Group Policy over slow links

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

If the computer is a member of the domain that the Routing and Remote Access server belongs to or is trusted to, you can apply Group Policy remotely. This is true whether you are logging on through Routing and Remote Access or logging on with cached credentials, and then establishing a Routing and Remote Access connection.

Group Policy is not applied to computers that are members of a workgroup or of a foreign domain (a domain that does not contain the computer and that is not in a trust relationship with the computer's domain). Although the connection may still be made, access to domain resources may be adversely affected because of mismatched Internet Protocol security (IPSec).

By default, registry-based policies are always applied, and they cannot be turned off. Security settings are also applied by default, but all other settings are not applied. For all but the registry settings, the default behavior can be switched to apply or not apply.

A remote access connection is not necessarily a slow link, nor is a local area network (LAN) necessarily a fast link. By default, the fast or slow status of a link is based on a test ping to the server. If it takes less than 2000 milliseconds (two seconds), it is considered a fast link. If it takes more time, it is considered a slow link. You can set this value by using the Group Policy setting Slow network connection time-out for user profiles, which is located under Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\User Profiles.

Several other Group Policy settings that are related to slow links appear in this folder as well. Also, check the Group Policy setting Group Policy slow link detection, which is located under Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Group Policy.

For more information, see Group Policy in replicated environments and Group Policy on sites. For a more information about slow link detection, see "Group Policy" at the Microsoft Web site.