Domain? Workgroup? Active Directory? Ahh!, come help a noob

[hobbz05]

I have a network of 3 computers which were all communicating fine. In an attempt to speed one of them up, I reformatted it (Windows XP Professional) and all went well . But now I'm faced with reconnecting the computer with the small business network as it's vital to the productivity of the company. Now, with my limited networking experience I've always simply set them all to a similar workgroup and set a few sharing permissions and all was well. But using the other two computers as reference I see instead of being in a workgroup they're part of a "domain". I assumed as long as I entered the domain address ("five6.local") that is listed on the other two computers I would be popped into the network and all would be well. Instead, I get the following error message:

A domain controller for the domain five6.local could not be contacted

Googling the error gives me swarms of people in varying technical trouble with every one of them having a more sophisticated system and superior knowledge on the subject. Now, heres what I find odd about the whole thing: From what I can deduce, this is an error generated while trying to interact with Active Directory. And I believe Active directory will only run on a server operating system. But there is none in the group, It's just three Windows XP Professional machines. And it's the machine I reformatted wasn't the server because the other two computers are still communicating fine.

What am I missing here?

And how do I get this damn machine back in the network?!

All thoughts, comments, and inane moral-boosting cheers are much appreciated.

[Squirrelington]

http://technet.micro...y/bb456990.aspx

only thing i can think of is either you're not logged in as an administrator, did not provide a login with domain join credentials or some kind of network issue is preventing this computer from contacting the domain controller.

(pro tip: I don't really have much experience with windows active directory/domain environments, i usually administer linux networks)

[evoman91]

To find out what the hostname of the computer that is running your domain run the following in a command prompt on one of the computers that is currently in the domain:

echo %logonserver%

Now try pinging it from the same computer, if you can ping it, it does exist somewhere on your network. If you can't ping it try navigating to a share on it, \\HOSTNAME, if you can see shares on it then again it does exist and isn't allowing incoming echo request which is fine. If you can't ping it or navigate shares then it either isn't part of your network any more in which case we can't help you really or it is turned off or there is some other factor blocking access to it such as a firewall.

If you can ping or navigate to shares on it, try pinging the hostname from the computer you reformatted if that fails try pinging the IP address. If the hostname fails but the IP address works than there might be a host record on the other two computers for your domain. Open the file called hosts in notepad which is found in C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc

If there is a line in there along the same lines of

192.168.0.200 five6.local

Try adding the same on the new computer and see if that works.

I hope this makes sense, it is far two early!

[Japlabot]

It sounds to me like these 3 computers USED to be connected to a server, but are not any more.

You can connect a PC to a server, join it to Active Directory running on the server, and then disconnect from the server and the users that were logged in while the server was available will continue to function.

I would check with the person in charge that you are doing work for and see if they are aware of the existance of the server that was once connected to these computers or where the computers came from.

If there is no longer any server to connect to, you should be able to run it in a workgroup while the existing computers stay on the domain (it will still be accessible by \\COMPUTERNAME, but will not show under the same group in My Network Places). This is the easiest thing to do without messing with the other computers.

Ideally (and I would only do this if you were confident in this), it would be best to switch all of the computers no longer connected to a domain onto a workgroup instead. You will lose all the user profiles so you would need to recreate them and restore the data (pretty much the same as a format c: job without needing to reinstall the OS).

Given the age of XP and therefore the age of the computers I would be more inclined just to get it up and running without messing with the other computers until such time they are ready to upgrade to new PCs (running Windows 7 presumably) and then the problem won't matter anymore.

[sc302 Veteran]

Rules of a domain network...

dns. no other dns servers are in the network properties other than the domain controller or a domain controller of the network. It will forward internet domain lookups to the appropriate server for you to be able to get to the internet. Internet dns servers do not know about internal domains and will give you the error you are seeing.

IMO, you aren't using dhcp correctly to hand out dns servers or you manually configured dns in your network properties to an internet dns server. This is the most common issue that would cause the situation you are seeing, this is not the only thing that would cause the issue you are seeing....most common with AD "noobs" because they don't understand how networking works or how things get referenced on a network. AD does not use netbios to figure out what/where the computers are, it uses DNS...internet DNS servers do not know anything about your internal network so it can't resolve or find pc1.five6.local or server.five6.local. DNS plays such a huge role in AD, it isn't something to get wrong or to go around.

Workgroups do not revolve around dns to connect to local pcs or local servers. They can use netbios/broadcast to connect and know where pc's are. AD does not, it uses DNS to query and lookups and it is embedded into AD.

[BeerFan]

Just to cover all bases... Since you said you reformatted, did you also reinstall the appropriate NIC drivers?

[+Ryster Subscriber²]

The fact that two of the machines are on a domain means there must've been a domain controller (ie. Windows Server) on the network at some point in time, even if there isn't now.

From one of the two machines on the domain, do a: ping five6.local. If you get a reply, this will be the IP address of your domain controller. Do an ipconfig /all also. More often than not, in a live domain the DHCP service will also run on the same box as the domain. If you don't get a response to the ping, then you clearly don't have a domain controller any more and there's going to be no way to get that rebuilt third machine back onto the domain. In that circumstance, you have two options... either find that domain controller and plug it back in/turn it on, or remove those other two machines from the domain and put all three on the same (ie. identical, not similar as you mentioned above) workgroup.

p.s. I'm a service desk technician at JCB in the UK, and am responsible for the daily operation and upkeep of our Active Directory Domain with over 4000 domain members across the UK and Europe. I also run a small 1 server/1 desktop/2 laptop domain running on Server 2008R2 at my house.

[hobbz05]

To find out what the hostname of the computer that is running your domain run the following in a command prompt on one of the computers that is currently in the domain:

echo %logonserver%

Now try pinging it from the same computer, if you can ping it, it does exist somewhere on your network. If you can't ping it try navigating to a share on it, \\HOSTNAME, if you can see shares on it then again it does exist and isn't allowing incoming echo request which is fine. If you can't ping it or navigate shares then it either isn't part of your network any more in which case we can't help you really or it is turned off or there is some other factor blocking access to it such as a firewall.

If you can ping or navigate to shares on it, try pinging the hostname from the computer you reformatted if that fails try pinging the IP address. If the hostname fails but the IP address works than there might be a host record on the other two computers for your domain. Open the file called hosts in notepad which is found in C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc

If there is a line in there along the same lines of

192.168.0.200 five6.local

Try adding the same on the new computer and see if that works.

I hope this makes sense, it is far two early!

This is exactly the sort of "flow-chart" style response I was looking for. This along with the bits supplied by everyone else (especially TCLN Ryster, thank you sir) should be enough to get this guy running. I figure worst case scenario I'll just switch it over to a workgroup.

I appreciate all your help immensely, thank you everyone.

[sc302 Veteran]

If there is no domain controller existing on the network than sure you can switch everyone over to a workgroup, but if there is a internal domain with sbs fix the issue with the pc. It is probably a very easy fix but if you don't understand or don't know how a domain works you should bring in someone who knows and not switch over to a workgroup as it can and will create other issues. there are many benefits to active directory that you give up by switching over to workgroup, and if you do not know or understand you should step away from that situation.

[+Ryster Subscriber²]

This is exactly the sort of "flow-chart" style response I was looking for. This along with the bits supplied by everyone else (especially TCLN Ryster, thank you sir) should be enough to get this guy running. I figure worst case scenario I'll just switch it over to a workgroup.

I appreciate all your help immensely, thank you everyone.

You're welcome, feel free to hit me up on a private message or something if you need further assistance. I have a large amount of experience with all windows server versions going back to 2000 and have administered AD, DNS and DHCP on all of them. I can help you out if you do find the domain controller and need help resurrecting it or something.

[astralbaby]

I want to go on record and say that his machines are located in a satellite office, and they are tunneling in and connecting to server located in a remote location.

What os is the machine in question running? Look at tue other machines that are joined

[hobbz05]

You're welcome, feel free to hit me up on a private message or something if you need further assistance. I have a large amount of experience with all windows server versions going back to 2000 and have administered AD, DNS and DHCP on all of them. I can help you out if you do find the domain controller and need help resurrecting it or something.

Thank you, it's nice to know I have a line of help for networking issues.

In case anyone is curious as to how it worked out: Pinging the server found naught. I switched all the computers over to a workgroup, and it's all working well. They are only doing basic printer/file sharing so I see no foreseeable issues with the setup. I'm still rather curious as to why they were on a domain (especially one without a server) in the first place but I feel that is going to die a mystery.

Thank you all again for your help, it was all much appreciated.

[piyushagrawal]

Check the shell properties of each of the computer.

Plus you need to be login as an administrator. If you can't ping it or navigate shares then it either isn't part of your network any more in which case we can't help you really or it is turned off or there is some other factor blocking access to it such as a firewall.

[vimal777]

watch this video.. it feels very useful to me... its simple... i hope this video will solve you problem...