Thanks – problem solved. I checked the EL as suggested and found that the Bonjour service was hanging during boot. It may or may not be related to my disabling the CCAPP service (Symantec antivirus component). It may, however, also be that my installation of Bonjour was somehow broken. I have downloaded a new copy from Apple and installed it on top of the old one.
Regardless what was the cause, things are working as expected now.
If I have time, I will try to turn off ccapp.exe again and see if that was the real reason. Ccapp in Symantec Internet Security 2005 (which is the version I have) has a flaw that causes the CPU to run at 99% for (it seems) forever. I have not been able to find a solution for this – but thats a completely different story…
Anyway – thanks for the prompt response and direction to a diagnostic.
PS: Without CCAPP it is not possible to browse to secured websites (https://….)
Best regards,
Claus Sternberg