'Unable to log on because domain name is unavailable'; no DNS...

[Roberto Icaza]

Hello,
I have a Windows 2000 Server SP4 as a PDC in the Marketing domain, no BDCs. I have 50 Windows XP SP1 workstations, which I manually added to the domain on a one-by-one basis. I added users in AD Users & Computers, but when I try to log on on any of the XP machines, there is a pause and then an error message appears: "Cannot log in because the domain Marketing is not available. The DNS server is the only thing I haven't configured (or configured correctly), which leads me to think that that's what causing clients not to log in. If my domain is Marketing and the the company's Internet domain is mycompany.com, what would be the simplest DNS config so that my clients can log in? Also, the Windows domain is marketing, not marketing.mycompany.com... does that matter? I have worked with many aspects of Windows domains, but never actually setup one all by myself.

Thanks for any help,
Roberto

 

[Peter Demeyer]

You definitely need DNS for a workstation to find a domain.
If you windows domain is called marketing, you have to configure a zone in DNS for marketing, not mycompany.com (and for internal use only).
Peter
Hello,
I have a Windows 2000 Server SP4 as a PDC in the Marketing domain, no BDCs. I have 50 Windows XP SP1 workstations, which I manually added to the domain on a one-by-one basis. I added users in AD Users & Computers, but when I try to log on on any of the XP machines, there is a pause and then an error message appears: "Cannot log in because the domain Marketing is not available. The DNS server is the only thing I haven't configured (or configured correctly), which leads me to think that that's what causing clients not to log in. If my domain is Marketing and the the company's Internet domain is mycompany.com, what would be the simplest DNS config so that my clients can log in? Also, the Windows domain is marketing, not marketing.mycompany.com... does that matter? I have worked with many aspects of Windows domains, but never actually setup one all by myself.

Thanks for any help,
Roberto

 

[Kevin D. Goodknecht [MVP]]

In

Hello,
I have a Windows 2000 Server SP4 as a PDC in the Marketing
domain, no BDCs. I have 50 Windows XP SP1 workstations, which I
manually added to the domain on a one-by-one basis. I added users in
AD Users & Computers, but when I try to log on on any of the XP
machines, there is a pause and then an error message appears: "Cannot
log in because the domain Marketing is not available. The DNS server
is the only thing I haven't configured (or configured correctly),
which leads me to think that that's what causing clients not to log
in. If my domain is Marketing and the the company's Internet domain
is mycompany.com, what would be the simplest DNS config so that my
clients can log in? Also, the Windows domain is marketing, not
marketing.mycompany.com... does that matter? I have worked with many
aspects of Windows domains, but never actually setup one all by
myself.

Thanks for any help,
Roberto

If your domain name is "marketing" that is a single label domain name which
requires registry entries for XP and Win2kSP4 machines.
300684 - Information About Configuring Windows 2000 for Domains with
Single-Label DNS Names
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;300684&FR=1