Slow client logon as trying to contact Network share

[Wazz]

Hi Everyone,

I have taken it upon myself to investigate why clients are slow to reach the ctrl alt del screen when not on the domain - 15 - 25mins. This scenario comes about for homeworkers using VPN who have a network connection from startup and the client is trying to apply polices. Obviously, this is a problem as its happening before they have logged on and created a connection to the domain. The current fix of leaving the network cable out until you reach the ctl alt del screen isnt feasible/correct!

I have used a packet sniffer and seen hundreds of attempts to access two network resources (servers), which the client obviously cant reach. Certainly one of these servers is pointed to by computer polices as we run scripts from their and the software for installing is also on there etc. so I assume this is why the client is trying to contact this server - this is indicated in the clients error logs as well.

Is there anyway to stop this or enter a threshold to reduce the time? If the client cant contact a resource within 10seconds i'm pretty sure it never will, so why wait numerous minuets to fail. Or a group policy that detects its not on the domain and doesnt do this process at all.

Any help would be great!

Thanks
Wazz

 

[Wazz]

Further to this, incase anyone can help, are the scripts I run via group policy supposed to be in the DC's sysvol folder? I run all mine from another server, I wonder if this has anything to do with the delay?

Thanks

 

[Wazz]

This appears to be a very quiet board, will also post in the windows XP board.. however, can someone please test this for me? Plug a domain client into a normal broadband line as if you were going to work via VPN and switch on. Does your machine try and run computer Group policies or realise its not on the domain and fail? Not sure if this is an OS fault or my configuration.

Thanks!

 

[Noway2]

I wish I had a definitive answer for you. I am a recent subscriber to this forum and yes, it seems to be a little quiet, but does get some posts every few days at least. Your post basically confirms what I have long suspected and seen: that when a network resource is not available that the system will hang.

You might want to take a look at this document:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/832161

Towards the bottom, is a section title Registry setting for timeouts. The top of the article discusses that the default timeout is 10 minutes (absurd) and while the doc is geared towards XP, there is likely the same or similar setting in 2003.