Slow Login to Domain with W2K server

[Phil Brown]

We have recently added some WinXP Pro workstations to our
LAN (most others are W2K), which is an NT style domain
with a W2K sp4 server.

The W2K machines log in without problem, however the WinXP
machines take an extremely long time to log in.

Once logged in, they perform very well.

I was hoping that someone could point me in the right
direction to resolve this.

Things I have done already:

Disabled BITS
Disbaled asynchronous login on the XP machines

Any assistance or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[Nicholas]

Edit Group Policy to allow XP to wait for network initialization:

Navigate to Computer Configuration / Administrative Templates / System / Logon

Double-click "Always wait for the network at computer startup and logon" and enable this policy.

Ref: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...ry/en-us/policy/policy/logon_optimization.asp

To speed the startup and logon process, Windows XP Professional does not require that the network be fully initialized before a client computer can start up or before a user can log on. If a user has previously logged on to a particular client computer, he or she is subsequently logged on using credentials cached on that computer.
When a user switches from using a local profile to using a roaming profile, Windows XP Professional copies relevant portions of the user's registry from the server instead of from the local computer, to prevent an older local copy from overwriting the server copy. Thereafter, whenever the roaming user logs on, the computer always waits for the network, so the profile can be downloaded from the server.
When fast network logon is enabled (as it is by default in Windows XP Professional), if administrators remove the profile path from a user's object, it is recommended that they also either rename or delete the corresponding profile folder. If they do not, and an administrator later reenters the same path, the user will receive the older copy of the registry from the server.

Ref: http://www.microsoft.com/mspress/books/sampchap/5566e.asp


--
Nicholas

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------


| We have recently added some WinXP Pro workstations to our
| LAN (most others are W2K), which is an NT style domain
| with a W2K sp4 server.
|
| The W2K machines log in without problem, however the WinXP
| machines take an extremely long time to log in.
|
| Once logged in, they perform very well.
|
| I was hoping that someone could point me in the right
| direction to resolve this.
|
| Things I have done already:
|
| Disabled BITS
| Disbaled asynchronous login on the XP machines
|
| Any assistance or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
|
| Thanks.

 

[David Jones]

DNS settings are normally the culprit here. XP attempts
to resolve the domain controller via DNS before anything
else.

Does the XP client use only the domain controller or
other internal DNS server? Remove everything but that
DNS server, and instead, add your ISP's DNS servers as
forwarders on your domain controller's actual DNS server -
the DNS administrative tool help file explains how to do
this.

 

[Phil Brown]

Thanks for the response.

Originally, this policy was set on - from information I
have read, I disabled it because there is a noted issue
when logging into NT style domains that can cause delays.

Either way, either setting, I'm still having slow login
problems.

-----Original Message-----
Edit Group Policy to allow XP to wait for network initialization:

Navigate to Computer Configuration / Administrative Templates / System / Logon

Double-click "Always wait for the network at computer

startup and logon" and enable this policy.

Ref: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp? url=/library/en-us/policy/policy/logon_optimization.asp

To speed the startup and logon process, Windows XP

Professional does not require that the network be fully
initialized before a client computer can start up or
before a user can log on. If a user has previously logged
on to a particular client computer, he or she is
subsequently logged on using credentials cached on that
computer.

When a user switches from using a local profile to using

a roaming profile, Windows XP Professional copies relevant
portions of the user's registry from the server instead of
from the local computer, to prevent an older local copy
from overwriting the server copy. Thereafter, whenever the
roaming user logs on, the computer always waits for the
network, so the profile can be downloaded from the server.

When fast network logon is enabled (as it is by default

in Windows XP Professional), if administrators remove the
profile path from a user's object, it is recommended that
they also either rename or delete the corresponding
profile folder. If they do not, and an administrator later
reenters the same path, the user will receive the older
copy of the registry from the server.

 

[David Jones]

Assuming the W2K server is also running DNS, yes, you
should point the XP client to it.
You can then add a forwarder on the W2K server to point
to your FreeBSD box and you should have fast logon times
and be able to resolve things via the FreeBSD box as well.

 

[Phil Brown]

Thanks again - much appreciated

-----Original Message-----
Assuming the W2K server is also running DNS, yes, you
should point the XP client to it.
You can then add a forwarder on the W2K server to point
to your FreeBSD box and you should have fast logon times
and be able to resolve things via the FreeBSD box as well.

.