Vista Business On Xp Domain

[NanLaew]

I am on a clients remote worksite and have been trying to get my Vista Business laptop onto their Domain. Tried the usual XP network approaches (I am a Vista newbie) but being confounded by the way that Vista has these pre-configured 'wizard' type setups that don't match what I am trying to do. A cursory google search indicated that getting a Vista machine onto either an XP Workgroup or Domain isn't as easy as XP to XP.

The previous contractor (my back-to-back) had an XP Pro laptop and left his crib notes as he says getting online was quite easy. However, using the settings he has left me hasn't worked so far.

Anyone with some insight care to comment? The client IT chap is not on site and it's a quiet night here. I can't help thinking that there's one additional 'enabler' that Vista needs that isn't too obvious or documented.

[sjaak327]

I would love to help you, but I'm not sure what you are tyring to do here. Are you trying to access a shared drive, joining the domain or ?

[NanLaew]

Join their domain so I can access certain shared directories, mapped drives and the internet.

[sjaak327]

That's basically the same procedure as in XP. Right click computer, properties, and you should see a part named Conputer name, Domain and workgroup settings, there is a change settings link, which will get you to the screen where you can change the computer's name, and join to a domain, or set the workgroup name.

[PMK]

If you still have the problem, first try pinging the server - at least see if the network connection is okay. If so, post or search on the error.

I am on a clients remote worksite and have been trying to get my Vista Business laptop onto their Domain. Tried the usual XP network approaches (I am a Vista newbie) but being confounded by the way that Vista has these pre-configured 'wizard' type setups that don't match what I am trying to do. A cursory google search indicated that getting a Vista machine onto either an XP Workgroup or Domain isn't as easy as XP to XP.

The previous contractor (my back-to-back) had an XP Pro laptop and left his crib notes as he says getting online was quite easy. However, using the settings he has left me hasn't worked so far.

Anyone with some insight care to comment? The client IT chap is not on site and it's a quiet night here. I can't help thinking that there's one additional 'enabler' that Vista needs that isn't too obvious or documented.

[Rice_King]

The client IT chap is not on site and it's a quiet night here.

Could it be a permissions issue? Do you have right admin permissions to join your machine to their Domain?

[NanLaew]

Thanks for the responses; I am up in Siberia and needed some sleep.

sjaak - It should be the same as XP but it aint (and I have connected to more XP and Server 2003 networks than I care to recall), this one is different. My oppo's XP machine handled it without problems. I will post the actual error message I get when I attempt to join their domain after coffee.

PMK - I will be pinging and revert.

Rice_K - Permissions were not needed for previous 2 XP hookups, just this Vista one has hit a roadblock.

[bdenner]

Had a similar problem with my in home network. Got it working when I manually set the Vista Machines IP address close to the XP host computer. eg The host is 192.168.0.2 I set The Vista machine to 192.168.0.4, 3 was being used by another NoteBook.

[A_Traveller]

The commonest cause for this, very annoying problem, is DHCP being run on the router not the server. XP maybe working because NETBIOS is still operational and finds the network resources and so it connects. Interestingly, it appears that Ultimate {and Enterprise [not 'just' business]} have a more robust domain joining process.

Regards

[sjaak327]

Well, I have been joining both XP and Vista machines to Win2K, Win2003 and Win2008 domains without any problems, without the actual error message, it's of course just guessing.

Maybe we are talking cross purpose here, as there is no such thing as an XP domain. A domain controller, either runs Windows server 2000, or Windows server 2003 or Windows Server 2008.

XP doesn't offer AD services as a host.

AD joining does utilize DNS to find the relevant SRV records, so if there is a problem, it might either be that the account doesn't have the right to join the domain, or the machine cannot find the DC, because it cannot find the SRV records in DNS.

[surface]

Agree with above. If you have access to the servers, check the DNS and DHCP configurations.

If you have a firewall running, MS or third party, disable it.

Are they using MAC filtering on the switches? Are the switches configured properly? Maybe you're NIC is not behaving with the network infrastructure, so try forcing the NIC to fast ethernet and toggle the duplex.

[NanLaew]

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions while we were turning and the vsat was 'blind'.

sjaak: When i said XP domains, I was generalising, i.e. all the computers working on the clients domain are running XP o/s. For sure it will be Server 2k or 2003. When you say you have had no problems joining Vista to them, what version of Vista are you flying? Because...

Traveler: ...may have something with this DHCP thingy. I recall (I am old and slow) one time about having to 'point' a machine at a secondary something or other. Also this issue that Vista has with good old NETBIOS rings a bell. Unfortunately, all I have here is Vista Business and that's not doing the business!

surface: The last job I was on in Indonesia, the client was using MAC filtering; a first for me and I made sure that these guys here in Russia weren't doing the same; they are not. I reckon we are barking up the same tree re- DHCP and DNS.

So I will kill the Symantec firewalls (the Vista ones are down), try pinging. Would have done it earlier but we are in production. Failing that, I will reboot into Xandros and Vista be damned!

Funny thing is, sometimes when I am away, I come back and see that PopPeeper has somehow tunneled through to the internet and shows emails waiting. PopPeeper isn't even configured for the http proxy server!!! <deleted>??? It's like it's trying to connect through the thick sea fog that prevails outside! Maybe my laptop needs a seeing-eye dog and a white stick.

[sjaak327]

I have connected both Ultimate and Business to both Win2003 and Win2008, without any problems.

Judging from your last remark, it seems to be that your connection is somehow not configured corrected. Again check your DNS settings, a quick test would go like this:

Run cmd, and enter nslookup

enter set type=all

_ldap._tcp.dc._msdcs.Domain_Name (where domain name is the name of the domain) for instance if the domain name is microsoft.com, you would enter _ldap._tcp.dc._msdcs.microsoft.com

This should return the relevant information, listing the domain controller's host name and IP address, if it doesn't then clearly it is a DNS problem, and your workstation probably has the wrong DNS server assigned.