jeojames1984

Ok here is the deal, I am trying to help this business with getting their new dell computers added to their server. There are 7 total computers. Well we disconnected one of the old ones and set up the new dell computer. The new computer has the exact same computer name as the old one did. We were just upgrading one of the staff's computers. So he had already been added to the server and AD on his previous, older computer. Everything looks great except the server nor the new computer can ping each other (the same network cable that was connected to the older computer). I can set up the old computer again on the very same network setup and it works. The NIC on the new dell is working properly according to windows and has all the latest drivers installed. However, I cannot ping anything when connected to the network (windows firewall has been disabled too). When I try to join the domain that all of the other computers are joined to it immediately displays an error telling me cannot join domain make sure it is spelled correctly (or something like that). When I click details it says something about no DNS set up locally. So I right click on my LAN connection and go to my TCP/IP properties and instead of choosing obtain DNS server address automatically I enter the IP address that displays when I do an ipconfig on the server itself (the IP for the DNS server). Now when I try to join the domain it displays an error immediately saying something about a socket error when attempting to connect to an unreachable host.

So needless to say I am lost. I have added computers to this domain before and it was never a problem. I am assuming if the computers are unable to ping one another when connected then my problem lies with the NIC in the new computer or some type of setting on the new computer. But everything seems to be working properly with it. If anyone could offer any assistance that would be really wonderful as I have just about pulled all of my hair out over this. Thank you.

Server: Windows Small Business Server 2003
Client: Windows XP Pro SP2

djaburg

It's never a good idea to join a computer to a domain that has the same name as a computer already on the network. I would check the setting in the network properties of the computer you're replacing to see how it is configured. Typically the domain controller will have a DNS server installed on it, so the client computers need to reference the domain controller computer as their DNS server. For example if you server's internal IP is 192.168.1.2 and your workstation is 192.168.1.100, then you'll want to have the DNS settings on the workstation to be 192.168.1.2, then it should find the server easily. I'd also try changing the name of the workstation and then try to join the domain and see if that works.