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Cannot get chosen BDC to authenticate

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by gailhuxtable

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I have a master domain with all the BDCS for about 10 different sites in. Its a NT network and we use WINS but it seems to be a lottery as to which BDC authenticates the user. The BDCs themselves are physically located on the user's site (ie Leicester's BDC is in Leicester) but there seems to be no way of forcing to use that. We have tried LMHOSTS file, SetLogonServer, static entries in WINS database, but the only thing that seems to work so far is disable the NETLOGON service on every other server until the one required logs the users in. Any help would be great thks. Clients are NT, Routers between sites,

3 replies

by nettek

Microsoft created an executable called SETPRFDC.EXE just for this purpose. Check out KB article Q181171.

by gailhuxtable

I have tried to use setprfdc but I when I run it, it doesnt see the master domain only the resource domain.

by nettek

I am sorry that setprfdc did not work for you.

LMHOSTS will work, but you may have to make a sacrifice. Workstations find domain controllers in the following order:
WINS -> Broadcast -> LMHOSTS -> DNS -> HOSTS
Even if you have an LMHOSTS file set up on your workstation, the workstation still prefers to use WINS first. Disable WINS resolution on the workstation that has the LMHOSTS file, and it most certainly will only be authenticated by the local BDC.

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