Widows XP boots slowly when connected to a Windows 2000 Domain

[Jerry Russell]

We are setting up a new company domain controller Running
Windows 2000 Advanced Server. Most of the workstations
attached to the domain are running Windows XP Pro, but
there are still a smattering of Windows 98/ME machines
connection as well.

We've come to realize that the very first domain login
can be a slow and painful process on the XP machines,
sometimes taking as long as 10 minutes to completely log
in to the network. After this first login, we have seen
better performance for all network activities.

One Machine, However, consistently takes up to 15 minutes
to start up from shutdown. It has sucessfully logged in
to the network multiple times, but simply will not do so
quickly.

(None of the 98/ME machines have displayed this problem.)

Any Ideas?

 

[Ron Lowe]

We are setting up a new company domain controller Running
Windows 2000 Advanced Server. Most of the workstations
attached to the domain are running Windows XP Pro, but
there are still a smattering of Windows 98/ME machines
connection as well.

We've come to realize that the very first domain login
can be a slow and painful process on the XP machines,
sometimes taking as long as 10 minutes to completely log
in to the network. After this first login, we have seen
better performance for all network activities.

One Machine, However, consistently takes up to 15 minutes
to start up from shutdown. It has sucessfully logged in
to the network multiple times, but simply will not do so
quickly.

(None of the 98/ME machines have displayed this problem.)

Any Ideas?

This is usually a DNS problem.

XP differs from previous versions of windows in that it uses
DNS as it's primary name resolution method for finding domain
controllers:

How Domain Controllers Are Located in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314861

If DNS is misconfigured, XP will spend a lot of time waiting for it to
timeout before it tries using legacy NT4 sytle NetBIOS.
( Which may or may not work. )

1) Ensure that the XP clients are all configured to point to the local
DNS server which hosts the AD domain. That will probably be the
win2k server itself.
They should NOT be pointing an an ISP's DNS server.
An 'ipconfig /all' on the XP box should reveal ONLY the domain's
DNS server.

( you should use the DHCP server to push out the local DNS server
address. )

2) Ensure DNS server on win2k is configured to permit dynamic updates.

3) Ensure the win2k server points to itself as a DNS server.

4) For external ( internet ) name resolution, specify your ISP's DNS server
not on the clients, but in the 'forwarders' tab of the local win2k DNS
server.

On the DNS server, if you cannot access the 'Forwarders' and 'Root Hints'
tabs because they are greyed out, that is because there is a root zone (".")
present on the DNS server. You MUST delete this root zone to permit the
server to forward unresolved queries to yout ISP or the root servers.
Accept any nags etc, and let it delete any corresponding reverse lookuop
zones if it asks.


The following articles may assist you in setting up DNS correctly:

Setting Up the Domain Name System for Active Directory
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;237675
HOW TO: Configure DNS for Internet Access in Windows 2000
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;300202