Odd connection dialog at login

I have trying to fix a problem on my PC (Win98) which is driving me nuts.

The problem is the unexpected dial-up connect dialog that appears after login. I can nearly always repeat it by the following sequence:

1. Boot
2. Login
3. Launch Internet Explorer 6
4. Connect
5, Close Internet Explorer 6
6. Disconnect
7. Shutdown
8. Boot
9. Login
10. Spurious dial-up connection dialog displayed.

The Firewall log (Norton Internet Services 2003) correctly shows IE6 connecting at step 3 and RNAAPP.EXE at step 4 followed by a file shared rule block. However at step 10. it shows only RNAAPP.EXE connecting.

I can repeat this sequence with nearly everything disabled but the Firewall by using MSCONFIG - so just using the basic system chows this problem.

Does anyone have any ideas why this may be happening?

 

If I check Never Dial A Connection then I do not see a connection dialog at all.

Taking the boot into nearly safe mode further, I disabled all Norton products as well as everything else and performed the tests again to get a connection dial-up dialog, but none appeared.

So it is definitely something in a Norton Product causing this.

One thing I've noticed is that whilst Norton Internet Services (NIS) are enabled and when I close Internet Explorer, the Auto-disconnect dialog briefly shows before being taken away and I disconnect by right clicking the connection icon in the system tray. Whereas, when Norton Internet Services are disabled and I close Internet Explorer the Auto-disconnect dialog remains and I can disconnect using that dialog.

It seems that there is something in NIS that interferes with the
Auto-disconnect of Internet Explorer.

Note, also I have Norton Systemworks 2003 as well which has a connection stay alive function - this is disabled. Perhaps there is a fault there that thinks the connection should be kept alive even to the next login session - wild guess.