AUTHENTICATE TO A LOCAL NT DOMAIN CONTROLLER

Windows 95 remains the common network client at many enterprises. On large, multiple-site NT networks, these Win 95 PCs use local servers for file, print, and application services. The local servers are often NT Backup Domain Controllers that may authenticate local users on the fast local network rather than over a slow wide area network. But this is not always the case, as authentication is made with the server that responds first to the request. This is not always the server closest to the client. The cause is that network traffic, server load, or name resolution may determine a server at a further distance on the network.

In many large networks, IP addresses and associated information are passed to clients via a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server. This information often includes the address of a Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS) server to resolve NetBIOS computer names to IP addresses and probably an option to set the Node Type of the client to H-Node. An H-Node assignment means that the computer first queries the WINS server for the addresses of domain controllers that can provide authentication, and only afterwards relies on broadcasts of the local network.

Again, this might mean that it is not always the closest server that provides authentication services. One way to give the closest server a better chance to provide authentication services is to change the Node Type to M-Node.

M-Node is effectively the opposite of H-Node. The client will wait longer for a broadcast to the local network to produce a response from a domain controller and then will query a WINS server, if the option is set on the client. The network administrator can set this option on the DHCP server's scope options or you can manually set a single Windows 95 client to M-Node by altering the registry value to 4. If the value "Node Type" does not exist, then you can create it as a String Value. Note that setting this registry value manually overrides a Node Setting set by DHCP. You can view this by running Winipcfg.exe and view the TCP/IP configuration.

SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\SERVICES\VXD\MSTCP\NodeType

It is worth bearing in mind that while this increases the chance that the local server will provide authentication, it will also increase the amount of broadcast traffic on the local network.