Thanks for your reply. 
 
We're using DHCP in our company network, therefore my ip-adress and my 
hostname always changes.  
 
 
>Make sure there is an entry in /etc/hosts for your hostname.  If your  
>host name is not resolvable; for instance, it includes a domain name  
>you don't have registered, gnome will have problems. 
 
>Example in /etc/hosts: 
>192.168.1.3     computer.myhome.org slowpoke 
 
>man hosts(5) for all the gory details.  pkgsrc has Gnome 2.6.2 now.   
>This is quite a bit more polished than the 2.4.x series, IMHO.  It  
>seemed less bloated and was usable on my Pentium 233 with only 192 MB  
>of RAM.  YMMV. 
 
 
>Ian Thomas