problems logging on with win98 pcs to 2000 DC's

[Guest]

There are about 30 win98 on my network, can you tell me what the minimum
server setup is necessary to allow these to logon and browse the domain. We
are currently being integrated into a larger organisation and as a first step
we have two new servers running 2003 joined to the domain.

The DHCP server has been moved to one of these and a number of changes were
made. One of which was the reference to the wins server in the lease options
was removed. Also the DNS setting "dynamic update dns A and ptr records for
DHCP clients that do not request updates" was unchecked. Would either of
these changes affect win98 logon. Prior to the changes the 98 clients had no
logon issues but now the message "no domain servers are available" is being
displayed at random. Sometimes the PCs will logon and other times they will
not. The network people who carried out the changes said that the 98 pcs will
validate using reverse DNS lookup rather than wins, but adding a wins server
address seams to reduce the number of unsuccessful logins.

TIA

Paul

 

[BP]

Is dhcp Wins NBT node type 8 and wins NBNS servers configured
on the dhcp server scope for the clients vlans? Wins NBT node 8 type tells
Win98 how to order the name resolve process using Netbios in the
netlogon process. Cisco has an article about name resolve order
for Node type 8 Microsoft clients if interested.

 

[Richard G. Harper]

Your Windows 98 clients will probably need a WINS to resolve your problems,
as NT/98 clients do not use DNS to resolve names on a domain. You may also
wish to reconsider the setting that removes the DNS update for clients that
don't request it, since your Windows 98 clients won't request it and thus
won't be in DNS.