Environment
Novell Client for Windows 2000/XP/2003 4.91 Support Pack 2 Login
Novell DHCP NetWare 5.x DHCP
Novell Service Location Protocol (SLP) v2
Novell Service Location Protocol (SLP) v1
Situation
DHCP was configured to push SLP information to client
workstations
The workstations were still multicasting for SLP information
Login times were slowed by the Multicasting.
The workstations were still multicasting for SLP information
Login times were slowed by the Multicasting.
Resolution
1. Right click the Red 'N' in the system tray and select 'Novell
Client Properties'.
2. Next select the 'Advanced Settings' tab and verify that 'All' is displayed in the 'Parameter groups:' window.
3. scroll down to and highlight 'SLP Active Discovery' in the left-hand pane.
4. Click the drop down arrown in the 'Setting' window (right-hand pane), and select 'Off'.
This will prevent the client from Multicasting for SLP information (and thereby allow it to acquire its information directly from DHCP). *See 'additional notes' section for more detail.
2. Next select the 'Advanced Settings' tab and verify that 'All' is displayed in the 'Parameter groups:' window.
3. scroll down to and highlight 'SLP Active Discovery' in the left-hand pane.
4. Click the drop down arrown in the 'Setting' window (right-hand pane), and select 'Off'.
This will prevent the client from Multicasting for SLP information (and thereby allow it to acquire its information directly from DHCP). *See 'additional notes' section for more detail.
Additional Information
In this scenario Network traces revealed that DHCP requests were
being sent by the client workstations but before the workstation
received the DHCP ACK packet (and consequently the SLP information)
from the server, multicast packets were being sent from the
workstation.
The timing of when the multicast packet was sent vs. when the DHCP ACK packet was received, caused the workstation to wait for the multicast information.
Turning off the SLP Active Discovery on the Novell Client will prevent the client from multicasting for SLP information and thereby eliminate any timing issues with what the client sends via multicast vs. what it receives via DHCP.
**Note: this is not a recommended option unless you are using DHCP to push out SLP information in your environment. (i.e. using DHCP options 78 and 79. see TID #10062474 - DHCP Options section for additional information on the DHCP options).
The timing of when the multicast packet was sent vs. when the DHCP ACK packet was received, caused the workstation to wait for the multicast information.
Turning off the SLP Active Discovery on the Novell Client will prevent the client from multicasting for SLP information and thereby eliminate any timing issues with what the client sends via multicast vs. what it receives via DHCP.
**Note: this is not a recommended option unless you are using DHCP to push out SLP information in your environment. (i.e. using DHCP options 78 and 79. see TID #10062474 - DHCP Options section for additional information on the DHCP options).