Hi, I’ve installed Windows 2003 on a spare machine to learn how it works. I set up one domain and have file server, print server, application server, domain controller and dns roles installed. There’s nothing fancy going on here and I accepted all the defaults on installation. There were some problems with the Windows firewall so I ran the security configuration wizard and that fixed my problem. I created a print server and added a printer but can’t see the printer on a connected PC using the “Find printer in the directory” option from the “Add a printer” wizard. If I run the search on the server it works fine. I can also locate and add the printer using the “Connect to this printer” option from the connected PC. I’ve tried most of the suggestions I could find including publishing the printer, rebooting, turning off the firewall and some group policy changes all with no luck. The connected PC is running XP Pro and has all the patches applied. I’d really like to know why this doesn’t work because it’s making me think I’ve got something configured wrong on the server. One last symptom – when I run the add a printer wizard on the server it runs and locates the printer in a couple seconds, when I run the wizard on the connected PC it takes over 30 seconds to locate the domain to search and the another 30 seconds to execute the query. Thanks, Chris

Hi Chris, Thanks for the post. Please check if the "List in the directory" option is checked on the network printers. For more information, please check Publish a printer in Active Directory Thanks, Miles

Hi Miles - Yes, it is checked.

Since I submit my last post I tried running the active directory search for all object types on the connected PC from Network Places and got no results for any query. Figuring something might have gone wrong when I joined the domain I removed the PC from the domain, reboot, rejoined the domain, (got a welcome to the domain message) reboot and could not log on to the domain using an ID & password that worked 15 minutes before. The error I got is: The system cannot log you on now because the domain is not available. Reboot server, reboot PC, same error. Everything I’ve tried either has no effect or makes things worse. There must be something fundamental going wrong here but I’ll be dipped if I can figure it out. DNS maybe?

The PTR record in the DNS Reverse Lookup zone was not configured correctly. I had a domain name in the Host Name field instead of a server name. The active directory lookup works as it should now with no waiting.

Hi, Thanks for your solution sharing on this issue. Hope you will enjoy our TechNet Forum. Regards, Miles