Windows 2000 AD and Windows NT 4.0 Workstations

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jason
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J

Jason

I have a new Win2000 server running AD for a few Win2000
workstations and about 10 WinNT4 Workstations. I am not
sure which end is configured wrong, but something isn't
right. I can log in the NT machines with a local account;
however, if I try to join the domain it tells me: "The
system cannot log you on now because the domain PELLATN is
not available. I have successfully tried using my onsite
DNS server at times. Usually,if I have to reach the
Internet, I have to change to an offsite DNS. I even had
DNS forwarders enabled, but now its greyed out. I didn't
have a root (".") DNS zone when we installed the server,
so I created one and enabled forwarders. I guess my
question is, if my server's name is 343pella and my DNS
zone is pellatn.local, what do the WinNT workstations want
as a domain? Is it PELLATN? PELLATN.LOCAL. I understand
one of these is case sensitive. NT will only let my
domain be in caps. Do I need to change the name of my DNS
zone to be in all caps? If you can't tell, I've got 10
things going on at one time and no functioning network to
show for it. I will be happy to clarify any of this for
some insight. Thanks in advance.
 
Hi.

NT uses netbios domain names, so you should be using the
domain PELLATIN to log into. Make sure all clients have
the domain controller as their primary dns. The reason
you have to change dns to get to outside sites is because
your dns server is improperly configured. The last time I
had the problem you are describing, I deleted the root
folder ".", then checked to make sure the root hints were
there, and all worked well.

Hope this helps.

Bill
 
Will the root folder reappear? When I initially started
DNS, there wasn't a root folder. I waited a few hours and
it still didn't appear so I created one. Will I need to
do that again or do I need to let Win2000 do it? I assume
that I have to enable forwarders after I delete the root
folder but before another is created. I shouldn't have to
reboot at any time, should I?

Is there anything special I need to select in the WinNT
WINS or DNS tab to get it to recognize the domain? I
really appreciate the help

Jason
 
I'm surprised that you were able to enable Forwarders with the "." zone
there as normally the Forwarders tab will be grayed out until this zone is
removed. It zone indicates that the dns server believes it is a "root" dns
server (the com, net, org, etc), and thus no need for Forwarders since there
is no where else above it to go too. This zone is normally not required
(especially if you need Forwarders which a lot of people do), can be
created/deleted as needed, and restarting the netlogon service will refresh
dns settings for srv records etc so reboot isn't required (you can also
stop/start dns service too if desired).
If you have your 4 "_" folders under your dns domainname zone folder, and
are able to ping the fqdn ok (xyz.com etc) then dns if probably ok. Clients
should be pointed Only to its ip address for dns either statically or via
dhcp, and not any other alternate addresses, like an ISP etc, unless it is
another win2k dns server in the same domain. If you have others listed,
remove them, and then for 2k, 2k3, xp clients run the following commands;
"ipconfig /flushdns" and then "ipconfig /registerdns".

NT clients will more commonly just use netbios (although dns is ok) for name
resolution, so verify that you see their registration in wins (database/show
mappings) and also that you see the 1B entry for your domain name with the
ip of your pdc. Wins servers in nt4 should point to themselves for both
primary and secondary (use replication push/pull for multiple wins servers,
and don't point them to other wins servers or you can get cross
registrations - basically wins looks ok but acts very funny).

To be sure that your nt clients are resolving your pdc properly you can also
add an lmhosts file to point them directly at the pdc, and since this is
loaded in cache will be first thing they look at. Use the following article
to help with this, and be sure that when you run the nbtstat commands, that
you see the registrations loaded like the article indicates. If you don't
see the 1B but see the others, the most common reason is that there isn't
Exactly 20 spaces within the " ". If you don't see anything, then verify
that you are able to view file extensions, and that there is no txt or
similar extension appended to the lmhosts file.
180094 How to Write an LMHOSTS File for Domain Validation and Other Name
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=180094

--
David Brandt
Microsoft Corporation

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Please do not send e-mail directly to this alias. This alias is for
newsgroup purposes only.
 
No, I think the forwarders were deactivated when I
manually created the new root directory. I have recently
removed the new root directory and enabled Fowarders.
Appreciate the help. One last question. We were told by
our ISP that we had to use the gateway they provided,
which is 192.168.1.5. Should I use the DNS/WINS/AD
computer as the gateway, or are they independent of each
other? Just making sure the clients are looking at my DNS
server instead of my ISPs.

Thanks again

Jason
 
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