slow domain log-on

[oshta]

ok, im not saying its 100% sorted, but i set up a domian server, with another PC on the domain, and set up 6 users (5+admin)

i can sucsessfully log into the domain from the PC, and all the settings etc stay with the diffrent users etc

so, as far as its going, it all works fine... ....EXCEPT, it take all day!!
- i takes about like 4mins to "load/apply personal settings"

- i guessing its somthink simple (somthink like my dads laptop, where it was searching for wireless networks ever time he loged on) - but i cant find it

- so can somone give me hand speeding her up,

thanks, daniel

[Moby-Dick]

are you using romaing profiles ?

[oshta]

As far as i know - Yes

- i planed to, and i think thats how its set up, but as i only have one PC atm, i cannt test it

- i would like to use roaming profiles (part of the reason i set up the server in the first place)


daniel

[Paul Adams]

What's the OS & SP on the DC?
What's the OS & SP on the client?
Is there a wireless NIC in the client?
Running the domain in mixed or native mode?
Running a WINS server on your DC?

Domains aren't my area of expertise, but if I get chance tomorrow I can take a look for you.

Unless you have quite a few PCs, and identical apps on all the PCs, roaming profiles can be more hassle than they are worth, depends on the environment.
Folder redirection might be a better plan for a small network.

[Jiff Lemon]

If its 2k/2k3 then my money is on DNS.

Either your DNS on the server is scoobied or you've got the clients pointing to your ISP's DNS rather than the server.

[Jiff Lemon]

Just to clarify the above a little:

Active Directory requires DNS - Its the Backbone on which NT5 was built. When you set up a domain, it's easiest to set it up with a .local dns name I.E Mydomain.local, so your server's full DNS name will be server.mydomain.local. When a PC logs into the domain, its going to query its DNS server to find out where the nearest domain controller is and what's it IP address.

Now, if you've got the client PC pointing to your ISP's DNS, it going to spend a while figuring out that .local doesn't exist - it then retries for something like 3 minutes before doing a netbios broadcast, whereupon it finds the DC locally and logs in.

If you need help, from the CMD line, do an IPCONFIG /all from client and server and post the results here.

[oshta]

What's the OS & SP on the DC?
What's the OS & SP on the client?
Is there a wireless NIC in the client?
Running the domain in mixed or native mode?
Running a WINS server on your DC?

Domains aren't my area of expertise, but if I get chance tomorrow I can take a look for you.

Unless you have quite a few PCs, and identical apps on all the PCs, roaming profiles can be more hassle than they are worth, depends on the environment.
Folder redirection might be a better plan for a small network.

-the server is Win2kAS
-and the clients are WinXPpro sp1/2
-No Wireless on the network at all
-domian is running in mixed mode, but only becuse i dont know what i should be, and thats what it was defauled to (and you cant change it back)
-i think im running WINS, again, im nbot sure what it is, so i havnt moved it from defult

so yes jiff, i think my DNS is "scoobled" - along with the rest od the settings!!

Windows 2000 IP Configuration
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:
          Connection-specific DNS Suffix .  :
          IP Address .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  : 192.168.0.3
          Subnet Mask .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  : 255.255.255.0
          Default Gateway  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  :

im guessing it should have somthink like "local" under the "Connection-specific DNS Suffix" ??
- anyway, thanks a lot guys, - as you can see, i've jumped in a the deap end a little having never ran a server before etc, but thanks for the help, and im sure i'll learn fastest "on the job"


daniel

[Paul Adams]

Your server has no default gateway?
So it doesn't have Internet connectivity?

What about your XP clients - are they getting DHCP IP, gateway & DNS settings from a router or anything?

Change your client's primary DNS to 192.168.0.3 and test a login, see if it's faster.

If the clients need Internet connectivity then you need to set up DNS forwarding on the DC, pointing to your ISP's DNS servers.

Regarding the connection-specific DNS suffix, it doesn't have to have a value in it - type IPCONFIG /ALL to get more info on the server and you should see the domain name you created in the first set of details.

When you joined the XP client into the domain, did it take a few minutes too?

[oshta]

no, the server currently has no internet connection, my internet conection currently comes into one of the clent PCs (BT midband, via USB) - in january we should be getting our exchange equiped for Broadband, and then once thats done, i'll get a router etc
- so atm, there is no router

- both the clients are XPpro - one with SP1 one with SP2

- and i made the DNS server of the client the IP of the server [192.168.0.3] and log on in fine!!


THANK YOU a lot, and thanks again for taking the time to help a learner


- also, while where here, if you dont mind, could you explan how is set up "DNS fwding" to get the conectiong onto the server (currently, only ICS only happens between the two client[xp] PCs)

[Paul Adams]

Jiff saves the day

Domain stuff is still handy for me to learn too, my skillset is skewed heavily towards networking right now.

I'm going to take a wild guess and assume your ICS gateway Windows XP client is 192.168.0.1, and the other client is 192.168.0.2?

To get Internet connectivity, your ICS client had its DNS and default gateway set to the ICS gateway, 192.168.0.1?


Now, that ICS client PC is sending all name queries to your DC, so it can't resolve any public domain names - so what you should do is:

- set the secondary DNS on the ICS client to 192.168.0.1, so that if the DC isn't available, it can resolve names eventually

- set up a DNS forwarder on the DC so any name it can't resolve for its clients, it forwards to the ICS gateway

- the primary DNS on the DC should be itself - 192.168.0.3, and set the default gateway to 192.168.0.1


Here's a handy article on DNS for Windows 2000 and 2003:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;291382

For Windows 2000, here's a tips page which has details on setting up a DNS forwarder (I only have Windows 2003 here and the UI is slightly different):
http://www.tek-tips.com/faqs.cfm?fid=3017


As I said, I took guesses at your IP addresses, but you should be able to get the idea I hope.

[oshta]

oh, i think i follow most of that, will give it a go

-agian, thats for the help, and you did guess the IPs right, lol

[Richie]

Jiff - just a quick question about DC setup. It always recommends me NOT to use a single lable domain e.g. "mydomain" and to use somehting like "mydomain.com" or whatever.... Just wondering what problems I could have with using a single label domain compared to a full domain.

I mean I could use "dataless.mine.nu" as this points to my IP anyways but just curious.

[Jiff Lemon]

What you try to do is keep your DNS zones separate:
Your external DNS is looking after by who ever you registered your domain name with.
Your internal DNS is looked after by you.
Everything on your internal network should look to the internal DNS server to resolve dns queries.Anthing it can't resolve (I.E non local resources), its forwards to an external server to resolve.

I'm not saying its impossible to do; you can have whats called split brain DNS, where you can maintain both zones (internal and external) but the idea is to try and keep things as simple as possible.

What problems can you encounter? Essentially anything that relies on DNS (just about everything!). See, get your DNS wrong, and you'll end having to use your ISP's DNS servers to resolve web pages etc. But now you can't get local resources working right.

2k3 server went some way to making AD setup easier (2k was a minefield!).
The basic steps are:
Install the os.
Give the server an static IP address. Point primary DNS at itself. Click Advanced.Click DNS.
Tick the "Append primary and connection specific DNS suffixes" and "Append parent suffixes of the primary DNS suffix" and "Register this connection's addresses in DNS".
Run DCpromo (which then installs the DNS service).
Give your domain name a .local suffix (or if you run mac's on the same network, in that case go for .lan or .office)
After AD has been set up, go into DNS, and configure fowarders, pointing to your ISP's DNS servers.

Marvel at the wonders of AD.

[Richie]

Been running AD on 2K3 server for a while now, just the few times I have re-installed it, the wizard "moans" at you for having a single label domain.

[Paul Adams]

"Information about configuring Windows for domains with single-label DNS names"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q300684/