Problems changing client passwords

[djameson]

We have major problems with changing user's passwords. We are using so-called "down-level" clients (Win 9x).

If the user account has the option "User must change password at next logon" set, we get the error "Password has expired".

If this option is not set then we can log in ok but when we come to change the password in Control Panel | Passwords, we get the error "Unable to change the password for Microsoft Networking. The domain controller for this domain cannot be found".

Any ideas why this happens and how we can get around it??

(We created the accounts using the "addusers.exe" command line utility).

many thanks for any help.
Dave.

 

[SoulSe]

I've had similar problems with Win9x. There is apparently a fix available from Microsoft, sorry but I don't know exactly where or what it's called!

Running Win9x with 2k server will inevitably lead to such problems and I would suggest upgrading your workstations to 2k Pro or XP if you want to fully utilise 2k server's features.

 

[djameson]

Thanks for your reply. On our own network we have had no problems in this area - the only difference being that our server is Win2k Advanced Server.(the fault is occuring on a customer site).

I've checked the Domain Security Policy on both domains and they are the same. I think you're right in that this feels like a fault rather than something we're doing wrong. Is this patch only available direct from Microsoft or could I potentially download it off the web site (if I can find it)??

Upgrading the clients is unfortunately not a viable short-term option.

thanks,

 

[DFRA603]

Did you install the AD client for Win95? I'm not sure or it is necessary but you never know... Is the domain in native mode?

David

 

[djameson]

I wasn't aware of the AD Client - where can I get this? I might be worth a shot.
Are there any other ways of changing a user's password?(apart from inviting them to the server console)

The servers are still currently in mixed mode as we may need to introduce an NT4 mail server into the domain at some point.

Thanks for your help.

 

[djameson]

As a follow up to my last post, are you referring to the DS client on the Win2000 server CD?

 

[DFRA603]

Yes that's the one, but there might be an updated version available. I remeber something that the only way to eliminate WINS is to use this client so it is worth the try

David

PS: Let me know or it worked ;-)

 

[djameson]

Thanks alot for mentioning the dsclient - after installing it, manually changing passwords is now achieveable. One thing you should look out for though - installing dsclient caused us problems running Outlook. This is corrected by re-applying the secur32.dll from the Win8x CD into the \windows\system folder after installing the dsclient.

Thanks for your help again! :-D