Netware Client for NT/2000 slows Network resources! 4

[CiscoTech]

When we install the Novell Client 4.8 for NT/2000 on Windows 2000 machines it brings network resources to a crawl. To start with, it takes an additional 45 seconds for the machine to get to the CTRL+ALT+DEL screen now. Once you finally log in and attempt to access a mapped drive, it takes forever. These machines are also logging into a Windows Domain controller. Accessing Window shares are equally as slow. The moment the Novell Client is removed, everything goes back to normal. Anyone have any ideas? We are using Netware 5 along with a Windows PDC, running IP only. Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[TheLad]

Is the SLP settings in the Client Advanced Properties configured correctly? Is SLP configured correctly on your network? -----------------------------------------------------
"It's true, its damn true!"
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[rgzimmer]

The client SP3 has helped us a bit with ths as well.

 

[CiscoTech]

I am having difficulty finding this SP3 that everyone talks about. Where can I find the correct file? I searched Novell's site, but there is an overwhelming amount of files there.

 

[TheLad]

Novell appear to have taken Novell Client 4.8 & SP3 off their download site in favour of Novell Client 4.81. This can be found here:

http://download.novell.com/

Give it a go and let us know how you get on. -----------------------------------------------------
"It's true, its damn true!"
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[CiscoTech]

We are using the newest Client v.4.81 and the problem is still evident. Even printing to a Microsoft Shared Printer takes an additional 45 seconds on machines using the Novell Client. Someone mentioned the SLP settings in the Advanced Properties tab; No I have not looked their yet. What am I looking for? Again this an IP only network.

Thank you.

 

[TheLad]

Have you got an SLP scope configured in your NDS? If so, you will need to add the scope name and the IP address of a DA (Directoery Agent) server into the Service Location section of the client configuration. This may help.

Also ensure that you have entries in your DNS for your NetWare servers. Try doing ping tests from a CMD prompt to ensure that you can ping the servers by name. Also check the response whilst doing these tests.

Failing that, ensure that your NetWare servers definately have a default gateway configured in their TCP/IP settings. -----------------------------------------------------
"It's true, its damn true!"
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[CiscoTech]

I do not have SLP configured. Honestly, I am not to familar with it and have never used SLP before. We only have one Novell Server. We can ping it fine with less then 1ms results. The Novell Server has a properly configured gateway as well.

 

[TheLad]

SLP is the TCP/IP equivalent of SAP used by IPX/SPX. Whilst SAP is standard on routers, SLP needs to be configured. You may have only noticed slowdowns when the new client was placed onto a machine, that is because the new client talks a lot differently to the servers and does a lot more.

The following is a link to how to configure SLP. Take a look and see what you think:

http://www.novell.com/documentation/lg/ndsedir/index.html?taoenu/data/a5eyqkl.html

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"It's true, its damn true!"
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[BoMohrAndersen]

You could just run "SLPDA" on the system console let it autoconfigure itself. It will create an OU in the server context where it places its so called unscoped scope. This will work fine in a one-server setup

Back to your problem with slow access to the network resources. I don´t think this is related to the Novell Client version or even SLP. First of all I would try to disable NetBIOS over TCPIP on a test workstation with W2K and just see if accessing Netware ressources begins to work (of course accessing MS resources will fail). If so you probably experience a name resolution conflict between the MS client for MS networks and the Novell Netware client. Look at

http://www.ithowto.com

and try some of the suggestions.

Also if NetBIOS is a problem and you´re not using a WINS services (default in W2K is NetBIOS B-node), then do start using a LMHOSTS file on all your workstations and remember to preload the PDC and other MS-servers. This will probably prevent your workstation from ever broadcasting for MS-ressources on the LAN which speeds up MS-browsing. You could also make the workstation a member of the MS-domain, but thats more or less up to you!

Yours Bo Mohr Andersen, Denmark.

 

[TheBoySmith]

on the netware client SLP info, add the ip address of your server running slpda to the da list.
Tick static. So the workstation will not browse for da's on the network.

Hope this helps. Lee Smith
Xenon Network Services
Snr. Technical Support
LSmith@xenon-uk.co.uk

 

[CiscoTech]

Thanks everyone for your responses! It appears running SLPDA on the Novell Server has made things run better. Also prioritizing the protocol binding order in Windows helped alot also. Thanks again!

 

[Svperstarr]

wow... i have been having the same net-speed problems. i will try all of your suggestions and let you know how it goes.

thanks to all of those novell experts helping us MS Zombies (me at least) ;-)