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

Edited March 11, 2010 by SYNACK
language

[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:0000003c

 

 

this fixed it for me

 

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

wirelessfixreg.rar

Edited March 11, 2010 by round2it

[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.

[chilbs]

You will notice that that fix has been suggested many times before in these forums. I personally add it to my images when doing laptop roll outs as I find that forcing a bit of a wait during startup sorts out picking up the GPOs over wireless.

 

Chilbs

[Bluetooth]

Alright i am on the netbook.

 

I have applied the fix now and will try this around the school bbi2mins lol

[cookie_monster]

Don't forget to try a manual IP if that doesn't work.

[round2it]

hey bluetooth you get locked in the broom cupboard

 

Its been a long two mins

[Bluetooth]

My sincerest apologies!

 

I had to test out the fix in 3 different year groups then the ICT Coordinator got a hold of the netbook and wanted to test it for herself.. then an electrician came to look at our smartboard that was receiving electrical interference from someplace...

 

sufficed so say my 2 minutes turned into quite a long time =-)

 

Anyways, to the point, the fix seemed to work ok, the logon takes a bit longer, maybe 45 seconds or so after hitting enter for the username and password to be accepted and begin the profile creation etc

 

but it works, we're going to look at replacing the 5 points we have with some new ones so that will hopefully mean a quicker logon but hey, it works now so thank you very much!

[round2it]

thats good

 

have you tried a firmware update recently on the AP's it might help

the time seems a little long for a logon have you tried changing the AP's channel to see if that speeds things up

try netstumbler on a laptop and see exactly what wireless signals are around your area.

you might have some rogue ap

 

 

http://www.netstumbler.com/downloads/

 

glad the .reg fix helped

Edited March 12, 2010 by round2it

[Bluetooth]

Yea all the points have had the latest firmware put on them, they are also all on channel 6

 

There are a couple of ap's around that are from the nearby houses but the machines arent configured to connect to those

[djones]

Yea all the points have had the latest firmware put on them, they are also all on channel 6

 

Shouldn't they been on non-overlapping channels instead such as 1, 5, 11 or possibly 1, 5, 9, 13? I always thought that APs should have the same SSID but be on different channels to avoid conflicts. I'm definitely no expert on wireless though!

 

Dave.

[Bluetooth]

At school 1 i have 3 wireless points on the same channel with the same ssid and from what i can see they connect to whichever point is giving out the best signal and stuff, hence my frustrations cause everything is running fine at that school but not this one =-)

 

Someone else setup another school i work at with the same channels and ssid and they have around 30 laptops and about 10 or so waps and they have zero issues too so i suppose its something ill have to test =-)

[round2it]

i would have all your aps on different channels unless they are very far apart to stop interference

 

to test this

 

turn off all the APs except the one closest to you and try the startup login procedure on the lappys

 

do you have a speed difference?

 

the reason i say this is because i had 3 dell APs here all setup correctly different channels etc

 

plug 2 in on the network all is well fast connections etc plug three in and the whole wireless network slowed down to a crawl displaying the symptoms you described in your first post.

 

slow logons over a minuite to download a 1 meg profile sluggish performance.

 

worth a try mate.

 

 

keep it simple test each AP on its own to see if one is causing a problem.

 

ah well thats my 2 pence worth.

 

i better get back to trying to install corel draw x4 on 20 laptops but the installer makes the laptops BSOD thats impressive.