Slow boot time and High CPU usage

Connecting via LAN as opposed to using IE settings seems to have fixed a problem I was having, though I didn't know it was caused by mail monitor. Every time I would boot and at sporadic intervals thereafter, I would get a message stating something to the effect of "Can't connect to the internet" with the reply options of Work Offline or Try Again. I'd click Try Again and it would go away for a while, but eventually come back. My mail monitor is set to check email every minute, and the messages weren't anywhere near that frequent. After setting mm to connect via LAN (I connect to my cable modem through a router), mm immediately reported that I had 3 new messages, all of which were sent yesterday. I never got the round red x overlay telling me that mm couldn't connect, so I had no reason to suspect it wasn't working right. I recently ran WinXP's network wizard becasue I was having trouble sharing files over my LAN. Shortly afterward I started getting those messages. Hope some of this info helps isolate this bug, if it is one.