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Domain access problems.

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by quentin.smit

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I have a network with 9 servers and about 30 users using DHCP and we're having constant issues regarding which machines and servers are not only visible but accessable on the network. Some machines 'see' more than others in explorer and even when you can see a server (for example) it's impossible to connect to it even using the administrator logon and password - a message is returned (at times) saying the network path is not available. Added to this, there are vast performance differences between users - for no apparent reason. I did a test on my laptop by de-installing and reinstalling TCP/IP but it had little effect. Any suggestions?

12 replies

by mian_saleem

YOu didn't mentioned the environment. Is it Windows 2000 or NT 4.0?

If you have a mixed clients i.e. Win2K, NT and Windows 98, it is necessary to run WINS Server and make sure that the server hosting WINS shold also have static entry in its TCP/IP properties for itself as WINS client. Also you can try to reduce the lease time on your DHCP Server.

by quentin.smit

I forgot to mention (thanks for point that out) we are running a Windows 2000 environment with the servers running Windows 2000 Server.

by joej

Are you running just a primary WINS server or do you have multiple servers. Also are any of your servers located in a remote office. If so you should look at replications make sure it is setup properly and check your DHCP option scope the 044 and 046 options should be set.

by typamfiloff

I assume you are using active directory? Make sure you have all your clients point to your domain controller(s)IP for DNS only.You'll do this in your DHCP Server. Have your Dns server use forwarders(to your ISP's DNS) or just your the root servers for outbound requests to the internet.

This is done in the dns MMC.
Right click your server go to properties.
If the Forwarders and Root Hints tabs are not available....you'll need to delete the "." domain to enable those tabs.

Good luck

by quentin.smit

Thanks for the advice - also didn't help. Found that only a few laptops on our network had NetBios setup which was causing the problem.

by khuffmanjr

make sure NetBIOS is enabled on users' machines and servers. also, these services are needed for proper browsing of network resources:

Computer Browser
Server
Workstation

also, it almost sounds as though some of your clients are not receiving IP addresses from the DHCP server. do an ipconfig on some of your machines and see if they have an address in the APIPA range, i.e. 169.254.x.x. if so, check to see that any routers that your clients must go through for DHCP are bootp enabled.
hope this helps

K

by quentin.smit

Thanks for the advice - it did help! NetBios wasn't set up correctly on most clients. Added to that, the PDC and SDC were both being used as servers for other purposes (Lotus notes and clear case respectively) and we purchased two more servers to ease the pressure on the controllers and that along with the NetBios seems to have solved the problem.

by sales

You might try running winipcfg on your clients that exhibit problems. Release all of the client IP, DNS, etc. data and refresh it. It may be that some of the clients are hanging on to the old data. I ran into a similar problem last week and this didthe trick.

Chris

by quentin.smit

Thanks for the advice - also didn't help. Found that only a few laptops on our network had NetBios setup which was causing the problem. Clients were doing release / renew constantly in an effort to solve the problem and though it helped from time to time, it wasn't a workable solution.

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