Hi,
All Windows 2000 SP4 machines in our network yesterday (Monday July 9) started taking 11 minutes to boot. Approx 20 PC's.

All computers had the setting "Obtain IP address automatically" and "Obtain DNS server address automatically".

I changed the "Obtain DNS server address automatically" to "Use the following DNS server addresses", and set the Preferred DNS to our primary domain controller and the Alternate DNS to the ISP's DNS server.

Rebooted and the login time went from 11 minutes to the normal 2 minutes. This fix worked on all 20 PC's.

I just happened to find this on the Microsoft Knowledgebase while researching something unrelated. (Article ID 291382)

QUESTION: Can anyone explain why this happened only yesterday (there were no Msft updates in the past week) and how exactly this change fixed the problem? Any pointers to articles on the web also appreciated.

Thanks,

It sounds to me like your PDC has DNS Server or DHCP issues. You should check the server's event log for errors or warnings. If it's not an issue that is reported through Event Viewer, try restarting the Microsoft DNS Server and Microsoft DHCP Server services. If that doesn't help, try going into the DNS and DHCP consoles and clearing the caches.

Let us know how you get on

Thanks, DHCP is provided by the router and not by this server. I will look into clearing the cache but remember, the problem was solved by making the change I described.

So I don't have a problem, I am just trying to understand the mechanics behind what fixed it since I do not have a good understanding of DNS.

Hi, it's exactly because of the fact that specifying IP addresses and DNS server addresses resolved the problem that I think you have a DHCP or DNS issue.

When a PC is set to automatically obtain an IP address, it sends a broadcast around the network to look for a DHCP server. The conversation goes a little like this:

Client: "Hello, are there any DHCP servers out there?"
Router: "Yes, I'm a DHCP server. Would you like an address?"
Client: "Yes please"
Router: "What's your name?"
Client: "My name is WorkstationXYZ"
Router: "OK, let me look in my cached records. Oh yes - I see that you have previously been 192.168.0.37. That address is still available. Would you like it again?"
Client: "Yes please"
Router: "OK, there you go. I'm now updating the cache to say that I've given 192.168.0.37 to WorkstationXYZ and am renewing the DHCP lease for another x number of days".
Client: "Thanks very much. Do you know where I might be able to find a DNS server around here?"
Router: "Let me have another look in my records. Yes - there's a machine on the network at 192.168.0.1 that is running DNS services that you can probably use."
Client: "Thanks, I'll go and check".

Client: "Hello 192.168.0.1. Can I use you as a DNS server?"
ServerABC: "Are you a valid PC with the correct credentials such as domain name or IP address?"
Client: "I'm 192.168.0.37. Is that OK?"
ServerABC: "Yes, that's fine. OK, my name is ServerABC and I'll let you pass DNS queries to me. I'll also update my cached records so that, if anyone else looks for you as WorkstationXYZ, I'll tell them that you can be found at 192.168.0.37".
Client: "Great. Now I can find other computers and servers and they can find me. Thanks!".

Hope that helps