Correct Use of NETLOGON NETWHO Parameter in LANMAN.INI (99593)

SUMMARY

The procedure outlined under "Disabling the Logon Table for a Domain Controller" on page 104 of the LAN Manager version 2.2 "Administrator's Guide" is incorrect and may cause the NETLOGON service to fail when starting.

This is INCORRECT:

Add NETWHO=NO to the [services] section of the LANMAN.INI file to disable broadcasts every 15 minutes.

This is CORRECT:

Add NETWHO=NO to the [netlogon] section of the LANMAN.INI file to disable broadcasts every 15 minutes.

Each domain controller maintains a logon table of validated clients. To ensure that these clients are still alive on the network, the logon table is traversed every 15 minutes. During the traverse, a message is broadcast to each of the clients registered in the table, to which the client must respond. If a client does not respond within an hour, the domain controller removes the client from the table. This functionality was added to detect and return resources to the server from clients who failed to logoff properly before shutting down their computers. The most common reason for disabling this function is to reduce traffic on the network.