Clients don't display login GUI after crash (NWclinet 330 Netware 5.1)

[gwaielo]

We are:
Netware 5.1 SP 3
Clients Win95/NWCLient 3.30
IP Only
There is a entry for our tree in each clients NWHOST file

Situation:
Sometimes when a client machine crashes or is turned off withough logging off then on an immediate reboot there is no Login GUI. Once in windows if I bring up a Netware login and try to login I get tree or server could no be found error. I can ping the server successfully (using both its IP adress and DNS resolved name). This condition will clear after about 5-10mins and a reboot will give a GUI login. I have tried deleting all connections from the console (both for the user and the workstation). I can replicate the situation but it does not happen 100% of the time.

Thnx

 

[rreimers]

Sometimes the network card needs a power-off reset. We have Dells with 3Com built-in NICs and Acers with Intell NICs. Almost ALL of the time, if we tell MS windows (95/98/98SE/2000) to shutdown and restart in DOS mode, the card is unavailable to the driver. I have seen times where there was a momentarty power failure or the power was quickly toggled, that even Windows couldn't find the NIC. In all cases, making sure the power is SWITCHED off, not just soft-power off, for at least 10 seconds, we never have a problem with any OS finding the NIC. Seems to be a fairly common problem with newer NICs and soft-power, just that most people don't have it because they leave the PC off, or don't try to short term the power off cycle.
This sounds consistant with your problem - the NIC is in an indeterminate state, and because the client can't see the network while booting, there will be NO Novell GUI login screen. A reboot will clear the problem. Don't know why ping works, except that is a MS program? or the NIC is working partially?

Hope this helps - Randy

 

[gwaielo]

Thanks for the tip randy but the I can simulate this issue by deliberately powering off a machine rather than logging off windows which simulates a crash situation. It is something to do with the netare client not doing any name resoulution to find the tree, i'm still working on it!

 

[rreimers]

But if the GUI does NOT come up it means that Novell client doesn't find ANY evidence of a Novell network or that at the time of reboot, the NIC is not responding properly. There must be some evidence of Novell network traffic for the GUI to operate. Clearing connections won't help bring up the GUI screen, as the client doesn't know what tree or who is logging in. If you get the first Novell flash screen, then normally a few seconds later, you should get the GUI login. The first flash always seems to come up, even on a disconnected box. The client seems to be trying to find some Novell IP or IPX traffic at that point, then it brings up the GUI screen. Does this still happen if power is left off more than 15 seconds? If it only happens on a reset, or quick power cycle of less than 5 seconds, look toward a problem with properly resetting the NIC. Remember that the reset button doesn't reset the PC, only sends a signal to the processor to reboot, and that the newer soft-power supplies don't remove all power from the motherboard and that the best is to use a "Power Center" or pull the plug. I don't know how the client ties to the NIC at the machine level, but there seems to be a problem properly reconnecting to the network after a quick reset. Try running Windows, tell it to restart in DOS mode, and see if the 16-bit client with VLMs will work. Sometimes it will, sometimes not, depending on the NIC and position of the planets I don't know what Windows and its 32bit drivers do, but as you have described your problem, I would look to the NIC, not the server.

 

[gwaielo]

Randy,

Thanks for the follow up, hope you are still checking this thread.

I'm still getting this problem, it seems to be something to do with the netware client getting in a knot and not looking to its NWHOST file to find its nearest server. I am pretty sure its not a network card issue and when a workstation is in this state it can still ping other servers (including the netware server). An incredilbly ugly work around we have found is to change the name resolution order in the novell client configuration, it does not matter what order it end up in but the change seems to reset something and allows reconnection to the netware server. I suspect getting SLP working rather than using static NWHOST files would fix this problem.