Help on how to put a computer in a domain

ali[priest

i have two computers, just upgraded them both to windows XP, now i am having problems with puting them back on domain bcoz it cant connet to the domain server on the network, if you can help me out on how i can put them back on the network

royal

if you're trying to get them to join by domain name, then make sure the clients have their primary dns pointing to a working dns server (in your case, your domain controller). If you're trying to use the netbios name and it's stil not working, then that's a whole different issue.

sharptech

What are the exact problems you are having..

Danman32

DNS is the most common problem with joining domains.
Another is bad existing matching computer accounts in AD, and yet another is permissions that allow the join.

If the error is similar to "can't find domain/domain controller", it is probably DNS or network connectivity (bad IP, cable, NIC, etc).

bighornsheep

icroyal wrote:

if you're trying to get them to join by domain name, then make sure the clients have their primary dns pointing to a working dns server (in your case, your domain controller). If you're trying to use the netbios name and it's stil not working, then that's a whole different issue.

I have a similar situation...can I use my ISP's DNS as the primary DNS...or do I need to setup DNS server on win2k3 server and use that as the primary DNS on the clients....

Danman32

All hosts on an AD domain must point to the AD DNS server(s) EXCLUSIVELY. In turn, the AD DNS server(s) can forward requests they can't resolve to your ISP DNS via the forwarder.

Otherwise, what you are asking your client to do is find your AD domain on the internet. Not likely to happen.

One misconception is that if the primary DNS server doesn't have the answer, then the secondary will be used. This is NOT the case.
The failover is if the primary DNS server does not respond, as in being down. Then the client fails over to the secondary and stays there until IT fails, or the system is rebooted in which it reverts back to the primary.
A negative answer is still an answer and will be accepted and most likely cached.

jescab

That is very true danman. The secondary DNS server will only take over if the primary is not available at all ( shut down / offline )