Wireless authentication prblms

I cannot log onto a AD wirelessly. I can join the computer to the domain and
make a computer account, unjoin the domain, and join again wirelessly, but
the user cannot log on. At the logon screen the complaint is "...domain
unavailable." Event viewer shows domain controller can't be found (but I
can join the computer to the domain using an admin logon account that then
cannot log onto the AD from this computer which I had just used to create it
own account in AD over the wire). I am using an Atheros chip in a Toshiba
Satallite and a Linksys WRT54G with WPA/AES. Everything is statically
addressed (no DHCP).

There is a thread with several posting on this issue in the newsgroup
public.win2000.security: with the subject "Domain unavailable for some
logins"

The final post by the MVP is copied below:

"The info shown in the reports generated for netdiag contain all the info
that is included in ipconfig /all. Your reports all look great in that the
domain controllers and domain clients are configured correctly and
communicating with each other [well at least after startup] . I believe the
problem is your wireless network. What happens is that wireless network
cards often do not initialize fast enough at startup to have network
connectivity and contact a domain controller. One solution to fix the
problem is to have the users that need to logon to the computer do so when
it is connected to the network by cable. That should create a cached logon
for that user and by default a domain computer can store 10 cached logons.
This behavior is a security option controlled in Local Security Policy under
local policies/security options - number of previous logons to cache. Once
the user has a cached logon he can logon via the wireless network via the
cached logon and then after the wireless network adapter initializes it will
have network connectivity and the user will be able to use domain resources.

Beyond that you could contact the manufacturer of your wireless equipment
and ask them if they have any solution which could be a driver upgrade or a
registry change for the wireless adapter or you may be stuck with
performance as is. There may be particular brand of wireless network
adapters that work better in an Active Directory domain environment but I
can't recommend any based on my experience. You might also want to post in
the Active_directory newsgroup with a topic along the lines of "wireless
domain user logon problems" to see if anyone there has any recommendations
or experience with that problem. --- Steve"

ANY SUGGESTIONS WOULD BE WELCOME,
ZUKE

Hi,

Have you checked your DNS addresses to make sure that it points to your
DNS server. AD relies very heavily on DNS. Wireless or wired, the
theory is still the same for AD.

Check those and if incorrect, fix that.......ussually errors of "Domain
Unavailble" refers to name resolution problems.

zuke wrote:
> I cannot log onto a AD wirelessly. I can join the computer to the domain and
> make a computer account, unjoin the domain, and join again wirelessly, but
> the user cannot log on. At the logon screen the complaint is "...domain
> unavailable." Event viewer shows domain controller can't be found (but I
> can join the computer to the domain using an admin logon account that then
> cannot log onto the AD from this computer which I had just used to create it
> own account in AD over the wire). I am using an Atheros chip in a Toshiba
> Satallite and a Linksys WRT54G with WPA/AES. Everything is statically
> addressed (no DHCP).
>
> There is a thread with several posting on this issue in the newsgroup
> public.win2000.security: with the subject "Domain unavailable for some
> logins"
>
> The final post by the MVP is copied below:
>
> "The info shown in the reports generated for netdiag contain all the info
> that is included in ipconfig /all. Your reports all look great in that the
> domain controllers and domain clients are configured correctly and
> communicating with each other [well at least after startup] . I believe the
> problem is your wireless network. What happens is that wireless network
> cards often do not initialize fast enough at startup to have network
> connectivity and contact a domain controller. One solution to fix the
> problem is to have the users that need to logon to the computer do so when
> it is connected to the network by cable. That should create a cached logon
> for that user and by default a domain computer can store 10 cached logons.
> This behavior is a security option controlled in Local Security Policy under
> local policies/security options - number of previous logons to cache. Once
> the user has a cached logon he can logon via the wireless network via the
> cached logon and then after the wireless network adapter initializes it will
> have network connectivity and the user will be able to use domain resources.
>
> Beyond that you could contact the manufacturer of your wireless equipment
> and ask them if they have any solution which could be a driver upgrade or a
> registry change for the wireless adapter or you may be stuck with
> performance as is. There may be particular brand of wireless network
> adapters that work better in an Active Directory domain environment but I
> can't recommend any based on my experience. You might also want to post in
> the Active_directory newsgroup with a topic along the lines of "wireless
> domain user logon problems" to see if anyone there has any recommendations
> or experience with that problem. --- Steve"
>
> ANY SUGGESTIONS WOULD BE WELCOME,
> ZUKE

Hello,
On the Toshiba A60 Satellite laptop there is an option in the Atheros
wireless chip config utility labled, "Let windows manage..."

Once I checked this, I opened the windows (WinXP SP2) wireless Networks
config and checked the box "Use Windows to configure my wireless settings",
opened the utility, entered my WPA/AES key, and rebooted.

Logons work fine now.

-Zuke
"zuke" <lgilmore@NO_SPAMrainbowgrocery.net> wrote in message
news:uh%23h4d$...
>I cannot log onto a AD wirelessly. I can join the computer to the domain
>and
> make a computer account, unjoin the domain, and join again wirelessly, but
> the user cannot log on. At the logon screen the complaint is "...domain
> unavailable." Event viewer shows domain controller can't be found (but I
> can join the computer to the domain using an admin logon account that then
> cannot log onto the AD from this computer which I had just used to create
> it
> own account in AD over the wire). I am using an Atheros chip in a Toshiba
> Satallite and a Linksys WRT54G with WPA/AES. Everything is statically
> addressed (no DHCP).
>
> There is a thread with several posting on this issue in the newsgroup
> public.win2000.security: with the subject "Domain unavailable for some
> logins"
>
> The final post by the MVP is copied below:
>
> "The info shown in the reports generated for netdiag contain all the info
> that is included in ipconfig /all. Your reports all look great in that the
> domain controllers and domain clients are configured correctly and
> communicating with each other [well at least after startup] . I believe
> the
> problem is your wireless network. What happens is that wireless network
> cards often do not initialize fast enough at startup to have network
> connectivity and contact a domain controller. One solution to fix the
> problem is to have the users that need to logon to the computer do so when
> it is connected to the network by cable. That should create a cached logon
> for that user and by default a domain computer can store 10 cached logons.
> This behavior is a security option controlled in Local Security Policy
> under
> local policies/security options - number of previous logons to cache. Once
> the user has a cached logon he can logon via the wireless network via the
> cached logon and then after the wireless network adapter initializes it
> will
> have network connectivity and the user will be able to use domain
> resources.
>
> Beyond that you could contact the manufacturer of your wireless equipment
> and ask them if they have any solution which could be a driver upgrade or
> a
> registry change for the wireless adapter or you may be stuck with
> performance as is. There may be particular brand of wireless network
> adapters that work better in an Active Directory domain environment but I
> can't recommend any based on my experience. You might also want to post in
> the Active_directory newsgroup with a topic along the lines of "wireless
> domain user logon problems" to see if anyone there has any recommendations
> or experience with that problem. --- Steve"
>
> ANY SUGGESTIONS WOULD BE WELCOME,
> ZUKE
>
>
>