Logon takes too long

[Dimitris]

Hi

I have a small network with W2K Adv. Server and W2K pro.
One of the machines (W2K pro SP4) takes too long to logon
in the network (around 25 minutes).
Also i have another machine that takes too long to logon
and after that it can't see the shared drives.If you press
a connection for 6-7 time it connects OK. The internet
connection works fine though.
Any ideas? Please help since these machines are used by the
developers and there is need for frequent reboots.
Thank you
Dimitrios Papoudas

 

[Eugene Taylor]

Are you using roaming profiles? It could be that the profile is large and it
just takes a while. If the same user can log into a different workstation
and not have the same problem though it would discount this. Are the
machines plugged into a switch or hub? I would try switching ports on the
hub/switch and even cables. If all this does not work try swapping out the
NIC.

 

[Shalom B.]

There are a number of factors that affect logon times especially if you
are using roaming profiles. Are you using roaming profiles or profiles
stored on a network share? It is almost advisable to use Local profiles
instead of roaming/remote profiles or if the need for roaming profiles
exists, store only the most vital of files in the network share.

It might not be a user profile related problem, have you checked the
event viewer to see if anything suspisious is happening at the logon time?

If the profile is corrupted, you could try recreating a new user
profile, log on as the administrator of the machine, backup the user's
profile (under c:\documents and settings) and then delete the profile
and then make the user log on again, a new profile should be created.
You can then copy all the user files and settings over from the old
backed profile.

 

[Danny Sanders]

The most common reason for long log on times is a bad DNS set up.

The internet
connection works fine though.

This gives me the Idea that your AD clients are pointed to your ISP's DNS
server for DNS, which if true, is the root of your problem.

Basically AD needs a DNS server for the AD domain. Install DNS on your
existing AD DC. Point the AD DNS server to itself in the properties of
TCP/IP for DNS. Point ALL AD clients to this AD DNS server ONLY. For
internet access set up your AD DNS server to forward requests and list your
ISP's DNS server as the forwarder, (or use root hints to resolve the
Internet). This is the ONLY place on your domain your ISP's DNS server
should be listed. DO NOT add them as secondary on *any* AD clients.

The clients are looking for the SRV resource records they MUST find in order
to "find" the domain. The SRV records are registered on the DNS server by
your servers during logon. Pointing your AD servers to your ISP's DNS
servers will cause them to try to register their SRV records on your ISP's
PUBLIC DNS server. If your ISP allowed this your AD domain would be open to
the public. Pointing your clients to your ISP's DNS server for DNS will
result in these clients "looking" for SRV records that aren't there which =
long log in times.

See:
Best Practices for DNS Client settings in Windows 2000 server and in Windows
Server 2003

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;825036



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





hth

DDS W 2k MVP MCSE

 

[K. Kwias]

Dimitrios,
I have seen lengthy logon issues due to DNS configuration.
Run dcdiag and net diag with the verbose switch.(dcdiag /v

c:\dcdiag.txt.-this will output the results to a text

file.) View the text file for errors.
Usually,Internet DNS should only be entered in as
forwarders.
Good luck.