If machine loses connection to DC, won't authenticate login

[AKL-MFCU]

Hi everyone,

I recently moved over to utlravnc from realvnc and wow, what a difference. However, we have around 550 computers we would like to have this on and i currently have been using aroun 30 of those as a test environment. There is just one severe problem that i have run into when using the MS-Login II schema.

If the Domain Controller that provides login credentials is not found (lets say the server has crashed), the ultravnc servers deny access to any login attempts. As all of our MIS guys are on call, we need to be sure that if the worse case scenario of a domain controller crashes (which the machines get authentication from through AD) that they are still able to connect remotely. Could there be a switch that if it cannot find the sever for authentication that it can default back to a simple local vncserver password authentication?

Don't know if anyone else has had this problem or not so let me know. Thanks.

ADDED: We are working in a win server 2003 environment, with all machines running win xp pro sp2. this is a T1 MPLS network with standard cisco routers and switches. No firewalls are up and we are currently not utilizing the dsm plugin.

[AKL-MFCU]

is there no answer to this? -BUMP

[Ares]

As far as I know, you either use the MS-Login or the VNC authentication. If such a "fall-back" authentication was in place, it may defeat the extra security that using MS-Login provides, in my opinion.

From what (little) I've heard, MS-Login is still being tweaked. You might add something about this in the feature requests section. Sorry, that's about all I can think of for you to do right now.

As of lately, I can only say that I've heard other mods say they recommend just using plain vnc authentication to begin with - that the MS-Login doesn't seem quite ready for prime time. But that is just what I've heard. Just figured you'd rather hear that instead of nothing at all. I can assure you that the mods / devs are reading your messages, and if anyone knew exactly what you could do, they would have probably told you by now. It's just as of right now, there's not much (that I know of, anyway) that you can do other than revert to vnc-authentication altogether.


-Ares

[Marscha]

If your single DC is down, then not only the MIS guys but also the users cannot log in, so there is a bigger problem.

You can create a local account on each machine and configure this in addition in UltraVNC.
Then have a policy for your supporters that they can use this account as a fallback if the DC is not available.

Be aware that this might severely reduce security since a lot of people have to know the same password.