FYI - Same setup as a previous question, but a different problem.
We just completed a migration to a single Windows 2003 Active Directory. The migration consolidated 11 Windows 2000 forests into 1 Windows 2003 forest. We went from having 1 site per forest to having 9 sites in our new Active Directory. Per the event logs and experience, AD & NFS replication is happening in a timely manner and without error. Each site has their own domain controller, except for one site, which has two domain controllers. Each site also has a global catalog. The Windows 2003 Active Directory is in 2003 native mode.
We are still learning about the nuances of having a single domain and 9 geographically dispersed sites. 8 of the sites are connected by a T1 WAN link. The 9th site is linked via a DSL line with a VPN tunnel connecting it into the WAN. It is this 9th site we are having some challenges. This 9th site has two Windows 2003 domain controllers. One domain controller is a Global Catalog server, and the other domain controller holds the Infrastructure Master FSMO role.
Situation 2
When the DSL link goes down all of the workstations in Site 9 cannot authenticate locally. What is most strange is that the GUI logon screen does not present itself. There is no opportunity to enter <Ctrl><Alt><Delete> to at least logon locally to the workstation. These workstations appear to hang at some point in their startup. Both Windows NT 4 workstations and Windows XP pro workstations are effected by this situation. As soon as the DSL link is reestablished these workstations behave normally. This situation has happened several times.
If by chance a station was left logged on and the DSLlink goes down the station cannot access any resources from a local server, such as shared folders. If the user logges off the station while the DSL link is down, then the user will not be able get back in again because the logon prompt is not being presented.
What would prevent these workstations from presenting the logon screen?
What does down DSL line (Site 9’s link to our WAN) do to this network?