Windows XP workstation cannot join 2003 Domain

[toddfugere]

I am running Server 2003 R2 SP2 on 2 domain controllers. w2k3server is a Domain Controller, DHCP and DNS server. Fed-TS3 is just a backup domain controller.

Whenever I try to add a new computer to the domain I get a message that says "The following error occurred attempting to join the domain FEDERATED. The network path was not found." Users are also getting "The network path was not found" when they try to change their password.

When I try to join the FEDERATED domain it asks for username and password. I've tried both FEDERATED\administrator and administrator with the correct password. I've also tried federated.local. I've tried joining the domain on several different Windows XP machines (SP2 and SP3).

There are no errors in the event viewer on either server and there is no firewall running on either server. I have joined new computers to the domain in the past without any issues. It has been a few months since I've added a new computer, but I am not sure what has changed.

From my workstation (I am a member of the administrators group) I can ping Fed-TS3 and w2k3server by IP and computer name. I can also ping from server to server using IP and computer name. However, when I try and browse using network neighborhood, I cannot connect to Fed-TS3. I get the message: "\\Fed-ts3 is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions. The network path was not found." But when I browse the network from Fed-TS3 I can access w2k3server.

I am not a DNS expert and I'm assuming it has something to do with DNS, but I'm not sure where to start to resolve this.

[Shen]

By default the firewall is turned on I believe which will repel any attempts for a computer to join the domain. Try turning off the firewall and then try it. IN order to resolve your above problem, you need to check out the following link. The firewall is the first thing I would check because when you install 2003 server, the firewall is turned on by default. I had the same issue and when I turned off the firewall, I was able to join the domain no problem.

[toddfugere]

I did a test this morning. I powered down the Fed-TS3 backup domain controller and was able to join new computers to the network without a problem. I'm thinking of demoting the Fed-TS3.

[CLONEOPS]

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[toddfugere]

I demoted the Fed-TS3 domain controller to a member server and now I can again join computers to the domain. However, I still cannot browse to that machine through network neighborhood. Any ideas?