Windows XP Startup Stalls on Laptop in Domain

QCH

OK... I support many Laptops that are joined to a Windows 2000 domain. The big issue is when turning on or restarting the laptops. Windows insists on waiting for the domain to push down the policies and such. If there <b>is </b> a network present but not a network that can access the domain, the system stalls for as much as 10 minutes. We normally just tell our users to unplug the network cable before restarting or turning on the laptop, then login using the cashed account and then plug the network in. Well, in the past few months, several people have bought laptops with integrated Wireless. Many of these laptops have no manual switches to turn off the Wireless so they sit and wait or they have to turn off the wireless router.

How do you, system admins, handle this issue? I've looked, briefly, for reg settings to trim the timeout time, but haven't found anything yet. How about multiple configurations, or something... looking for ideas.

Q