Problem accessing domain computers from Active Directory Server

[Guest]

Hi all..

I have a small network which is commanded by a Windows Server 2003 machine.
This machine acts as a domain controller, DNS and Exchange Server.

When I open Active Directory MMC and go to computers node, I can see all
domain computers which are running Windows XP (and which were added to the
domain).

When I click Manage option in the popup menu when a computer is selected,
Active directory cannot find network path sending an error message box
telling me that. All computers were added to the domain using Mi Computer ->
Properties -> Network ID -> Properties

Another curious fact is when I try to use NET SEND command, it responds with
the error that message alias isn't found on the network.

Any help to solve this will be greatly appreciated
Thanks

Jaime

 

[Herb Martin]

Hi all..

I have a small network which is commanded by a Windows Server 2003 machine.
This machine acts as a domain controller, DNS and Exchange Server.

"commanded by"? ( I like that <grin>)

[You have a DC-DNS-Exchange server.]

When I open Active Directory MMC and go to computers node, I can see all
domain computers which are running Windows XP (and which were added to the
domain).

When I click Manage option in the popup menu when a computer is selected,
Active directory cannot find network path sending an error message box
telling me that. All computers were added to the domain using Mi Computer ->
Properties -> Network ID -> Properties

Sounds like an authnetication problem (the machines
not authenticating to the domain at boot) and most
of those are really DNS issues.

Another curious fact is when I try to use NET SEND command, it responds with
the error that message alias isn't found on the network.

Does it really say "alias"? Ok, in any case most of those
problems (Net Send) are really name resolution problems,
NetBIOS first and DNS second.

If this (part) is a NetBIOS problem then it is usually one
of two things:

1) Admin decided to disable NetBIOS on (some) computers
Bad idea in most nets, no matter what you have been told

2) More than one subnet and no WINS Server ( or other WINS
issues.)
(All computers, servers and workstations, must be WINS
"CLIENTS" in this case -- people usually forget to make
their "servers" WINS clients.

Ok, for DNS start here:

DNS for AD
1) Dynamic for the zone supporting AD
2) All internal DNS clients NIC\IP properties must specify SOLELY
that internal, dynamic DNS server (set.)
3) DCs and even DNS servers are DNS clients too -- see #2
4) If you have more than one Domain, every DNS server must
be able to resolve ALL domains (either directly or indirectly)

netdiag /fix

....or maybe:

dcdiag /fix

(Win2003 can do this from Support tools):
nltest /dsregdns /serverC-ServerNameGoesHere
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q260371/

Ensure that DNS zones/domains are fully replicated to all DNS
servers for that (internal) zone/domain.

Also useful may be running DCDiag on each DC, sending the
output to a text file, and searching for FAIL, ERROR, WARN.

Single Label domain zone names are a problem Google:
[ "SINGLE LABEL" domain names DNS 2000 | 2003 microsoft: ]