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moltar225

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Windows 2K Server moved to new system and Network doesn't work ...

Ok here is the problem:

I moved a Windows 2000 Server installation from an old server to a new server and used
the mergereg/expand drivers trick to get the drivers on the old drive so it would boot
in the new system without error.  
This worked :) and the new system recognized windows and installed all the drivers and such
so that the system, video, drives etc (including the RAID card) are functional.

HOWEVER, the network card does not access the internet (connected via a router to
a cable modem).  (the network card was a INtel Pro 10/100 on the old board, and I think
an 8463? Gigabit Intel on the new board)

The server is our Domain controller, but the router handles the DHCP for the DNS except
I assign 192.168.1.100 to the server.  I also manually assign the DNS the first being
to 192.168.1.1 (the router) and the second to the DNS of the cable company.

I have tried a Win98 system to log into the DC to no avail with an Error 31 when trying
to load the mapped network drives.  A windows 2000 pro system logs into the server
and I had to remap the drives.... - i don't understand why this it occuring.

SO - when the W2K server boots it seems to freeze at the "Preparing Network Connections"
prompt - at least stays there a LONG time (in safe mode it takes like 10 min) - i have
never seen it go through in normal boot.  Is this because I moved it to a new system and the
DC/Active directory is specific to the old network card/address??  I'm not sure what the
IP was before so I may have changed that....  that would possibly explain why I had to
remap the drives on the W2K pro system for it to work.

1.  How can i fix this so it doesn't take forever to process the network connections..
2.  FYI - this is a Dell 600SC (the old system was an optiplex - hey we are only 5 people)
3.  Is there a way to 'wipe' the old network settings that may be left over from the old system.
I don't want to do a reinstall if possible or wipe the Active Directory, as it seems ok, just that the server
can't access the internet (even though it shows the right address and DNS's) - and it won't pull its own
DNS from the DHCP of the linksys router.
4.  Why is this happening????  Is it because there is an old setting stuck in there?? or is it because
the DC is specific to the network card address? or is the AD specific to network card address??

I have looked at some microsoft solutions about NetBios, but I don't think i have that running. (I think
TCP/IP and NETBEUI may be running)

Thanks...
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danich

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vern2727

A Windows 2000 Domain Controller must register the DNS server records with a DNS server that accepts Dynamic Updates and Server records.  I assume that DNS is running on the Domain Controller. The Domain Controller must only point to itself for DNS service.  DNS is usually configured to listen to any network connection, but can be configured to listen only on specific IP addresses.  Setting up forwarding is only neccesary if you have other private DNS servers that host zones that do not exist in the Windows 2000 DNS server.  The DNS server will anser for zones it is authoritative for and will access Internet root DNS servers for unknown external DNS addresses.

Other Windows 2000 aware computers will not find domain controllers if they do not find the server records in the local DNS server.
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I do not believe the DNS server is/was running before.  I simply had the linksys router setup for DHCP and acting therefore
as the DNS by passing to the cable provider's DNS servers.

We only have an office of 10 here and 8 systems are win 2k pro, 2 are win 98, all worked fine before i changed to the new server.  I haven't tried any remedies yet - i am going to try danich's suggestion first, as the old network card driver may still be in there.  If not is there a 'best method' to setup the kind of system i have.?

8 win2k + 2 win 98  + 1 win2k server ---- > hub  (12 port) ----> linksys router ----> RCA cable modem (comcast)

I could enable the DHCP and DNS on the server i guess and disable on the router, but can anyone point me
to a procedure (obviously i don't do the networking full time - no expertise on basic setup - we just
needed a better login system and file sharing speed than peer-2-peer.)

So I have it setup - probably not the best way.  But I'll feedback on the comments so far and accept the best comment - thanx for the response so far.
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When you run dcpromo and make the machine a DC for the domain it either installs DNS or uses the DNS server specified in TCP settings IF that specified DNS server supports DDNS. Most routers don't support DDNS nor will your ISP. Therefore DNS HAD to be running on this machine. In TCP settings the first DNS server needs to be the server itself.

You asked to be pointed to a procedure; I did that in my first comment.
just to let you know where I ended up -

Thanks danich, that did get me along - i had to remove all the old drivers (there were many) and even the new network
card drivers as the TCP/IP was pointing externally and not to the 192.168.1.199 of the server DNS.

Vern2727 and Valik hit it on the head - the TCPIP was pointing externally to a ISP DNS causing AD to freak on startup i guess...

I did get the AD and DNS and system to boot - it working - but the forwarders did not work.  I setup a DHCP to handle the addressing rather than the router and turned the routers DHCP off.  Then setup the DNS of the ISP in the DHCP per some online sites i found (kudos to http://www.serverwatch.com/tutorials/article.php/1474461  - quick guide to setting up active directory)

So i unintalled AD and reinstalled the DNS, and AD from scratch and readded all users.  Works much better now
than ever.  The DNS should definitely be setup before installing AD as i think that is why my old DNS the forwarding
wouldn't work..... (and it did work on server but was SLOW).

Last Question if anyone knows:  

How can I speed up the time the server takes to forward?  Change the timeout option??
and how small can i make that??

I also set the DHCP to use the following order for DNS - ISP1, ISP2, ISP3, Server DNS (internal), when I had the Server DNS (192.168.1.199) first - the internet resolution took FOREVER!!

Thanks to all - and experts exchange rocks.