It doesn't have to necessarily be at the top.. it has to be in front of
certain other lines so top makes sure that is the case.  I don't recall
which lines but it is documented.
Andy

Tru. the helper has to be available when netbind is called. Unfortutantely
it is not sufficient to place the helperw run command exactly before
netbind, as then it does not have enough time to get ready before the next
command. So there needs at least one or two run or start commands in
beetween them. If tha is not the case, netbind will just hang (usually not
trap BWT).

To play safe, helperw.exe is placed at the top of config.sys.
Theoretically even this may not suffice, depending on the system
configuration. Unfortunatley the author was not willing to code the helper
and the driver a way that at least something more meaningful than just a
hang happens, even though the problem was pretty clear. I'd say an error
message or at least a beep would be great, and then the boot should a
least continue.

BTW, for the current problem it should be checked for if the trap occurrs
during netbind, so ALT-F2 should be pressed and watched out for the last
successful command before the trap (if possible). Is it really netbind
being executed while the trap happens ?

bye, Christian