It seems lots of people are having problems with ICQ and WinXP not finding a network/internet connection upon XP startup (especially those on DSL modems like myself, or those with LAN/T1's, etc.)
The Problem is that when XP loads, ICQ pops up and says "no connection detected". This occurs despite the fact that 'Net Detect Agent' and 'automatically connect to internet when no connection present' are checked. The previous solution was to move Net Detect Agent *out* of the Startup folder, put a shortcut on the Desktop, and use that when you wanted to connect.

I was browsing through the boards here and came across a thread discussing this problem: http://www.tweakxp.com/tweakxp/board/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=245

They did not come across a solution, however it did give me an idea..
I tried it .. and it WORKS!! Read on...

Here's how to do it (am using WinXP Pro):




1. Go to the Group Policy Editor (Run->"gpedit.msc")

2. Under 'User Configuration', click "Administartive Templates"

3. Click 'System'-> 'Logon'

4. In the window on the right, double-click on "Run these programs at user logon"

5. Make sure 'Enabled' is checked, then click 'Show'

6. You'll now want to add ICQ's Net Agent Detect to the list (which is probably empty unless you've already been in here). To do this, first locate on your HD the exact location of 'NDetect.exe'.
Example: C:\Internet\ICQ\NDetect.exe
Click 'Add', then type the filename & path of the above file

7. Click 'OK', 'OK', and 'OK' again to exit.

The next few steps are important:

8. Now make sure that there are NO traces of ICQ or Net Detect Agent in your Programs->Startup folder. If there are, delete them from Startup.

9. Start up ICQ, and go to 'Connections'(Main->Preferences->Connections->General tab). Under 'Launch' make sure 'Launch ICQ at startup' is NOT checked.

10. Click 'OK'. Disconnect from Internet if connected.
REBOOT.

If everything goes properly, you should now see the Net Detect Agent appear in the system tray as WinXP starts up the desktop. When you connect to the Net, it magically disappears.. to be replaced with the ICQ 'flower' which will shortly find a connection and voila! Problem solved!