Computers dropping off the domain

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Guest

We are encountering a strange problem. We have windows 2000 and XP Pro
machines and Windows 2003 server. Our computers have been dropping off the
domain quite frequently lately. All service packs are up to date. Does anyone
know a fix, if any?
 
By "dropping off" do you mean that when logging on you get "system cannot log
you on . . . computer account is missing" (I may not have that exactly right,
but should be close)

I would double-check DNS settings on the machines to make sure they can find
their Domain Controllers. You might want to do an
ipconfig /all

That should show you what the machine's IP is and what it thinks its DNS
servers are. Then double-check to make sure that those DNS servers are still
up and running. In my organization, it's not unheard of for a DNS server IP
to change and if the corp IT people don't tell me, I can have a bunch of DHCP
servers pointing clients at an incorrect DNS address. It's also not unheard
of for me to accidentally type a wrong number in a DNS field . . .
 
yes, the error is along the lines of "the system cannot log you on because
the XXX domain is not available". But the domain is and the DNS settings
don't change. The system admins don't know what is causing this and just hope
it goes away I guess. There is nothing that is changing, just out of the blue
the use will not be able to log in anymore and I have to go and rejoin the
machines to the domain locally. I was just wondering if anyone has seen this
problem occurring elsewhere.
 
Well, the reason I mentioned DNS is that this will happen if the PC thinks it
can't get to a Domain controller. If a PC goes on thinking it can't get to a
DC for too long, it drops out of the domain. If something is not fully
functional about DNS, you'll get slow login athentications, trouble browsing
the domain, and the workstations will not be able to do their computer
account registrations with the domain controllers.

From one of the PC's that has dropped off already, you might do a ping to
all of your domain controllers by name. If you get a "host not found" for
one or more of them, then something's not right either with the settings on
the pc itself (as mentioned before), or with the DNS server(s).

I've found these commands handy for troubleshooting dns:
ipconfig /all
ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /registerdns

Flush will clear out the pc's local cache
registerdns would need to be run on a computer that was not registering to
DNS correctly (i.e. if you find that none of the workstations can ping
DCONTROLLER1 by name, then on DCONTROLLER1 run the registerdns command)
 
Our computers have been dropping off the
domain quite frequently lately.
Click to expand...

Could it be a computer name conflict?

When you try to join two (or more) computers with the same name to the
domain, the last one to join will kick the previous one out. It'll
keep you running in circles forever.
 
no naming conflicts. but thanks for the suggestion though. any suggestion is
appreciated. well i wound up deleting the computer acct in active directory
and recreating it just to see what comes of it. I will know in a day or two
if the customer calls back. thanks all.
 
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