Win2K Domain Name

[sroka]

Have migrated a WinNT server to Win2K and having trouble with WinXp and Win2K Pro clients. Win98 clients are OK.

Problem is logging the WinXP and Win2K clients onto the domain - they are sloooooow when they connect. I can get reasonible connection speed by not having them join the domian and only map the network drives.

After searching this site and reading up on domain names, can only come up with a incorrect domain name as the problem. I did not use the '.com' extension in the domain name - only the previous WinNT domain name which was 'inductotherm'.

Will my situation improve by renaming my PDC 'inductotherm.com' and can it be renamed using dcpromo without re-installing the operating system?

Any comments?

 

[mass2612]

One thing to definately check first is that your Win2K and WinXP clients are using your AD integrated DNS server and not just external ISP DNS servers. Without this the Win2K/WinXP clients will take longer to search for a domain controller to logon to.

 

[sroka]

Thanks for the comment, but have already picked up this tips from browsing this forum.

I'm looking for a comment on the naming issue.

 

[mass2612]

I do not believe that renaming the domain will have any impact on the speed of the logon. I have seen this issue with the slow logon from Win2K clients many times and have always tracked it back to the in-correct DNS settings being entered into the DHCP scope or manually assigned to the NIC's TCP/IP config.

However in this situation this may help (seems like a wierd one however) -

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;292541

 

[sroka]

DHCP is being handled by an external router / cable modem from Comcast - I did not set up the DHCP on the server - should I?

This is a small company with only about ten clients on the server, should I just go to fixed IP addressing? Have done this on several of the Win98 clients as they had trouble (?) getting an IP address from the router.

 

[mass2612]

Ok. If you have just migrated the domain to AD and Win2K but have not altered the DNS settings at the DHCP side then I would try adding the DNS server (that is authoritive for your domain (which is probably your DC) as this is required to install AD when you run DCPROMO) to one of your Win2K/WinXP clients TCP/IP settings. You can make the primary your DNS server and secondary your ISP DNS server. You can leave the IP address to be dynamic from the DHCP service.

Reboot and try logging on again and see if the speed issue clears up. Then you can make some decisions about altering the DHCP settings for all the other Win2K/XP clients.

 

[bbyes]

First thing you want to do is check your computername. (right click my computer/ choose properties/ network id)
Your computername should be <pdc>.inductotherm.com
Your domain name should be inductotherm.com. If this is not the case you may have what is called a disjointed dns namespace. The only way that I know of correcting this is to dcpromo the server down to a member server and join it to your domain. (hopefully you have a fully synchronized bdc offline to fall back on). This bdc can be promoted to pdc, upgraded to 2k and then your ailing server can be brought in as a domain controller. I don't know of any other way of changing a 2k servers dns name, but you can find a lot of good information on microsofts site. Check this one out.
I hope this helps.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;260371

 

[sroka]

bbyes was correct - my dns namespace was disjointed - un-installed the AD and re-installed it with a '.com' domain name and the WinXP clients happily join the domain.

Thanks