Domain Validation May Not Work Across Dial-on-Demand Routers

When you try to log in across a dial-on-demand router with a Windows 95 client, domain validation may not work. When this occurs, you receive the following error message:

Windows 95 issues netlogon mailslots to the domain name to find a domain controller for validation. Windows 95 issues a mailslot three times with a default delay of three seconds for a response to each mailslot. If a response is not received after three attempts (roughly nine seconds), validation fails and the error message is displayed.

Validation may fail if the domain controllers are located across a dial- on-demand router, the router is not connected when the client begins sending the netlogon mailslots, and the router requires longer than nine seconds to connect. The result of the router connection delay is that the mailslots time out and the client displays the error message.

This problem no longer occurs in Windows 98. To resolve this problem, install the current version of Windows. For information about the current version of Windows, visit http://www.microsoft.com/windows (http://www.microsoft.com/windows) .

Note that the problem described in this article can also occur if the router is not available (offline). This can be verified by a Network Monitor trace. To resolve this issue, bring the router back online.