Wireless logon script

[Bluetooth]

Hi guys

i am having some desperate issues with mandatory profiles and im at my wits end. Basically for some reason the profiles arent using the wireless credentials to connect before logon and because this is happening users are getting the usual domain isnt available stuff

Basically i wondered if there was a script to make the machine connect before logon so a script to be run at startup that would make sure the machine is connected before it can log on.

I have the wait for network setting in group policy enabled but the machines arent connecting anyway.

Thanks in advance

[ful56_uk]

do you have loop back enabled on the gpo?

[round2it]

i had the same problem with some dell laptops a while back

i did this to cure my problem

on each workstation
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
"GpNetworkStartTimeoutPolicyValue"=dword:00000 03c


this fixed it for me

dont know if it will help you but it is worth a try

[alunmjones]

what AP do you have, i had this problem a few months back when we got new access points that completely refused to do domain authentication.

[round2it]

did you get anywhere with this bluetooth?

[Bluetooth]

Hi fellers, my apologies for not responding, didnt get much chance to test this.

we have 5 wireless points in the school at the moment, 1 per year group, 3 of them are Linksys WAP54G's and the other is a Netgear WG102 dual band (with the a band disabled and running only G)

I am looking at trippling the wireless points in the school as that is what i think the issue is.

I have 15 netbooks setup the exact same at a different school using netgear WPN802T's and there are no problems there with domain authing before logon using the credentials in the profile.

Will be heading to the latter school this aft to try the netbook on their ndomain and then take it back to the former school to try the fix mentioned above.

As i have said im probably going to be trying to replace all the wireless points with newer ones and then look into some more when the budget comes next month.

I have had good experience with Netgear WG602's and WPN802T's but are there any you guys would recommend?

[cookie_monster]

We've started using Ruckus and our wireless XP laptops are running very well, I was a bit worried at first but they boot connect over wireless and run scripts including a robocopy script that copies profiles and shortcuts. I'm very impressed with Ruckus so far.

Using Compaq 311 netbooks and Stone NEO's at the moment and they both work very well.

All of this works with just the wait for network setting in group policy enabled. It might be worth setting that in the local policy using gpedit.msc then you know that the setting is applied before it connects.

[Bluetooth]

Dont much like stone i am afraid, wouldnt touch their kit with a barge pole unfortunately =-)

[cookie_monster]

Dont much like stone i am afraid, wouldnt touch their kit with a barge pole unfortunately =-)

I'm not recommending that you buy some Stone kit (or Compaq/HP for that matter) i'm just pointing out what hardware I have this working with

Have you tried adding the local GPO settings?

[Bluetooth]

Hrmm no but i dont fancy messing with local gpo's when the machines should be pulling them down from the server.

Edit: Plus the profiles that are stored on the server have all the credentials for the wireless networks etc, i have even tried cancelling deleting local profiles and allowing the credentials to be put into the profiles on the machines. still nothing unfortunately, i havent had chance to test the fix above yet and may not till monday

[cookie_monster]

Hrmm no but i dont fancy messing with local gpo's when the machines should be pulling them down from the server.

Edit: Plus the profiles that are stored on the server have all the credentials for the wireless networks etc, i have even tried cancelling deleting local profiles and allowing the credentials to be put into the profiles on the machines. still nothing unfortunately, i havent had chance to test the fix above yet and may not till monday

How do you expect the system to pull down GPO's that affect system startup if it can't pull them down untill someone is logged on? I'm suggesting this as a test!!!

I don't set anything in the profile are you using the windows wireless utility? My systems can boot and connect to the server without anyone logged on.

[Bluetooth]

Right heres the LONG story:

School 1
15 Netbooks, setup with mandatory profiles which are hosted from the server in \\server\profiles\manclass i set these profiles up by creating a user with admin access and then copied their profile to the above area, changed the ntuser.dat to ntuser.man and maade this profile default profile for all classes. NOTHING is set on the local machine apart from having the software imaged over to it, thats all. When the machine switches on they connect to the wireless on their own with no problem. Cached copies are deleted by a script i have running at this school so nothing i stored on the machine except for the actual software.

School 2
Same as above except these machines dont seem to watch to connect to the network before logon, they just dont even try to initiate a connection. When i login as an admin local or network, the machines have not connected, even though they have the codes stored locally. After i connect using local admin i can log out, and the class user can be logged in no problem, this is obviously not what i want as i want it to be as above =-)

No settings are set on the machines, all settings are pushed via the server. Its confusing why it works at one school but doesnt work at another =-)

Edit: Yes im using the default windows wireless configuration for connecting to the network

[cookie_monster]

I would get a unit and set round2it's regedit and set the wait policy in local GPO (remember they aren't pushed they're pulled), this will make the machine wait for the network for upto a minute. I'd also try setting a manual IP.

Is the notebook hardware at school 1 and 2 identical or are they different models?

thanks

[Bluetooth]

Yea they are exactly the same models

the only difference between the two is the WAPs that im using at the schools, school 1 has brand new WPN802T's while school 2 is using 5+ year old WAP54Gs

[cookie_monster]

Yea they are exactly the same models

the only difference between the two is the WAPs that im using at the schools, school 1 has brand new WPN802T's while school 2 is using 5+ year old WAP54Gs

Ok as I said above set the GPO settings and a manual IP I know of problems with older WAPs not always forwarding DHCP requests when using WPA.