Windows 8 Logon Issues / DNS

[mattpant]

Yet another Windows / Server issue I'm afraid - this one is driving me bonkers.

 

I have 9 laptops that intermittently fail to logon correctly -

 

The machines are running Windows 8.1 with all the latest updates - they show as being connected to the wireless network. I have setup cached credentials - so eventually they do arrive to a desktop, the wireless connection still shows as being connected - you can do an ipconfig /all and it shows as having a correct IP Address from the DHCP server - it shows the correct IP Address for the DNS server (Which is also the DHCP Server) but you cannot ping anything on the network - you can't ping the laptops from the network when this issue happens.

 

You can't access any mapped drives when it's in this state - but eventually (maybe after 5-10 minutes) you can start pinging devices on the network and get reply's and you can ping these machines from other devices.

 

When the issue occurs you can see the device listed on the Wireless Controller with the correct IP Address.

 

Sometime you can switch no the computer from a cold boot and it will logon and "see" the network without any issues, but it's totally random!

 

These are new machines which I due to hand over to staff on Monday!!! HELP!!!!!

 

The Wireless Cards are Intel Centrino Wireless N 2230 - I've made sure the drivers are upto date, I've disabled any power saving settings on the card.

 

I'm not aware of the issue happening when connected to a CAT5 cable.

 

When the issue occurs - Event viewer seems to have entries where it can't resolve names, as they "timed out after none of the configured DNS servers responded"

 

We have 1 DNS server onsite - I've ran a DCDIAG on it and all reports back as healthy - and no other machines in school other then this batch of machines appear to have any DNS issues.

 

I also get an entry from NETLOGON saying "This computer was not able to setup a secure session with a domain controller in domain DOMAINNAME due to the following - There are currently no logon servers available to serve the logon request."

 

 

Again, I don't have issues on any other machine running on the same network using the same Domain / DNS Server etc

 

Does anybody have any idea what may be going on? The fact that I'm getting a valid Wi-Fi network connection with IP address etc etc is really baffling me why we get this problem?

 

Thanks

 

Matt

[LiamH]

Couple of things to check.

 

Is the time synced on the laptops? having out of sync times can cause network issues.

 

Have you tried unjoin/rejoin the domain to see if that helps?

 

Any rogue DNS servers? had issues with staff bringing in routers acting as dhcp/dns servers before.

 

IP6 disabled? had issues that seemed to be solved by getting shut of that.

[mattpant]

Couple of things to check.

 

Is the time synced on the laptops? having out of sync times can cause network issues.

 

The time is synced from the same server / time is correct

 

Have you tried unjoin/rejoin the domain to see if that helps?

 

Yes, I've tried doing this and no luck :-(

 

Any rogue DNS servers? had issues with staff bringing in routers acting as dhcp/dns servers before.

 

I can't rule this one out just yet - but it's unlikely that this is causing the problem

 

IP6 disabled? had issues that seemed to be solved by getting shut of that.

 

I've tried it with IP6 disabled and it made no difference - IP6 is currently enabled again on these machines

[benjie]

Are the wireless drivers up too date?

[mattpant]

Are the wireless drivers up too date?

 

Yes - latest version off the Intel Website

[mattpant]

This is really bugging me now - switched on some of the machines this morning - they logged on fine - no problem at all - restarted them / shut down / tried again - some still log in OK - other's not!

 

I read somewhere about resetting the IP Stack and Winsock - but this has not helped :-(

 

It's so weird in that it's getting a valid IP Address from the DHCP server (which is also the DNS server) but I can't connect to any network resources (eventually it does) I can't ping by IP Address - so I guess it's not a DNS issue - if I plug in an Ethernet cable - I can ping devices immediately.

 

:-(

[mattpant]

The saga continues...

 

One of the machines that was having the problem - It shows that it's got wireless signal, it's got the correct IP Address allocated from the DHCP server - Which has assigned the IP Address of the DNS server correctly (which is also the same server) - If I run the network troubleshoot tool it comes back "The DNS Server isn't responding" - "Your computer is trying to use a DNS server that is incorrect or doesn't exist"

 

The DNS server is correct - It's the same one used by all the other computers on the school network - Eventually - as if by magic, the computer starts working again without doing anything . If you disable the wireless and enable the wireless it often works then straight away.

 

I've uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers once again but still no luck with getting it to work all the time!

 

What could be going on!?!?!?!?

 

Thanks

 

Matt

[Michael]

I presume you've disabled the Windows Firewall via GPO? Have you imaged these machines or are they working with an OEM image?

[mattpant]

The Firewall is disabled - the computers are imaged - the system has been syspreped prior to imaging and "generalised"

[Oaktech]

Have you tried using a usb wireless adapter to isolate if the problem is the card or windows?

[LiamH]

Have you tried using a usb wireless adapter to isolate if the problem is the card or windows?

 

Could also use a linux live CD to see if that has network issues, good idea.

 

Silly question, but have you tried it elsewhere, just in case you have a flaky connection in your office and something is interrupting the signal?

[mattpant]

Unfortunately don't have a USB Wireless Stick here to try - I've temporarily switched off the nearest AP - and some of the machines were still showing Full Signal strength - where the others dropped down to 1 or 2 bars - so It's got to be an issue with the wireless card/drivers.

 

I'm going to flatten a couple of them now and rebuild again from fresh and see if that's makes a difference!! - Was hoping to avoid this - but would rule something out then.

 

Thanks for your help/input and feedback so far!

[Michael]

Do you have a Windows 7 image to hand to see if it works any better?

[mattpant]

If this does fail - I'll try installing Windows 7 - I don't have an image that I can just deploy to the devices without installing one first - All our machines have been updated to Windows 8.1 across the school - so I don't really want to go backwards on this one - but for the purpose of testing I'm happy to give it a shot!

[mattpant]

Ok, so I've just finished rebuilding 9 of the computers from scratch - reformatted, re-installed, all updates, joined to domain etc etc exactly as before (other then doing all 9 by hand, and not imaging any of them) and initial test suggest things are working as they should be!!

 

It was a bit of a ball ache, but fingers crossed they continue to work - going to install Impero on them before I leave so I can VPN into school over the weekend and do some further testing on them!