First off, Im not sure if Im suppose to post 2003 server questions here, if not, can you point to a 2003 server forum. If you can help, here it is. Not sure how much info is needed to solve this, but heres the main parts. I have vmware running xp and 2003 for testing before I setup the production server. I have installed active directory and dns on the 2003 server with the domain of "pcccollegeinstitute.local.". I have the firewall disabled on xp and 2003 and also netbios disabled on both since Im not using legacy machines or apps. But I have read disabling netbios may cause problems. Anyway, I have the xp user and computer setup in the 2003 server. When configuring from workgroup to the domain on the xp, I get through the part about the user account and it finds the computer name in active directory. I enter pcccollegeinstitute.local. on the xp machine but I get the error, "A domain controller for the domain PCCCOLLEGEINSTI could not be contacted". I looked at the details and its referring to netbios, I thougth I could just use dns, right? What do I need to do to correct this problem or get away from netbios. Not sure if it matters, but from the xp machine I can ping pcccollegeinstitute.local and it resolves and replies. If some one could post some steps or links to fix this, I would appreciate it. Can I get by without netbios? Thanks for any help, and if you need more info or I didnt explain my problem well let me know.

i believe i remember reading somethign about this in the vmware forumsYou probably have more luck finding your solution there....

Thanks for the reply Wim N, just to rule out vmware, I setup a windows 2003 server and xp pro desktop on my network. After installing and configuring both, I disabled netbios over tcpip on both machines. Well after setting up the 2003 server as a domain controller, I could not add the xp machine to the domain. When viewing network monitor on the 2003 server, it still asks for the netbios domain name. Why is that, cant xp and 2003 get by with using netbios? Thanks again.

If you happen to check back you will have better luck posting to the Windows Server 2003 newsgroup. See link. Best of luck. http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/newsgroups/serveros/win2003.mspx