No domain controller can be found

[mjstanton]

Hello, I hope someone can help us.

One of the Windows 98 machines on an NT network started
getting the following message recently upon login...

"No domain controller could be found to........." I can't remember the exact words. Anyway, the user clicks OK, the message goes away and then he seems to be connected. The reason I say "seems to be connected" is because he can see one other computer and the server (he can access server shares), but he can't see the other computers on the network. The server can see him. He can ping all the machines on the network (there are only 5), but they don't show up in Network Neighborhood.

What could be causing this, and how can it be fixed?

Thanks in advance for any/all replies.

 

[eightball]

Are you running a WINS server? Make sure WINS is configured on the client if it is running on the server. Netbios sounds like the culprit as the the browser service depends on this. If you are not running WINS, are you on a VLAN or a WAN connection?

 

[mjstanton]

Thanks, eightball!

Yes, they are running WINS, and WINS is configured on the client. I'm going to suggest an uninstall and reinstall of TCP/IP.

With regards to the browser service, is there a way to make sure that the server is ALWAYS the master browser?

 

[terryISO]

Hi.

I have had this problem a few times in the past. I run a mixed Windows 98 and 2000 system, using an NT4 domain controller, but I also had the problem once or twice when I had only Windows 98 PCs with an NT4 Domain Controller.

Solutions that worked for me:

(1) Check that the IP address and the subnet mask for the Windows 98 machine is correct. (I failed to notice that the domain controller had a subnet mask of 255.255.0.0, while the Windows 98 PC was using 255.255.255.0. Another time, I had the IP address totally incorrect)

(2) Make sure that the Windows 98 PC is running protocols for NetBEUI, IPX/SPX and TCP/IP.

Every time the problem has occured, if I check (and correct if neccessary) the above, it is resolved.

The problem always turns out to be the User (me, usually) has managed to screw up one those settings.

Hope this helps.

 

[Haunter]

I am having a similar problem on a win xp machine. Here is the funny thing. Sometimes the teminal can connect fine and see all the shares. 2 hours later I cant see anything on the network.

No problems with any other machines. This problem seemed to start misterously and is very intermittent.

I doubt this matters but I just recently added the 6th terminal to the network.


haunter@battlestrata.com

 

[mjstanton]

Ok, here's the deal - I am stumped!! The network consists of one server, 1 XP pro PC, 2 Windows ME PC's and 1 Windows 98 PC. Static IP addresses are assigned. The NT server is also the WINS server. The server sees all the PCs on the network. The XP box sees all the PCs on the network. The Windows ME boxes see all the PCs, too. Upon Login, the 98 machine gets the "no domain contoller could be found to verify your password...." message. We click OK, and the message goes away. In this state, the 98 machine sees itself and the server in Network Neighborhood. AND it can access network shares! It can also ping all the other computers but cannot see them nor connect to any shares on them. Is this computer on the network or not? It seems to be halfway there. We uninstalled and reinstalled MS Client for Networks and TCP/IP. We changed NIC cards. Nothing changes! Subnets are all the same. Any ideas??? I'm starting to pull my hair out!!

 

[terryISO]

Hi again.

Looking through my notes, there was one other fix that I found that worked when I had the same problem (I am assuming that you do have NetBEUI etc set up on the server and the Win98/ME PCs - you didn't mention if you had checked this in your last reply).

That was to set up an LMHOSTS file, which identified the IP address of the Domian Controller and all of the other PCs on the network. I then imported the file on the Windows 98 PCs and the problem was fixed.

There are lots of descriptions of what to do on these forums, I think. Try using "LMHOST" as the key search word.