When you restart a client computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 in an Active Directory domain environment, the Net Logon service starts before the network interface is initialized. This behavior causes the status of the network adapter to change to intermediate. Additionally, this behavior causes the IP address to change even though the network adapter is assigned to the same IP address eventually. In this situation, the client computer uses site-less LDAP DNS Server (SRV) records (_ldap._tcp.DnsDomainName or _ldap._tcp.dc._msdcs.DnsDomainName) to locate the domain controller (DC).
If this issue occurs in an environment in which only the hub DCs for the site-less SRV records are registered in DNS, and if the client computer's remote branch site is disconnected from the hub site, then the client computer cannot locate a DC. However, the local branch DCs are available in DNS when the hub DCs cannot be reached from the branch site. Therefore, the client computer does not recognize the local branch DCs as DCs.
If this issue occurs in an environment in which only the hub DCs for the site-less SRV records are registered in DNS, and if the client computer's remote branch site is disconnected from the hub site, then the client computer cannot locate a DC. However, the local branch DCs are available in DNS when the hub DCs cannot be reached from the branch site. Therefore, the client computer does not recognize the local branch DCs as DCs.