Preparing Network Connections

[Guest]

I have two laptops running XP SP1 exhibiting the same issue. When an Active
Directory user logs into the computer it takes around 2 minutes from the time
the user types in his password till the desktop appears. The logon screen
goes gray while waiting. If you login with a local account, the login time is
normal. The logon delay occurs even if you are logging into the laptop with
cached credentials and the network is disconnected. As a troubleshooting
step, I disabled the fast logon option using local group policy. On boot
"Preparing Network Connections" is where the slow down is happening. After
about a two minute delay the login screen appears and login times for local
or active directory accounts are the same, fast. I scoured the Internet and
other posts here for a solution and found none. Many have suggested DNS as an
issue; however, the DNS settings are correct and hard coding them makes no
difference. DHCP is working properly as well. Thanks.

 

[Robert L [MS-MVP]]

Are you using your ISP DNS? If you have AD, you should setup an internal DNS. this page may help,

windows slow issues Slow logon to windows domain Possible solutions: 1) check DNS settings. 2) It is better to use its using the same DNS as the server ie local DNS not ...
www.chicagotech.net/winslow.htm



Bob Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on http://www.HowToNetworking.com
Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on http://www.ChicagoTech.net
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties.
Don't send e-mail or reply to me except you need consulting services. Posting on MS newsgroup will benefit all readers and you may get more help.
I have two laptops running XP SP1 exhibiting the same issue. When an Active
Directory user logs into the computer it takes around 2 minutes from the time
the user types in his password till the desktop appears. The logon screen
goes gray while waiting. If you login with a local account, the login time is
normal. The logon delay occurs even if you are logging into the laptop with
cached credentials and the network is disconnected. As a troubleshooting
step, I disabled the fast logon option using local group policy. On boot
"Preparing Network Connections" is where the slow down is happening. After
about a two minute delay the login screen appears and login times for local
or active directory accounts are the same, fast. I scoured the Internet and
other posts here for a solution and found none. Many have suggested DNS as an
issue; however, the DNS settings are correct and hard coding them makes no
difference. DHCP is working properly as well. Thanks.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Robert, DNS is internal and AD integrated. Only two clients are having
this issue on a subnet of around 200 clients, all sharing the same DNS
Configuration.

 

[johnnyboy]

I have this same problem. About 50 PCs doing it on a largish network. Tried all suggestions on google, etc and no luck.

Definitely not DNS.
DHCP works fine.
Trying a server reboot tonight.
put domain controller entry in workstation's hosts file.

Today I was working on it, and the weird thing is that I was messing round statically setting dns etc. and it has come right on two of them. I definitely have repeated all the steps that I did on others and no more luck. I was religious in repeating these steps as I had sort of written a plan of attack and therefor had it all recorded. Somehow though something fixed it which makes this oh so more frustrating.

Has anyone tried a repair install?I am in a sitiuation where this is not easily possible. I will probably try this though tomorrow so check back.

Anyone have any light to shed on this?? please...

 

[Guest]

Hi,

On a whim, I disabled the blue tooth and wireless network connections. This
cut the problem down to 30 sec at login. This was acceptable for my user as
it was much better that the 2.5 min it was taking. I conclude from this that
for some reason the OS is taking forever to enumerate all of the network
connections. Wireless is taking longest I think because my user had a bunch
of old wireless networks in his list that he had connected to in the past. Of
course, the problem is still there it is just livable. (Problem happens in
safe mode with networking as well, so I doubt it is application related.)

I contacted the laptop vendor, HP. They have never heard of this problem.

P.S. I also tried a lmhost entry for DC authentication. Does not help, save
your time.

 

[johnnyboy]

Problem solved for me anyway.

Everyone with this fault check your event log/ System for services that fail to start. I have disabled the task scheduling service on the workstations and the fault disappeared.

So if your workstations don't use task scheduling this is a fix...

Over and out, johnnyboy.

 

[wittgrjp]

Solution to "preparing network connections" delay... maybe

Hi, I had this problem on my PC after plugging into an internet link at a hotel. No-one could fix it. No matter what network settings I changed it just kept happening. Even comparing 1:1 with a colleagues settings on the same PC config, where these were the same, mine would wait for a number of minutes then prompt me to log into my network as normal, whereas my colleagues just went straight to the login prompt.

This solution worked for me, it would be interesting to see if it worked for anyone else, though I don't really know why.

I simply pressed "ESC" (and also the fn keys in turn in case any of these had an impact at this point), within a few seconds the login screen appeared instead of after a few minutes, allowing me to login as normal.

After a few re-boots using the same method, I no longer needed to press ESC and the problem simply went away.

 

[clizzotte06]

Similar problem FIXED on Dell D-series laptops...

We noticed the problem occurred when we enabled the on-board wireless cards on our Dell D-Series laptops (WinXPsp2-Pro). Preparing Network connections took forever...er 3 minutes 22 seconds...you know forever!

We updated wireless NIC drivers and the Dell Wireless LAN card Utility to no avail.
Our 'Corporate image' had the Wireless Zero Configuration service disabled.
By enabling that service and setting the wireless NIC drivers to allow the service to run, yet still be managed by the Dell WLAN card utility, we were able to fix the problem.
Hope this helps...

 

[giogioforums]

This is the SOLUTION I found

HI all.
After getting crazy for fours months here the solution to save you some pain.
http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-11184-0.html?forumID=47&threadID=197152&messageID=2311170
Once I've fould out that the workstation service was slowing the all start up / login process with windows XP.
Here I am posting some considerations.
First the problem appear as a very slow login after typing your passord prior the desktop to appear.
The problem also appeared as an infinite need to repair continuously the connection (right clicking on the wireless icon) or often as inability to

connect wirelessly.

The SOLUTION to the problem "login to XP takes forever" is to remove any other software that manages the wireless card and let only the native Windows

Wireless Zero Configuration to handle it but the problem immediately desappear!!!.
Once you unistall any other software excepts the drivers of the wireless card, you must go on control panel/network

connections/advanced/general/properties/wirelss network and click on Use
Windows to configure my wireless network settings which will anable the native Windows Wireless Zero Configuration.

The problem is probably found in many computer that have the intel centrino chip set which uses the Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection but

maybe is with any other wireless
card that uses the intel software to manage.

Myself I did also utilize a second D-Link wireless card which was also utilizing its own software to manage and could work with the native Wireless Zero

Configuration) but it turned out because of the Intel(R) PRO/Wireless manager.
Myself just to be safe I unistalled also the D-Link softwarebut is not really necessary.

TWO MORE IMPORTANT Considerations:
THE PROBLEM DID NOT IMMEDIATELY GO AWAY!
1)
I had to reinstall (from an image I had) the entire operating system and then remove the Intel Wirelss manager from it.If I was not removing the Intel SW

the problem after few hours the problem reappeared (I restored the OS from the image like 30 times so I am certain).
For many people the problem will go away immediately just unistalling the wirelss software but that was not my case.
If you do not want to uninstall the operating system.you may go through a procedure to reset entirely the networking in your OS, I know there is a way to

do it but I never researched it.
(Maybe all you need to do is to remove all network conncections by uninsalling all drivers I chose to restart with a new XP)

2)
I utilize 2 wireless cards and I am having a second minor issue:
IF I DISABLE the wireless switch of my Intel card and connect the 2nd one, the pc still says that there are network available on the 1st. In other words

the card is not entirely off. I use a brand new DELL LATITUDE D820. Maybe this is to avoid the Plug&Play procedure.
As result I see two wireless icons on the bottom right when I only want one and altough the external DLINK says that is correctly connected to the

wireless network, Windows still seem to remain internally connected to the Intel one and as result will still be unable to see a webpage.
In order to "connect" Windows to the correct external network card I must click on its repair button (right click on its icon) and then everything is

ok. Maybe this is another bug of the os which wouldn't come as a real surprise.
I hope this all note will be useful to you and save you a lot of time.
Good luck!
PS
If you find on the web that the prefetcher is the problem.. I think it is not true.

 

[giogioforums]

This is the SOLUTION I found - Extra note - <Preparing Network Connection>

The problem appears also as <Preparing Network Connection> prior login with a different mmc setup to show the activity prior login. That's because even though the problem seems to appear after typing the login password, actuality the long delay starts prior typing it.

 

[Miongzky]

Preparing Network Settings slow...

Hi,

Hope this would help... I had this problem with our 2 laptops in our office. Both of them has this very slow in preparing network settings. I tried to google it but still the same.

These laptops are connected in a domain controller with DNS and static ip addresses assigned.

- I temporarily disabled NIC and enabled wireless connection
- remove all previous connections of your wireless
- then connect it to any wireless network and try to go online
- restart the computer and see if it resolves the problem
- if not try to apply static ip and dns address to your wireless and do the same procedures as above
- restart the computer

It works on our laptops here that had been connected on numerous wireless networks and that makes the network settings slow...

For Desktops, please check your DNS settings... also you can do the same with your NIC card.