Local area connection slow on startup

[#1]

Whenever WinXP Pro starts up, my local area connection icon takes at least a couple of minutes (or longer) to show up and during this time I cannot connect to the internet or start Outlook.
I was hoping somebody could explain to me why this happens and if there's any solution?. I tried searching the internet and it seems that the acronym DHCP pops up quite often, but I am not sure what this is.
I have a BT Voyager 2110 router which is wired via ethernet to the PC (Not using the wireless at the moment).
Any help would be much appreciated!
Many thanks

[#2]

DHCP or Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol is a system for allocating IP addresses and other settings on a network.
Basically you have a DHCP server on the network (your router for example) which hands out an IP address to your PC so that the two can talk to each other.
I am not familiar with the BT voyager router but I belive it to have a built in DHCP Server. Have you enabled this.

[#3]

Even with DHCP it should be nearly instant as you will just renew your last details.
If it takes longer then your pc is trying to find something thats not there and it trys for ages. This could be a network printer or share that you didn't disconnect from. It could all so be Av trying to update or some other software trying for an update that is running at startup. Use msconfig to see what you have running at startup