>What I discovered if that if I boot up with my network card installed (it is set up for TCP/IP with a dummy address) and set IE4 to connect to the Internet via a local network, everything works. The downside is that I have to switch IE4 back to a modem connect when I want to go online. Is there any other way to start the TCP/IP service?

Is this on NT? If yes, just go to Control Panel/Services. Choose TCP/IP service and se it to start automatically.

Vlad