Preparing Network Connections issue

Hi all,

Long time reader, first time poster. I have had a look at the
historical posts and can find nothing relevant. Apologies if this has
been posted on before however.

An issue has arisen within our network where some XP SP2 laptops are
taking a very long time to log in. On investigation, they are sitting
for a very long time at the Preparing Network Connections portion of
the startup sequence.

We have checked our DHCP logs and it has become apparent that some
machines are requesting and updating their DHCP leases repeatedly
during startup, but for no obvious reason. No errors are being entered
into the event logs on local machines.

Any assistance on this matter would be greatly appreciated. Happy to
provide more information on request.

Thanks in advance.

Barnaby.
UK Public Sector

Assuming this is domain network, I would check the DNS settings first. Or
this post may help,

Logon slow - Preparing Network Connections
http://www.chicagotech.net/netforums...hp?p=2939#2939

--
Bob Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on
http://www.ChicagoTech.net
How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on
http://www.HowToNetworking.com


"bloat" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) ups.com...
> Hi all,
>
> Long time reader, first time poster. I have had a look at the
> historical posts and can find nothing relevant. Apologies if this has
> been posted on before however.
>
> An issue has arisen within our network where some XP SP2 laptops are
> taking a very long time to log in. On investigation, they are sitting
> for a very long time at the Preparing Network Connections portion of
> the startup sequence.
>
> We have checked our DHCP logs and it has become apparent that some
> machines are requesting and updating their DHCP leases repeatedly
> during startup, but for no obvious reason. No errors are being entered
> into the event logs on local machines.
>
> Any assistance on this matter would be greatly appreciated. Happy to
> provide more information on request.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Barnaby.
> UK Public Sector
>

Hello,

do they finally get a working lease ?
What is the network card and driver version ?
The same if you create a reservation ?
Is the dhcp server starving address ?
Any eventlog warning or error ?
Is the lan card the primary in advanced tab of the network panel ?
Is wifi activated ?

Sorry for so much questions...

--
Cordialement,
Mathieu CHATEAU
English blog: http://lordoftheping.blogspot.com
French blog: http://www.lotp.fr


"bloat" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) ups.com...
> Hi all,
>
> Long time reader, first time poster. I have had a look at the
> historical posts and can find nothing relevant. Apologies if this has
> been posted on before however.
>
> An issue has arisen within our network where some XP SP2 laptops are
> taking a very long time to log in. On investigation, they are sitting
> for a very long time at the Preparing Network Connections portion of
> the startup sequence.
>
> We have checked our DHCP logs and it has become apparent that some
> machines are requesting and updating their DHCP leases repeatedly
> during startup, but for no obvious reason. No errors are being entered
> into the event logs on local machines.
>
> Any assistance on this matter would be greatly appreciated. Happy to
> provide more information on request.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Barnaby.
> UK Public Sector
>

Matheiu,

Thanks very much for your response. I will cover your questions as
best I can.

Yes they do finally get a working lease

NIC driver details - Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet. Driver
version 8.48.0.0, but believe the issue is across different laptop
models and therefore likely to be independent of NIC

We have not yet created a reservation, we are looking to test this.

The DHCP server has plenty of surplus addresses.

No eventlog errors on the client machines or server-side DNS and DHCP.

I will check which slot the lan card is in.

Problem exists whether or not WIFI is enabled. Though we have not
ruled this out as a potential cause.

I will add some additional information we have established since my
initial posting. If we remove the laptop from the domain and log in as
a stand-alone workstation, ableit connected to the same network cable,
and served by the same DHCP / DNS server the problem is entirely
solved. When joined back to the domain, the issue does not occur after
first boot up. However, when a user logs on, and group plicy is
applied the issue re-occurs immediately. This might point to the issue
suggested by Robert L above.

Many thanks again,

Barnaby.


On Oct 4, 6:28 pm, "Mathieu CHATEAU" <gollum...@free.fr> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> do they finally get a working lease ?
> What is the network card and driver version ?
> The same if you create a reservation ?
> Is the dhcp server starving address ?
> Any eventlog warning or error ?
> Is the lan card the primary in advanced tab of the network panel ?
> Is wifi activated ?
>
> Sorry for so much questions...
>
> --
> Cordialement,
> Mathieu CHATEAU
> English blog:http://lordoftheping.blogspot.com
> French blog:http://www.lotp.fr
>
> "bloat" <barnaby.dav...@googlemail.com> wrote in message
>
> news:(E-Mail Removed) ups.com...
>
>
>
> > Hi all,
>
> > Long time reader, first time poster. I have had a look at the
> > historical posts and can find nothing relevant. Apologies if this has
> > been posted on before however.
>
> > An issue has arisen within our network where some XP SP2 laptops are
> > taking a very long time to log in. On investigation, they are sitting
> > for a very long time at the Preparing Network Connections portion of
> > the startup sequence.
>
> > We have checked our DHCP logs and it has become apparent that some
> > machines are requesting and updating their DHCP leases repeatedly
> > during startup, but for no obvious reason. No errors are being entered
> > into the event logs on local machines.
>
> > Any assistance on this matter would be greatly appreciated. Happy to
> > provide more information on request.
>
> > Thanks in advance.
>
> > Barnaby.
> > UK Public Sector- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Robert,

Thank you very much for the response. You might be onto something with
the "Always wait for the network at computer startup". We are seeking
to test this now.

I have added some more information to a post below which we identified
in further testing, this seemed quite informative to us!

Thanks again,

Barnaby.


On Oct 4, 6:24 pm, "Robert L \(MS-MVP\)" <nore...@chicagotech.net>
wrote:
> Assuming this is domain network, I would check the DNS settings first. Or
> this post may help,
>
> Logon slow - Preparing Network Connectionshttp://www.chicagotech.net/netforums/viewtopic.php?p=2939#2939
>
> --
> Bob Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
> Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting onhttp://www.ChicagoTech.net
> How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access onhttp://www.HowToNetworking.com
>
> "bloat" <barnaby.dav...@googlemail.com> wrote in message
>
> news:(E-Mail Removed) ups.com...
>
>
>
> > Hi all,
>
> > Long time reader, first time poster. I have had a look at the
> > historical posts and can find nothing relevant. Apologies if this has
> > been posted on before however.
>
> > An issue has arisen within our network where some XP SP2 laptops are
> > taking a very long time to log in. On investigation, they are sitting
> > for a very long time at the Preparing Network Connections portion of
> > the startup sequence.
>
> > We have checked our DHCP logs and it has become apparent that some
> > machines are requesting and updating their DHCP leases repeatedly
> > during startup, but for no obvious reason. No errors are being entered
> > into the event logs on local machines.
>
> > Any assistance on this matter would be greatly appreciated. Happy to
> > provide more information on request.
>
> > Thanks in advance.
>
> > Barnaby.
> > UK Public Sector- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -