Can't connect Windows XP Pro machine to domain

Hello everyone,

Let me first explain the layout of this network. I have a windows SBS and four machines hooked up to a router. All machines can get online easily and all that great stuff. Afterwards I added each machine to my domain I created, everything went fine.

However, I took two computers off the domain and put them in a separate workgroup. Now however I wanted to add them back to the domain. But now when I try to do so it says it can't find the domain.


The error was: "DNS name does not exist."
(error code 0x0000232B RCODE_NAME_ERROR)

When I go onto the server I can ping the server's own IP fine, as well as ping the domain name. However from the host I can ping the IP, but not the domain.

At first all computers could see the shares on the server, however no computer can see the shared files on the server, even the ones that are still part of the domain.

The IP of the server is 192.168.1.6, so I decided to point the XP machine to the server, I set the DNS to 192.168.1.6, and still nothing happened.

I'm simply confused on what happened between last week and now, and why nothing is suddenly working. I have DHCP running on the router.

Just trying to throw as many random facts as I can out there, apologies.

Any idea why it can't find the domain? I'm pretty new to using server so I'm not really sure why it won't work. I assume the DNS server is working ok since I can resolve the the correct IP when I ping the domain from the server itself. Not really sure why the PC won't do the same.

Thanks for any help

Can you post the result that you found inside ipconfig /all. You had mentioned that the system is able to communicate with the server but somehow the workstations are not able to join the domain. There can be problem with network adapter also. So to some extent it is necessary that you must simply run the configuration settings once again and then check back. The problem can also lie with the DHCP. Run windows update also once to get some fix in it.

So I went ahead and disabled DHCP on the router and got it up and running on the server (although I do not see any leased IPs yet). I think I might need to do a release/renew on the machines. If my server is 192.168.1.7 I would have all the computers point to that IP for the DNS right? I can't take the router out of the loop as we're using it for a gateway-to-gateway VPN, but it's a high-grade router (Linksys RV042) which allows me to set the DNS server in the router as well. Should I edit the DNS info in the router also? I'd want them to be able to get online as well.

Here is the current output for the server as requested

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : trophyserver
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . : TrophyKing.int
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : TrophyKing.int

Ethernet adapter Server Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-1D-09-EF-36-86
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.6
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.6
Primary WINS Server . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.6

Here's the output from a machine which was joined to the domain earlier but can't see any shares on the server now. He's logged on as a created user on the domain (Jim).

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Jim.TROPHYKING>ipconfig/all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Harris
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . : TrophyKing.int
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : TrophyKing.int
linksys.com

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : linksys.com
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) PRO/100 VE Network Connecti
on
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-07-E9-A8-D3-E6
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.7
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 167.206.245.130
167.206.245.129
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, February 03, 2009 10:19:16
AM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, February 04, 2009 10:19:1
6 AM



Right now since I'm trying to do this remotely I can't get to any of the PCs that are not "on the domain" right now, not that I think it makes a huge difference at this point. Looking at this myself I notice the DNS server for the PC that was added to the domain isn't pointing to the server IP, as well as "Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : linksys.com" dealing with the router we're using.

With DHCP now running on the server (and turned off on the router) and if I point the machine to the correct DNS, do you think it'll be able to find the server? Is there anything else I can do? I'll be there physically tomorrow to give it a go.

And thanks for all the help so far.

Try to renew the ip address and then check back. After renewing the ip address you will need to check the details back in ipconfig /all and then find out whether things are working fine or not. This kind of problem mostly appear due to dns issue and you can simply fix that by going inside the log. Because it has more detailed information on the error that you are facing.