users can't login into Mac network

Ran updates on about 20 laptops, now 50%-75% of the laptops will hang after the network password is put in. Most of the laptops are 10.8.5 (with a couple of 10.7.5 and 10.8.4), the network server is running 10.6.8. Also can't login in as a local account. I have tried booting in Safe Mode and Single User Mode, no change. I did try deleting the AppleSetupDone to force the start up again. This would let me create a new local user and log in, but the next time I rebooted, I got the same results. I have tried rebooting the server and network switches, no change. At this point, the only thing that has seemed to work is if I upgrade the computer to 10.9, it seems to work fine. However, I am not confident that the issue won't start appearing on the 10.9 laptops and would rather find the root issue.

Does anybody have any thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks!