Adding XP Workstations

[D@ve]

Hi Everyone,

I have recently had to put a SBS 2003 Server in on a Customers site, however I couldn't add any of there Workstations to the Network!
Before I started I had a look at there existing network and the previous Tech company had statically assigned all of the IP's etc so that they could use a Router (didn't have DHCP).

After I installed the Server and set the Workstations to use DNS/DHCP I tried adding the workstations but got a error everytime (The Server Could Not Perform the Requested Operation). If I looked in DHCP the Workstations IP's weren't registering but I could browse to the Server in Network Neighbourhood and the Workstations were being assigned valid IP's.
After a fair bit of time I decided to bring the Server back to the office for more testing, when I booted it and added a Workstation it went straight on!!!

I can only presume that the customer has something else setup that won't allow me to join the domain, does anyone have any ideas or had something similiar happen o them??

P.S: Spent about 9 hours on the guys to M$ support and they couldn't solve it! But they were only looking at the Server and not the Workstations.

Regards D@ve

[corturbra]

First, I take it that the workstations are XP Professional?

Secondly, check that the XP Workstations do NOT have the firewall running on the network card.....

[D@ve]

They are all XP Pro and there's no Firewall software installed and XP's Firewall is disabled.

[corturbra]

Then check DNS settings by usual ping of server name.

If not then assign a manual IP address with the correct settings and try then.

I take it that the workstation names are valid and don't break any of the rules by having spaces/odd characters etc?

[kato2274]

Hi Everyone,
If I looked in DHCP the Workstations IP's weren't registering but I could browse to the Server in Network Neighbourhood and the Workstations were being assigned valid IP's.

DHCP service on the server says there are no leases active? but the workstations had correct IP information? that says one of two things:
1.) there is another DHCP server running somewhere on the network. . . possibly a router.
2.) the IPs are static

this could be some of the problem, especially if you Have another DHCP server somewhere and it's not giving out the right DNS server addresss.

alternately you could try to give a workstation a static address and set the gateway and DNS manually, then try to join the domain. this would help you know just how much of a problem your IP issue is.

[D@ve]

Hi all,

Checked and there are no other DHCP Servers on the network and the Workstation is using the right 2003 Server to get it's IP etc. Also tried using Static IP's and the same problem occured.

Checked the DNS settings and everything seems ok, flushed the DNS on the Server and Workstation and disabled NAT.

I really do think that it's specifically a problem with the Workstations and something thats happened to them in the past.

Thanks for your help guys!

[Bigtimbre]

Hi all,

Checked and there are no other DHCP Servers on the network and the Workstation is using the right 2003 Server to get it's IP etc. Also tried using Static IP's and the same problem occured.

Checked the DNS settings and everything seems ok, flushed the DNS on the Server and Workstation and disabled NAT.

I really do think that it's specifically a problem with the Workstations and something thats happened to them in the past.

Thanks for your help guys!

Do you have an outside machine you can bring to the client site? if you have a laptop or something, and can join the domain on the clients network (Not on your test network), then you will know if it is a configuration issue, or a network issue...

What type of server were they using before?

[D@ve]

I have successfully added my Laptop thats runnning XP Pro with no problems. I think this points towards it being a problem with each of the Workstations.

[D@ve]

Just to update you all, the only way I could get the Workstations to join was a format adn reload!
Luckily it wasn't a huge network.

Thanks for all you help!