Win2K terribly slow logons

You may need a local DNS or a WINS server at your location. The request are going back and forth from the work stations to the DNS server and depending on the demand the request may be time out. You can install it on the primary server and add it to the work stations. That should solve your problem.

We have a WINS Server, but that still doesn't solve the issue.

The problem is that your logon process goes looking for a domain controller to validate the login, and does not find one.

First problem -- if your domain controllers are not in the DNS your ISP maintains for your site, you need this done. ActiveDirectory will need this.

Alternate fix -- You can easily solve the login problem by placing an entry for your domain controller in the HOSTS file on each computer. If you have netbeui loaded, place an entry in the LMHOSTS file as well, adding the #PRE and #DOM: tags. (See the text at the beginning of each file for the format of the entry.) Make sure the default gateway on each computer is pointed properly.

You could also solve the problem by running a DNS server at the remote site, but doing this would require a server there.

Good luck.

You might try installing DNS on the local server and coord with the ISP to allow your DNS to be a secondary server for the domain. If done correctly this will allow you to maintain a local copy of the DNS zone for quicker lookups.

Also make sure your systems are configured with the correct domain name (yourdomain.com). If the server is not using the correct domain name then your systems are querying for a (to them) non-existant server. Active Directory relies heavily on DNS so you have to make sure your DNS works as advertised. A way to check your DNS is to use NSLOOKUP (NT command line utility) from your server and workstations to see if you can resolve names to IP and vise versa.

Just thought of another one...make sure your clientsare configured with the DNS server addresses. This is much easier to control through the use of DHCP by setting the parameters there (if you use it).

Hope this helps...

You will want an internal DNS server. Like it has been mentioned before your Domain Controllers are not going to be listed in your ISP's DNS. Unless you had them put them in. There are several security risks in having your Domain Controllers enteredinto a public DNS server. All ISP's DNS servers are open to the public. You never want to have your internal network open to the public like this. I would install DNS on one of the Domain Controllers and put in a forward to your ISP and point your clients to the internal DNS. OR also install DHCP and use it to assign a primary DNS (the internal one) and a secondary DNS (your ISP). I think it would be easier to do both, for redundancy.

This question was closed by the author

Crap, I didn't mean to close it was answered correctly and the person deserves the points. How do I fix it?