Long boot

[H.S.Rai]

My laptop (Compaq Prsario V3000, RAM 512 MB, swap 1480 MB, CPU 800
MHz, Ubuntu 8.10 updated ) takes long time (about 04 minutes):

Grub prompt  00.0
Configuring network: start:- 26 sec End:- 1 min 37 sec (wait for 1 min
11 sec) ***
Welcome audio music: 2 min 25 sec
On getting GUI click on icon of console: 2 min 41 sec
Appearance of console window: 3 min 41 sec
Appearance of prompt in console window: 3 min 50 sec

Can I make network configuring in background?

or is there any other way to make boot time less?

-- 
H.S.Rai