Network location awareness not detecting domain network from offsite location

Question

The issue occurred after we started migrating our offsite workstations to Win 10. After joining computers to domain, computers show unidentified network connection instead of domain network connection. Computer is located at offsite location and was migrating to Win 10. NLA is working normally when it was still Win 7 workstation.

Registry workaround was applied and computer was able to detect Domain network connection, but there are times when connection will be set to unidentified network. NLA service startup has been set to Automatic (Delayed Start).

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Hi,

Thanks for posting in Q&A platform.

After machine reboots, before NIC adapter initializes, NLASVC would attempt detection of domain, if the detection was failed, then this information will be cached and even though NIC gets initialized, the machine still apply the cached information and hence machine detects unidentified network.

Please try to modify the following registry keys to see if the issue can be resolved:

First, disable Domain Discovery negative cache by adding the NegativeCachePeriod registry key to following subkey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NetLogon\Parameters
Name: NegativeCachePeriod
Type: REG_DWORD
Value Data: 0 (default value: 45 seconds; set to 0 to disable caching)

If issue doesn’t resolve, furtherly disable DNS negative cache by adding the MaxNegativeCacheTtl registry key to the following subkey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Dnscache\Parameters
Name: MaxNegativeCacheTtl
Type: REG_DWORD
Value Data: 0 (default value: 5 seconds; set to 0 to disable caching)

Note: This registry key disables the Domain detection negative cache. NLA normally detect Domain multiple times at network setup (triggered by route change, IP address change etc). But if the first time detection failed with negative result (such as ERROR_NO_SUCH_DOMAIN), this negative result gets cached in netlogon, and will be reused in next time NLA domain discovery.

There is also another registry key we need add:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NlaSvc\Parameters

Add a DWORD parameter :AlwaysExpectDomainController

Set value to:1

Note: This registry key alters the behavior when NLA retries domain detection.

Best Regards,
Sunny

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Answer 2

Computer is located at offsite location

How are you connecting to the domain? When NLA starts to detect the network location, the machine will contact a domain controller via port 389. If this detection is successful, it will get the domain firewall profile (allowing for correct ports) and we cannot change the network location profile.
If the domain was not found or process failed, NLA will let you to determine which firewall profile will be used, private or public.

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