AirPort connection availability

At what point during the startup procedure does a wireless connection to
a preferred netword become available? I does seem to me that a
connection to a previously used network (i.e. user/password are
remembered) is only established after the login.

I've got a Mac Mini home "server" on WiFi that I would like to control
remotely only and I don't want to switch on auto-logon.

--
Marcel Stör, http://www.frightanic.com
Blog: http://frightanic.wordpress.com
Skype: marcelstoer
-> I kill Google Groups posts: http://improve-usenet.org.