Speed up Domain Logon

Discussion in 'Networks' started by jackd, Dec 31, 2006.

  1. jackd

    jackd Megabyte Poster

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    Is there any ways that i could speed up my logon to my domain. Here are some settings for the domain.

    *Windows 2000 Advanced Server
    *Windows XP Clients
    *Roaming Profiles Enabled
    *My Documents stored in a seperate location to roaming profile
    *Profiles around 4mb

    Thanks, Jack
     
  2. zebulebu

    zebulebu Terabyte Poster

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    Jack

    This is probably the same problem I came across numerous times early in XPs lifetime. Its caused by the way Windoze XP handles the logon process (specifically, cached logons).

    To disable it, fire up Group Policy editor, select 'Local Computer', go to Computer Config, Admin Templates, System, Logon and change the entry for 'Always wait for network at startup' to 'Enabled'.

    Refresh local policy and that should do it
     
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  3. jackd

    jackd Megabyte Poster

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    Hmmm..Ive already got that enabled but ill have another logon with another account and see what the time is... If anybody else has any suggestions feel free to post
     
  4. jackd

    jackd Megabyte Poster

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    Seemed to be a DNS issue with my DHCP server. I had the DNS set to get my IP's DNS servers but ive now got it pointed at the DC and it seems to work. At the minute a 1mb account takes 5 seconds to logon from a wireless laptop and it has to process its GPO's Ill let you guys know if it returns to normal.
     
  5. Sparky
    Highly Decorated Member Award 500 Likes Award

    Sparky Zettabyte Poster Moderator

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    Yup, you need to have the clients DNS pointing at your DC to resolve the local domain name and therefore log onto the domain. If you dont expect a looooong wait to logon :biggrin
     
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  6. Bluerinse
    Honorary Member

    Bluerinse Exabyte Poster

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    Quoted for truth!

    Jack when a client is logging on it will query DNS to find out the IP of it's local domain controller. This is stored in a special DNS record called a SRV record. Clearly your ISP's DNS server will have no knowledge of you local network hence you will log on using cached credentials but only after a long delay.

    Therefore, your clients should be configured with your local DNS server as their preferred DNS server and your DNS server should have your ISP's DNS server addresses configured as forwarders. Then if you client needs to know the IP address of say www.google.co.uk the resolver will query your local DNS server which won't know the answer as it's not authoritative for the .co.uk zone and it will forward the request to it's configured forwarder ie your ISP's DNS server/s and they will do the work and return the results to your DNS server and then the client. That is the best way to set things up.

    Of course roaming profiles will also slow down the log on process too.
     
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