windows 2000 logon problems

Recently my computer has started to hang when I try to log on to my desktop. After i type in my username, my desktop begins to load and then halts for like 3 minutes with little bursts of activity (mouse cursor turning to hourglass, disk activity) every 30 seconds or so. It eventually loads and everything works normally.

Strangely enough, it only hangs once. If i log off my desktop and log back on it doesnt hang. Also if I let my computer sit at the logon dialog for a few minutes, it doesnt hang. Anyone have any ideas? I searched google multiple times and none of the suggestions seem to specifically address my problem. I also defragged, virus checked, and spyware checked and came up clean. Im also running SP4 with the latest updates.

Any ideas will be most appreciated.

Are you on a local network? I've seen this happen when a computer is attempting to contact a dead server (ie. To reconnect a drive, logon, etc).

nope, no local network.

Anyything in the event log?

Ok I checked the event log and saw something suspicious 'Dns client hung on starting.' Then I found out that the dns service wasnt necessary so I turned it to manual. That did the trick. I went from 6-7 minutes from boot to desktop load down to 2 mins and 10 seconds! Thanks for your help anony.