RESOLVE NT LOGON AND AUTHENTICATION ISSUES

Although Windows 2000 and Windows XP have superseded Windows 95 and 98, a large number still remain within the corporate market. Many are there on the "if it isn't broke, don't fix it" ticket, while others are waiting to be replaced by Windows 2000 or XP. Either way, Administrators are still forced to troubleshoot them on a daily basis as part of their NT Server-based networks.

Some of the problems that Administrators may have to resolve are NT logon and authentication issues, such as 'why isn't a PC logging in to the domain?' or 'which domain controller is actually authenticating the logon request?' (especially useful if an administrator suspects a domain controller is not receiving replicated logon scripts).

These questions can be answered by a simple registry change, which, if the computer has enabled remote administration of its registry, can be performed remotely--and can just as simply be reversed post-troubleshoot.

To make the change on a local Windows 9x computer:

1. Click Start | Run.

2. Type Regedit.

3. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Network\Logon in the left-hand pane.

4. Right-click and select New | DWORD Value in a free space in the right-hand pane.

5. Type in the name DomainLogonMessage.

6. Press Enter.

7. Double-click the new entry and give the DomainLogonMessage a value of 1.

8. OK the change.

Close the registry and restart the computer. The next time a logon request is successful, the user will receive a message identifying which Domain Controller accepted the request. If you wish to remove the message, simply set the above value to 0 or delete the DomainLogonMessage value.