No ping = Unable to find DC?

[indermib]

Hi all –

I am setting up a new Win2000 Adv Server domain controller/domain for our test group. This domain is independent of the corporate IT so far as administration is concerned but we use (and have no control over) their hardware - routers, etc. The computers in our domain are spread out among at least 3 different network segments. Due to virus issues, the IT dept. disabled ping across network segments. Since this time, Win2000 workstations in a different network segment than the DC are regularly posting Event ID 1000 (Source: userenv) – unable to locate domain controller. WinXP workstations are posting Event ID 1054 (Source: userenv) – Windows cannot obtain the domain controller name for your computer network (An unexpected network error occurred) Group Policy processing aborted. These events don’t appear to compromise the ability to log into the domain, but do prevent group policies from applying. Workstations on the same network segment as the DC (where ping works) do not have these error messages and the group policy is applying as expected. Is there a way to configure the workstations to communicate properly with the DC across network segments when ping is disabled? If not, is a viable alternative to put a DC on each network segment? Or is there anything that corporate IT could do short of turning corporate-wide ping back on or re-wiring the network to put us on our own segment or VPN that would also solve this issue?

Any assistance gratefully accepted!!!

 

[funkygibbon]

I believe that setting GroupPolicyMinTransferRate to 0 (zero) in the following keys on the affected workstations fixes this:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

When a client connects to a DC to update its group policy, it pings the DC to ascertain the connection speed. Setting this to 0 turns off this initial ping, but it will go ahead and update the group policy anyway.