@Peter R.
If you installed as a shared user that is close to the expected behavior. boincmgr.exe is supposed to start the client (boinc.exe) if it is not already running. boinctray.exe is for supporting suspending when the user is active. Nothing else should be in the common startup group.

If you installed as a single user then boinctray should be in the common startup and boincmgr should be in the user's startup group. If you installed as a service boinctray will still be in the common startup group but boincmgr may be in either or none of the startup groups.

I get my signature graphics from http://boincstats.com you do not have to sign up there to get it although there are advantages.

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : baddawgie
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : Belkin
...

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 6:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Belkin
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller
...

I'm not a network-guru but IP Routing should be enabled and DNS Suffix is normally not in use in SOHO-area.

edit:
Are you using the nForce-Hardware-Firewall?

Disabling "Confirm before ocnnecting" seemed to have helped. There seems to be some DNS resolution happening in the logs but still no connection to any project.
...

Please can you post cmdline-output from >ipconfig /all< and type of your cabel-modem.

Ok Just to be clear. I do have VMware installed but I am not running BOINC on a virtual machine. It is being ran on the host machine. I just mentioned it because I know it has some special drivers loading on the host machine.

The firewall also has a built-in DHCP server which I am using.

My main problem is that I cannot attach to any projects because I could never get BOINC to connect to them. Its the weirdest thing. As far as BOINC is concerned I have no internet connection. This is of course false.

I get a pop-up window that says:
"BOINC Manager - Network Status:
BOINC couldn't do Internet communication, and no default connection is selected.
Please connect to the Internet, or select a default connecting using Advanced/Options/Connections."

Here is the screen shot of Advanced/Options/Connections
[url=http://web.tampabay.rr.com/baddawgie0/images/3.png[/url]

Okaydokay, no VM.
Restricts your firewall the web-access or can you change/set up settings for routing?
Try out to disable "Confirm before connecting to internet" like seen on 5.png.
Are you using a account with restricted rights for Boinc?

Summa from many posts.
You need no forwarding ports because connections from lan/intranet to wan/internet are normally ever accepted.

VMnet0 means Bridged and all network-setting should set up by a dhcp-server. Ahh. Has your cable modem the ability to act as such an device? Mostly known to me if not all cable-modems has only one port for lan and one for wan. If you try to connect a switch or hub behind such modem, all clients would have the same ip-adress and that will cause routing problems.
Which Cable modem with nat-firewall did you have?
If your modem has no ability to act as dhcp-server for further hosts you must change vmnet-settings to VMnet8(Nat). Your VM will get then an ip from VMware-dhcp-server and connect thru your XP64 to the world. Allowing other hosts to use your internet-connection must be enabled in network-config from XP64.

Confirm before connecting to internet like on pic5.png is a setting that i never used before. If you have a flatrate you don't need that setting but for security-reason you should ever block all incoming traffic!

Are you sure you have attached to any project? I ask because past i have read this:

2/24/2008 11:26:29 PM||No general preferences found - using BOINC defaults
2/24/2008 11:26:29 PM||Preferences limit memory usage when active to 2047.09MB
2/24/2008 11:26:29 PM||Preferences limit memory usage when idle to 3684.77MB
2/24/2008 11:26:29 PM||Preferences limit disk usage to 9.31GB
2/24/2008 11:26:29 PM||This computer is not attached to any projects


If you have attached you should also set up preferences for Boinc-usage. Especially if you own a multi-core-cpu settings need some tuning ;-)
Therefor you have two choices. You use project-settings and General preferences or you set up preferences inside your boinc-app.

I took some screen shots of my problem they are at
http://web.tampabay.rr.com/baddawgie0/images/1.png though 5.png

here is an output of my log:
2/15/2008 9:32:26 AM||Starting BOINC client version 5.10.41 for windows_x86_64
2/15/2008 9:32:26 AM||log flags: task, file_xfer, sched_ops
2/15/2008 9:32:26 AM||Libraries: libcurl/7.18.0 OpenSSL/0.9.8e zlib/1.2.3
2/15/2008 9:32:26 AM||Data directory: C:Program FilesBOINC
2/15/2008 9:32:26 AM||Processor: 2 AuthenticAMD AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 6400+ [AMD64 Family 15 Model 67 Stepping 3]
2/15/2008 9:32:26 AM||Processor features: fpu tsc pae nx sse sse2
2/15/2008 9:32:26 AM||OS: Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition: , Service Pack 2, (05.02.3790.00)
2/15/2008 9:32:26 AM||Memory: 4.00 GB physical, 7.75 GB virtual
2/15/2008 9:32:26 AM||Disk: 233.75 GB total, 77.78 GB free
2/15/2008 9:32:26 AM||Local time is UTC -5 hours
2/15/2008 9:32:26 AM||Version change (5.10.30 -> 5.10.41)
2/15/2008 9:32:26 AM||No general preferences found - using BOINC defaults
2/15/2008 9:32:26 AM||Preferences limit memory usage when active to 2047.09MB
2/15/2008 9:32:26 AM||Preferences limit memory usage when idle to 3684.77MB
2/15/2008 9:32:26 AM||Preferences limit disk usage to 9.31GB
2/15/2008 9:32:26 AM||This computer is not attached to any projects
2/15/2008 9:32:26 AM||Visit http://boinc.berkeley.edu for instructions
2/15/2008 9:32:26 AM||Running CPU benchmarks
2/15/2008 9:32:58 AM||Benchmark results:
2/15/2008 9:32:58 AM|| Number of CPUs: 2
2/15/2008 9:32:58 AM|| 2979 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
2/15/2008 9:32:58 AM|| 6825 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU
2/16/2008 1:11:36 PM||Fetching configuration file from http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/get_project_config.php
2/16/2008 1:11:37 PM||Project communication failed: attempting access to reference site
2/16/2008 1:11:39 PM||Access to reference site failed - check network connection or proxy configuration.

Why you don't answer the questions from Ageless:

What method of connecting to the internet do you use? Modem, cable, (A)DSL, LAN, other (specify)?

If you check the Activity menu, what is your setting for the Network?
"Modem, cable, (A)DSL, LAN, other (specify)?

Without that simple answers your log is useless...

I took some screen shots of my problem they are at
http://web.tampabay.rr.com/baddawgie0/images/1.png though 5.png

Get this cc_config.xml file, save it on C:Program filesBOINC, and restart the client. Then post the new log.