W98 losing SMS client connectivity

[plindqui]

I have multiple Windows 98 computers that seem to just stop responding to the SMS database after a period of time. The only way we discovered this was that some clients were not receiving any advertisements. The logs had no clues at all. Once a reinstall was performed of the SMS client, the advertisements were received and SMS worked ok again.

Because of the way my company is setup, I cannot use any of the recommended installation methods. We found that the login script method worked fine for W2K and NT, but 98 machines would stop running the call after awhile. To get around this, we have developed a VB script that adds a call into the local registry that basically runs the SMSMan everytime the user logs in. This seemed to be working ok, except some users now complain that their screen goes blank for about 3 seconds every morning (I am assuming this is the remote control service installing every morning).

I am hoping someone might have a better solution for keeping the Windows 98 clients refreshed and connected to the server or a way to make their screens stop going blank. I cannot use the discovery methods as my group only supports certain people on certain subnets.


Thanks

 

[rbjinfo]

We run "smsboot1.exe" in the login script. It checks and makes sure the machine is a client and if not it will install SMS. How many 98 machines do you have? Did you check the logs on the clients machines for clues and make sure all the components were installed?

 

[plindqui]

We have about 4-500 Win98 machines still. We attempted to run smsboot1.exe through the login scripts as well, but the Win98 machines seem to run it one day and not run it the next. I worked on trying to get a stable login script working for 3 weeks before giving up and resorting to manually installing under the assumption that once the client was installed, it would stay a client.