Network connectivity issues 2

[donutetned]

Hello,

I just want to se if anyone has any ideas.

We have two netware 5.0 servers and some users are complaining of teo issues when they try to login.

1.) When the novell client comes up they initially cannot login, and when you press the advanced tab to look at the tree, it's not there. If you close that tab and try again, it's there and they are able to login.

2.)users are complaining that it takes about 3 or 4 minutes to login, once they've entered their username and password.

Any ideas?

 

[ITsmyfault]

lets get some background on your network pls.
- is this delay a new behavior?
- if yes (above) what has changed recently?
- are you running IP or IPX or both?
- If running IP, have you set up SLP?
- are servers on same subnet with clients?
- are servers in same container (ou) with users?
- if no (above), which is closer to root?
- have you changed out any switches, hubs or routers on the LAN recently? Any chance there could be a duplex issue at the server or on the LAN?

- what is the server hardware & nic, OS version and patch level. Also what version of NDS/eDir?

Thx

 

[Datong]

Hi,

sounds like you may have several issues here. This maybe a client issue depending on what version you are using. The other may be with your servers config. There may be an issue with SLP as your server is not being advertised, also make sure there is a replica of the Master on the other server and make sure they are "talking" and up-to-date. (DSREPAIR - Advanced -partitions and replicas).
Re - as the first poster mentioned - there could be several reasons for slow or unsuccessful connections. Some more detail would be useful for us to help you.
The TID 10059981 on the Novell site may help you diagnose the SLP issue (if there is one).

Jeff

 

[donutetned]

is this delay a new behavior? YES
- if yes (above) what has changed recently?
Not recently, but about 5 months ago we rebuilt one of the servers on the tree
- are you running IP or IPX or both? BOTH
- If running IP, have you set up SLP? SLP is setup but I don't believe that it was setup correctly by the prior admin, so i am working on this issue
- are servers on same subnet with clients? YES
- are servers in same container (ou) with users? YES
- if no (above), which is closer to root?
- have you changed out any switches, hubs or routers on the LAN recently? NO
Any chance there could be a duplex issue at the server or on the LAN? Not sure, but nothing has changed.

 

[ITsmyfault]

Ok. Thanks for those answers. that helps a lot.
next:
1 - how is replica sync?
2 - how is time sync?
3 - where are the licenses located?
4 - What client version?
5 - what is protocol pref set at in the client?
6 - once logged into the LAN, how are file transfer speeds? eg: I copy a 10MB file down to my PC. Should take a second or two on a 100MB switched LAN. How long does it take? this will tell us about duplex.. transfers should run at at least 3MB/sec and more like 5 or 6.
7 - if possible, check the switches and look for collisions, late collisions, FCS errors etc. If you can install some basic utilities on an affected workstation (like snoop or tcpdump for ex) sniff the port and look for retransmits etc.
8 - which IPX packet type are you binding? 802.2 or 802.3?
any chance you can remove IPX?

If you're using SLP, make sure the client SLP settings are in there. Unicast is a lot quicker than multicast. If you tell the clients where the DA is, login can be superfast.
The server has to be set up for it as well. You set this in monitor.