Topic: DHCP/Domain Login Failure

[Derek]

Hi,

My organization uses an e-smith 4.1.1 server as our PDC with W9x clients. We have a switched network with Baystack 303's.

The problem is that a handful of the workstations regularly cannot login to the domain at first boot. When a login is attempted at first boot, an error message of "no domain server found...etc" occurs. Logging on and off a few times or running WINIPCFG and "Renew All" works around the problem but it is very inconvenient and frustrating for the users.

Also, when they do successfully login, the login script is set to run an exe from the Netlogon share. (Virus scanner update). Frequently this fails on these same machines even if login is successful.

90% of the workstations login to the domain and run the script perfectly. I can't figure out what is going on with the few that are failing. I have tested the cabling in the offices, updated NIC drivers...etc, all to no avail.

Help would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Derek

[Rob Hillis]

This sounds suspiciously like you may have either bad network cards or cables... the only time I've known this problem to happen is either on a BNC network (notoriously unreliable) or on a crossover cable I use here in emergencies which has a bad plug on one end...

[Jan Boas]

Hi Derek,
I had a similar problem on our network. Problem was the switched network. On our Cisco Switch Spanning Tree was enabled and coursed delay on DHCP answer. This cursed the Client PC to “time out”. Enabling “portfast” on client ports solved problem.

More on spanning tree and portfast on this link http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/473/5.html

Good luck.
Jan Boas