Windows Start up

[Binoculars]

My kids' computer is networked to mine, and everytime they boot mine connects to the internet. Obviously one of the programs on the Start menu has an option selected somewhere that tells it to do it. I suspected Microsoft Messenger, and sure enough, it had an option to connect on Windows start, so I unticked that option, no result. I then removed MSN altogether, and as you would expect, got no joy.

I thought I would go back to the joys of DOS and remove the offending instruction from Autoexec.bat; hey, what happened to autoexec.bat? W98 has apparently decided it doesn't need that crap anymore, so where do I find the startup sequence?

[WhiteSail]

Have you had a look at;

Internet Explorer; Tools; Internet Options; Connections, and make sure "Never dial a connection" is ticked.

Hope it helps.

[TR4A]

Try using msconfig. Press Start then Run and type msconfig and press OK. You can see all the programs that are used in startup. I use this to selectively stop some programs from launching on startup.

[clownfish]

I had a similar situation in that when the kids hit anything to do with the net on their computer mine would start dialling ('never dial a connection' does nothing with internet sharing). I went to control panel/network and removed the internet sharing protocol> dial up adapter. I'm using ME and cannot remember what I did with 98..can't imaging there being too much difference.

[Binoculars]

TR4; thanks, that was what I was after initially. Unfortunately rather than do a trial and error on which command was causing the problem I decided I'd give Clownfish's remedy a try first because it sounded so logical, and I'm sure it is. But I have 12 network components installed on my master computer and no fewer than 15 on the slave. I have no idea which ones are unnecessary and after playing around with Add/Remove programs I have achieved the remarkable feat of making the kids' computer totally unable to access the internet, a giant leap forward!

Experiments continue at random.....

Any further suggestions are welcome.