it needs to restart. Let it.

The delay should now be gone. IP addresses for a small, local network are not too terribly important. Just be sure that you give EACH computer on the network a unique IP address. For consistency sake, always keep the first 3 set of numbers the same. There are technical details about why, but suffice it to say it’s the best option.

Good luck and enjoy your "extra" time!

Tip submitted by: Robert Stinett

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