Hello, I hope I'm in the right place for this question.I am testing a vista install for my workplace, and have been able to getVista installed, and even joined it to the domain, but I can not get the machine to talk (at all) toone of my domain controllers. The DC in question (I have2DC's) is alsomy primary file server and the exchange server (it used to be a SBS box but was upgraded to full version about a year or so ago).I can ping my other DC, connect to it and log on/ log off. joining and leaving the domain are fine. Have had intermittent luck with actually reading files off of shares on the workign DC, but I think that is due to me messing with the local security policies (see below).I canNOT ping the problem dc.It's like there is a firewall blockingoutboundtraffic from the Vista machine to that specific DC'sIP address.I even dida network monitor session from the DC that won't talk to the vista machine, and the network monitor does not even see the Vista machines IP address. I had about 4 cmd sessions opend running ping -t to the DC did not even see the vista machines IP address pop up on the DC network monitor after running the pings for about 2-3 minutes.lets see, DC1 (problem) Has these roles... DNS, Exchange, File sharing, and is member DC in the domain.DC2 has these rolesDNS, File sharing, primary DC in domain.Vista machine (vista enterprise 64bitfrom technet subscription,) SP1.Related info, I've found a few entries on the internet, maybe even here, forgot where I read them at. They suggested changing some of the local security policy settings. Have tried changing all the relevent security settings on the client side, however I'm a littel nervous about changing the same settins on the DC side as this is a working network.Am running Symantec Endpoint on the Vista machine, Windows firewall is turned off. I am hoping to replace the DC that I'm having trouble connecting to, but that will likely be a year or so.Any suggestions on what I am doing wrong at this point?

Hi, Thank you for your post. As you can ping the other DC from this Windows Vista computer, I think the Windows Vista computer is working correctly. I would like to provide the following suggestions for your reference: 1. Please check whether there is any firewall software (including the builtin Windows Firewall) running on the problematic DC. 2. Check whether the server service is running on that DC (also check the system event logs to see if there is any special error/warning). 3. Please ping the problematic DC by using it IP address and check how it works. If it works this time, we should go ahead to check the DNS related settings. For example, we need to ensure both the DC and the client computers are using the correct internal DNS server as their Preferred DNS server. Then, run "Net Stop Netlogon" and "Net Start Netlogon" on the problematic DC to re-register its DNS records with the DNS server. 4. Please check whether you can ping the problematic DC from other computers. If yes, we also need to check the physical network (such as network devices, network cables and etc) between the problematic DC and the client computer. Also, please note that this is a Windows Vista forum. To better address this issue, I would like to suggest that you post it in our Windows Server related forums: Windows Server : Microsoft TechNet Forums http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/windowsserver/ Hope this issue will be resolved soon.Nicholas Li - MSFTNicholas Li - MSFT

Nicholas, thanks for the response.Well, I think I found the problem, and now I feel rather stupid... (sigh) I changed the IP address of the vista machine to a static address away from where it was, and forced DNS and WINS to reflect the change. (ipconfig/flushdns.... etc. Deleted wins entries and all that.) I swear I had already tried a static IP address at least once (the same Static IP that is now working in fact). But perhaps I had not changed the local security policy during that static phase. I don't remember. I think WINS was a large part of the problem as that service runs on the Problem DC, and no where else, but that doesn't explain everything.Let me explain a little better... The vista test machine is a dual boot-type system running on my original XP Pro box. I used the system BIOS to chang the boot drive, ( yes I have 2 hd's) so both OS's are sharing the machine, but only one can run at once. For testing purposes, this works fine for me. Because they are using the same machine, they are using the same NIC, and are therefore getting the same IP config from the DHCP server. I think this was causing the confusion on the problem DC as it must have had problems resolving 2 different workstation names to the same IP. Had I deleted all references on the WINS and DNS settings to the old workstation and forced them to recognize the new one, I might have created problems on my production machine. However, I'm not about to test that theory...The first time I tried a static IP I must havemissed gettign the right Local securty settings, there is one that must be set to enabled. Anyhow, I am now able to connect to the problem DC, am able to get email, and look at files on the file share. As a network client, the Vistasystem appears to be working fine.Again, thanks for the pointers, and I'll try to keep my head level next time I run into problems like this.Rob.