Group Policy does not apply when connecting remotely over a slow link

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

Certain policy settings do not apply over a slow link. In addition, Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) must be working in order for slow link detection to function. This topic describes how to adjust the default values for slow links and includes registry keys for manually creating registry settings to disable slow links.

By default, Group Policy defines a slow link as 500 kilobits per second or less. The following types of policy settings are always applied over a slow link:

• Security Settings

• Administrative Template settings

The following types of policy settings are not applied over a slow link:

• Software Installation

• Scripts

• Folder Redirection settings

You can change this setting in the computer configuration, the user configuration, or both. See the policy setting Group Policy slow link detection, located in Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Group Policy processing. For example, if you have a 300 kilobit per second network connection, you could specify 150 kilobits per second. This would mean that if bandwidth on the remote connection is less than what would be tested as a 150 kilobit-per-second connection at the time a user logs on, the link will be flagged as a slow link.

To ensure that Group Policy is applied remotely, select the Logon using dialup connection check box while using the Logon dialog box.

Even if Group Policy settings are configured to run scripts over slow links, the scripts might run so slowly that they exceed the configured time-out period. In this case the script will fail to complete and a UserInit event will be posted. In addition, Gpresult will tell you if a slow link was detected.

To configure slow link detection

1. Open the policy setting Group Policy slow link detection, located in Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Group Policy processing

2. In Connection speed, type a decimal number between 0 and 4,294,967,200 (0xFFFFFFA0) to indicate a transfer rate in kilobits per second. Any connection slower than this rate is considered to be slow. To disable slow link detection, enter 0 (all connections will be considered to be fast).

If you are trying to disable slow link detection when Group Policy is not applying (and therefore, you cannot configure the policy setting), you can manually create the registry value "GroupPolicyMinTransferRate" (DWORD) under the following keys and set each of them to 0.

• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

You can verify that ICMP is not working by looking at the Userenv log, which will indicate that ping computer fails.

Fixing Group Policy problems by using log files