Vista Ultimate taking a long time to connect to network

I just recently noticed that Vista Ultimate opens Outlook 2007 quickly but
then send/receive has to wait quite a bit for Vista to find the network. IE7
will not even open before the network has been found. By that time, I have
probably tried to open it 3 or 4 times and am wondering what is wrong with
IE. We are used to WinXP spending some time displaying the message Building
the connections to the network, or some such message, while it is in the
opening process. Is Vista Ultimate just pushing that step back to get the
background up and fulfil the promise to boot faster?
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Hollis D Paul
Mukilteo, WA USA