Domain not found after running connectcomputer

How about posting the IPCONFIG /ALL from both the server and workstation?

Thanks!

Jeff
TechSoEasy

Jeff,

I won't be able to until tomorrow when I'm back out at the site.  What I can tell you is that the server is set to 192.168.111.10 and the clients are using DHCP.  In looking at IPCONFIG/All for the workstations, I'm seeing 192.168.111.10 as the primary DNS server and then the DNS server for Sprint that I added to SBS.  

What is throwing me for a loop is that my laptop was able to join the domain, no problems, with DHCP.  I did get an reporting over the weekend from the server that one of the workstations is claiming to be the Master Browser.  

"The master browser has received a server announcement from the computer AREESE01 that believes that it is the master browser for the domain on transport NetBT_Tcpip_{F35AA3C5-805D-40BB-. The master browser is stopping or an election is being forced.  "

I'm wondering if this could be causing the problem I'm having.  

After adding the PC to the domain, via the connectcomputer function, the PC says its building the domain list and then times out saying it can't find the domain, yet I can ping the SBS server.  

Hopefully this give some additional information.  

I'm assuming that you only have ONE NIC on your server based on your comments.

You should NOT have any EXTERNAL DNS IP Addresses in your Network Card configurations.  These should only be added as Forwarders in your DNS.  The process for doing this is to run the "Connect to the Internet" wizard on the To-Do List (the full name of this wizard is the Configure Email and Internet Connection Wizard -- or, CEICW).

But before you do that, you also need to make sure that you have the WINS Server configured on your NIC as 192.168.111.10.

The proper configuration of your Server's Network Interface(s) along with running the CEICW after any networking change made on the server will take care of that Master Browser error... you don't need to really worry about that as it's not the right trail to follow to resolve this issue.

Please post the IPCONFIG's so that I can review them in full for you.  I'd also suggest that you learn about remote administration as soon as possible so that you don't have to be on site to do things such as this.  There are a number of on-line hands-on labs that can assist in becoming familiar with these tools.  You will find a list of those labs at the bottom of this page:  http://www.lasmbug.org/Lists/Webcasts/AllItems.aspx

Jeff
TechSoEasy

Jeff,

Thanks for the quick response.  

Yes, the server only has one NIC.  I will remove the external DNS from the configuration.  

I'm waiting for Sprint to issue a static IP for the network, so that I can enable remote administration.  I should have that in the next couple of days.  

I will check out the labs you suggest.  

FYI, for remote administrative purposes you don't really need a static IP.  DSL dynamic IP Addresses don't really change unless the MAC address of the connecting device changes.  So, just see what it is getting and use that temporarily.  

Alternatively you could always use a Dynamic DNS service... many of them are free.

Jeff
TechSoEasy

Jeff,

I did setup DynDNS for the firewall, am not able to access today.  I'm going for a static as my customer will use RWW and OWA.  

I'm using DynDNS for some other customer's and it works well.  

Of course having static IPs is good for a number of reasons, probably the main one would be that running an Exchange server within the Dynamic IP range will generally result in bounced messages by the larger ISP's.  The solution to this is to relay through your own ISP instead.

Configuring RWW and OWA with DynDNS is not really a problem at all... it's just a bit different.  Generally those services won't handle a URL such as http://server.domain.com/remote  so you need to instead configure http://remote.domain.com or some such thing.  There's a brief thread about this in the MS Groups here:  http://snipurl.com/o8fn

Jeff
TechSoEasy

Jeff,

Here are the IP configs you requested:

Workstation


C:\Documents and Settings\Kyleen>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

        Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : kmooney
        Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . : vci.local
        Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
        IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
        WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
        DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : vci.local
                                            vci.local

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : vci.local
        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) PRO/100 VE Network Connecti
on
        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-13-20-D9-6C-73
        Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
        Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.111.11
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.111.1
        DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.111.10
        DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.111.10
        Primary WINS Server . . . . . . . : 192.168.111.10
        Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Friday, March 24, 2006 9:45:59 AM
        Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Saturday, April 01, 2006 9:45:59 AM

C:\Documents and Settings\Kyleen>

Server


C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

   Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : vciserver
   Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . : vci.local
   Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
   IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes
   WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes
   DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : vci.local

Ethernet adapter Server Local Area Connection:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-13-72-0C-90-85
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.111.10
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.111.1
   DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.111.10
   Primary WINS Server . . . . . . . : 192.168.111.10

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>

I look forward to your input.  

Am I suppose to be hitting accept along the way or wait until we are done?

No, you don't click ACCEPT until the answer you need is provided.  That would close out the question.

These all look good now -- since you've removed the external DNS IP's from your configuration.  Did you rerun the CEICW?  If so, do your workstations STILL not see the domain... and what makes you think they can't see the domain... ie, what errors are you getting or what other indicators?

Jeff
TechSoEasy

Jeff,

I was able to get four of the five machines to join the domain with little problem.  The reason I'm saying they could not see the domain, was that I was getting that error message when I tried to logon to the domain.  I could logon locally and then remote desktop into the server, but couldn't see the domain.  I then did the connect computer process again and was able to get this settled.

The last machine tells me its building a domain list after I go through the connect computer process and locks up.  Restarting the machine allows me to connect locally.  I've talked with the person that originally setup the computers and he said this one machine was giving him fits, so I'm going to reload XP Pro and go from there.  

I did not rerun the CEICW, would you recommend that I do that?  

ABSOLUTELY run the CEICW again as I recommended above that you do this after any network change.

If you could not log on to the domain from a workstation then you have not properly joined it to the domain, OR you are using an invalid user account.  What was the EXACT error message you got when you tried to log on to the domain?

Jeff
TechSoEasy

Jeff,

I'll run the CEICW this afternoon.  The message I got from the machine, after going through the connect computer process is that it was building the domain list and then it locked.  I tried to connect a couple of times, but still got the same machine.

On another machine it was telling me it could not find the domain controller, so put the machine back into the workgroup and then went through the domain joining process, which worked.  

You may have to rename the workstation for this to get fixed.  There are a number of services on SBS which still use the NETBIOS names and if there is a problematic connection it's best to do the following:

The following needs to be done with the client machine:
1.  Log in with THAT machine's LOCAL administrator account.
2.  Unjoin the domain into a WORKGROUP
3.  Change the name of the computer
4.  Delete or rename the following directory C:\Program Files\Microsoft Windows Small Business Server\Clients
5.  Ensure that the network configuration is set to get an IP Address and DNS Server IPs automatically (DHCP enabled)
6.  Reboot

Then on the server, from the Server Management Console:
1.  Remove the client computers if it still shows in the Client Computer screen on the Server Management Console
2.  Add the client with it's NEW name using the Add Computer wizard

Then, go back to the client machine and join the domain by opening Internet Explorer and navigating to http://servername/connectcomputer

Jeff
TechSoEasy

Jeff,

I had done all those things prior, with no luck, but did it again just to give it another try.  This time I did not migrate the user's settings, as there wasn't much to migrate.  I was able to get it to join the domain, but it can't find the Exchange server.  The other machines have no problem with Exchange.  Once I track down the system disk, I'm going to rebuild it.  Right now its trying to apply personal settings and has been in that state for five minutes.  

Jason

Jeff,

I'll pull that today when I'm onsite.  I understand there is some period of hang, this machine hangs for 30 minutes.  Also, it takes its time shutting down.  

I was able to get it to logon to the domain yesterday, however Outlook can't find the Exchange server, the SBS box.  I can do start -> run \\servername and get to the service fine.  Remote Desktop works fine, but Outlook can't find the Exchange server.  All the other machines are working fine with Exchange, so I'm thinking that machine is just not right.  

When you're getting that other log entry, there's another file in that folder called sbsdefault.prf.  Open it up with a text editor and post the first five sections as well.

Jeff
TechSoEasy

Jeff,

Because this machine is having problems with other services, I'm going to rebuild it.  I think this might be the quicker route than to continue to pull information out of this particular machine.  I do appreciate the insight you have given through this process.

Thank you,

Jason

no problem... sounds like a good time to stop troubleshooting!

:-)

Jeff
TechSoEasy