Workstation needs static IP to address domain

[JonathanHaddock]

Hi guys,

First, a bit of background on my network - I'm running a Windows 2003 network where DHCP is served by one of the DCs. There is only one DHCP server on the network.

I have a workstation (XP Pro) that I cannot get to join the domain unless I specify a static IP address. Once on the domain, you can only logon as a domain user if the workstation still has the static IP - if set to DHCP the domain is not contactable ("the system cannot log you on now because the domain BCGS is not available").

I've checked and the workstation does get an address by DHCP. I've also checked what I can ping - I can ping the router but not any servers or my workstation.

Any help would be appreciated as I'm completely stumped. I've reinstalled the network card already to no avail. I've also looked at

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1450905

which has similar symptoms although the environment is different.

Thanks in advance!
Jonathan

Jonathan Haddock
Assistant Network Manager
Barton Court Grammar School

 

[Sympology]

Sounds like you subent or default gateway incorrect on the PC. Check that these are correct.

Only the truly stupid believe they know everything.
Stu.. 2004

 

[JonathanHaddock]

All the network settings are correct, I checked IPconfig /all when things started looking odd and there was no error there.

Any more ideas, I'm completely stumped so please feel free to suggest I check "the obvious" - must have missed something...

Jonathan Haddock
Assistant Network Manager
Barton Court Grammar School

 

[robmazco]

Maybe remove the pc from domain (by adding to workgroup), then readding back to domain?
I had similar(but not exact) problem some time ago, this fixed it.
Or even try winsock fix..

 

[JonathanHaddock]

I already took the PC off and into a workgroup - the PC itself only needed renaming but the domain wouldn't allow me to change the name whilst it was still on the domain, still don't know why.

Winsock fix? As in

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/winsockxpfix.html

?

Jonathan Haddock
Assistant Network Manager
Barton Court Grammar School

 

[JonathanHaddock]

I don't know why, but this issue resolved itself. Annoyingly really as it's happened twice now.

Thanks for your suggestions though guys.

Jonathan Haddock
Assistant Network Manager
Barton Court Grammar School

 

[ArizonaGeek]

I realize it fixed itself but in case anyone else comes across this thread or it happens again, a couple of questions: are you running DNS from your DC's? Are you pushing out any policies via your DC to an OU the PC is defaulted to?

Next time it happens, try removing the PC from the domain, then delete the PC from AD, DHCP and DNS, do an "ipconfig /flushdns" from all your DC's and the PC. Then add it back to the domain.

Then check all three areas to make sure it picked up fine. Also check for any reserved addresses in DHCP. One time I kept trying to get a new IP address for a PC and it wouldn't do it, the PC had been out of circulation for a few months and when I put it back in didn't realize it was used by an old admin that had reserved the IP address. Removed the reservation and it worked perfect.

Just a few things to try...

Cheers
Rob

The answer is always "PEBKAC!

 

[Sympology]

May be a daft question, but are you excluding key ranges from your DHCP scope, e.g x.x.x.0,1,255 ? Is it trying to use a DHCP address assigned to a static address, that you may of assigned to a Switch or printer?

I've seen times where the pc has picked x.x.x.0 or 255 and is turned into a brick on the network.

Only the truly stupid believe they know everything.
Stu.. 2004

 

[JonathanHaddock]

@ArizonaGeek
In answer to your questions:

are you running DNS from your DC's?
DNS runs on the domain controllers and was functioning correctly - I could resolve addresses on other machines at the time.

Are you pushing out any policies via your DC to an OU the PC is defaulted to?
When the problem occured the PC was in the computers container so would not have been affected by group policy (with the exception of default domain policy).

I did try removing the PC from the domain at the time, and deleting from AD. Can't remember if I did the rest as it's a while ago now.

@StuReeves
It was getting a valid DHCP address at the time, the DHCP range is completely separated from any possible statics (we wanted to make sure DHCP couldn't assign these addresses, for obvious reasons). It never picked up a .0 or .255 either.

@All
Thanks for all your suggestions guys! Still find it weird that it just fixed itself...

Jonathan Haddock
Assistant Network Manager
Barton Court Grammar School

 

[HiTechRedNeck82]

Sounds like a DNS issue. I would check all of your DNS settings.

Jason
Network Administrator

http://www.jrmarshall.com

 

[JonathanHaddock]

Fix detailed below

Ok, I have the problem again. I've tried ArizonaGeek's suggestion to no avail too.

Here's the symptoms:

When getting an IP by DHCP
* The domain is unavailable at logon
* Ping fails when addressing by both IP and computer name
* Cannot rejoin the domain due to the following error:

A domain controller for the domain bcgs.local could not be contacted.
Ensure that the domain name is typed correctly.
If the name is correct click Details for troubleshooting information

The "troubleshooting information" is:

Note: This information is intended for a network administrator.  If you are not your network's administrator, notify the administrator that you received this information, which has been recorded in the file C:\WINDOWS\debug\dcdiag.txt.

The following error occurred when DNS was queried for the service location (SRV) resource record used to locate a domain controller for domain bcgs.local:

The error was: "This operation returned because the timeout period expired."
(error code 0x000005B4 ERROR_TIMEOUT)

The query was for the SRV record for _ldap._tcp.dc._msdcs.bcgs.local

The DNS servers used by this computer for name resolution are not responding. This computer is configured to use DNS servers with the following IP addresses:

192.168.0.5
192.168.0.6

Verify that this computer is connected to the network, that these are the correct DNS server IP addresses, and that at least one of the DNS servers is running.

For more information on how to correct this problem, click Help.

I notice one DNS server (192.168.0.5) isn't online anymore so I've changed that and re-obtained an address, then attempted to rejoin the domain: success

This suggests to me that if Windows can't contact one of the DNS servers it obtains from DHCP it fails to join the domain!

Thanks for all your suggestions guys - pity I didn't notice that before

Fixed!

Jonathan Haddock
Assistant Network Manager
Barton Court Grammar School

 

[Sympology]

Of course the next question.....Why can't it connect to the Primary DNS?

That will be a fun one to find out....

Only the truly stupid believe they know everything.
Stu.. 2004