User with logon scripts problem

[Guest]

I am having problems with users logging into a Windows 2000 server from time
to time. It appears to be users that have logon scripts, and the logon
session will hang just before the Logon script runs. The logon script
executes without any problem, but just before it does, the server will sit
there with a blank screen. This can last from 30 seconds to 15 minutes. It
seems that the server has a hard time looking up the user's logon file, or
finding the logon script. Another thing to note is that the session does not
hang every time the user logs in. It is inconstant, and I have not been able
to declare any patterns. I have gone through the KB articles and have
installed patches 822834,324446,842382. I have run Ethereal, and I found that
there are packet re-transmits during the hang-up due to an invalid checksum.
Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

 

[Cary Shultz [A.D. MVP]]

Steve,

First of all, I am going to assume that the logon script is N*O*T being
delivered via a GPO, and that it is located in the SYSVOL shared folder (
well, actually c:\winnt\SYSVOL\sysvol\yourdomain.com\scripts to be more
accurate ).

Let's take a quick look at all of the 'obvious' stuff:

Are there multiple Domain Controllers in your environment?
If so, are you having any FRS problems?

Try this: open up Notepad and create a simple .txt file. I always use the
server name, date and time as the content of the notepad file and use
something like 'fromdc01.txt' as the name of the file. That would be the
name of the file that I have created on DC01. For DC02, the file would be
called 'fromdc02.txt' so that you can easily identify which file originated
from which DC. Once you drop that .txt file into the scripts folder it
should replicate to all other Domain Controllers pretty quickly. Well,
assuming that you have only one Site ( as set up in Active Directory Sites
and Services ). Is this the case?

What happens if you take that 'logon.bat' file and replace it with a
'logon.cmd' file? I have heard of problems in WIN2000 with a .bat file
where changing it to a .cmd file fixes that problem. Not sure that this
applies to you, though. I have never seen this actually fix anything but I
can tell you that in the environments where I implemented this the logon
script did run a tab bit faster!

So, if this does not resolve the issue have you considered using GPO to
deliver the logon script?

What are the client computers? WIN2000 or WINXP? And, this is really
important, what are they getting from DHCP in their IP Lease? I want to
focus on the DNS information ( you are probably using Options 003, 006 and
015 ). The only DNS information that your clients should be getting would
be your internal DNS Server ( most probably the Domain Controller ). The
only place that your external DNS Server information [ such as the IP
Address(es) of your ISP's DNS Server(s) ] would be in your Forward Lookup
Zone in your DNS ( and specifically in the Forwarders tab ). If your client
computers are getting the ISPs DNS Server information then you need to
immediately change this!

Have you installed the Support Tools from the WIN2000 Service Pack CD-Media
and looked at dcdiag?

--
Cary W. Shultz
Roanoke, VA 24012
Microsoft Active Directory MVP

http://www.activedirectory-win2000.com
http://www.grouppolicy-win2000.com