I have found this to fix some network connections:
1. open network and sharing center
2. delete the win7 auto made connection.
3. click connect to the internet. #2 on my list.
4. follow all instruction to set your connection your way.
in Options open and click advanced, that is where you will find you can add your ISP login name and password. enter and save.
I have always rebooted and at that time it adds like 2 or 3 sec. to the connect time. so far I have applied this FIX to 3 different ISP's locally.
this may work for you snuffy, and tho i havent tried, if it does, good info and homework. I guess i am just about disgusted with this issue. This is supposed to be RC. This just doesnt affect me or a few ppl, or just connecting/disconnecting that is the only problem as far as the whole networking area of 7 has been built, but not debugged. This should work "out of the box", instead of having to jump thru hoops, unless it was a driver installation trick issue to get to work with a beta OS, that i could understand. But i think its more than that. For example, the troublshooter scanned my driversetup.exe that is a vista version driver, and recommended that it be run under XP SP2 comp mode. Now go figure that. I can tell that from beta to "RC" aka beta2, that they atleast have been doing
some work on it - tho they didnt complete what they were working on in time for a rushed release.
I am within inches of resorting back to the 7000 full time, transfer some sounds and backgrounds, and one really couldnt tell (excluding a few minimal things like new customizations of start menu, yet thats incomplete as well, ie; download link is not to download library). Alot of T's werent crossed and I's dotted when handing in this "RC". Yea there's supposed to be bugs and all, but for little things like i stated, and then the critical updates for the IE crash fix 2 days later, and then the critical root fix a few days after that.
I know i have stated this a few other times in other threads, but MS should really step up and take responsibility for such carelessness they sent out to the public and asked to test. Like test driving a car, and their own special transmission doesnt work with the car(IE), and they forgot to include the safety belt(root), and a few nuts and bolts(networking, libraries, etc) before sending you on your way to try out something they themselves didnt obviously test themselves against different environments. How long did the first leak come out on the net until you finally seen the first official beta go public? now how much longer from beta to RC (testing time)? follow me here? More work, concentrated work, careful work, double checked work, was put into the making of the beta than any other. And it shows IMO. When XP went RC1 the dreaded soundblaster problem was all but solved in most cases, the driver cache was pretty much covered. It was then time to just ice the cake before retail. Tis why today XP has more users than Vista. Just another example of a rushed project gone awry that had incompatibility issues, did ppl switch then? Nope, and that was the main reason why, be it drivers, or applications. Atleast they figured out this time that the need for application backwards compatibility is a must for them to be able to persuade ppl to upgrade their system, network etc to a newer OS. Will it be worth the headache, is the question everyone will have to end up answering once again.