We're testing Vista machines on our network but having a lot of issues just joining the domain. These Vista's are up to date with SP1. The entire domain is server 2003 enterprise R2 with Active Directory and intergrated DNS. For our XP machines they work fine, DNS forward and reverse lookup (nslookup by name/ by IP) works fine. Our Domain Controller's firewall is "off" and the Vista's firewall is "off" as well. There are no antivirus software installed on either server or Vista clients. And we restared the Domain Controller after changing the firewall to "off" just incase. Both client and Domain Controller are on the same subnet. The Domain Controller is the DNS so it is also on the same subnet as the client. First thing we did wasinstall Vista Ultimate on two desktops and test out software. Brand new install all drivers installed correctly. Tried to join the domain we get the infamous: "An Active Directory Domain Controller for the domain myDomain could not be contacted. Ensure that the domain name is typed correctly. If the name is correct click Details for troubleshooting information." Things we checked: -Checked to see if we're online by visiting online websites? Successful -Can ping the gateway? Successful -Can ping the domain by IP address? Successful -Ping theDomain Controllerby NETBIOS name?Successful -Ping the Domain Controller by FQDN name? Failed (that's weird) -Ping the "Domain" by name "myDomain?" Failed -Ping the "Domain" by FQDN "myDomain.server.com?" Failed -nslookup Domain Controller by IP address? Succecssful -nslookup Domain Controller by NETBIOS name? Failed -nslookup Domain Controller by FQDN name? Failed Here are the results from the nslookup of Domain Controller by FQDN: --- Begin ---C:\>nslookup SrvDC1DNS request timed out. timeout was 2 seconds.Server: UnKnownAddress: 10.20.30.100 DNS request timed out. timeout was 2 seconds.DNS request timed out. timeout was 2 seconds.*** Request to UnKnown timed-out C:\> --- End --- Tried solutions 1.Instead of letting DHCP assign the DNS we went into the IP settings and specified the domain's DNS statically, which is the Domain controller's IP address. We also unchecked "IPv6 Connection" within the properties of the NIC. Used "ipconfig /flushdns" and performed a restart, still cannot join the domain. 2. In addition to step1, we "Enabled Netbios over TCP/IP" within WINS tab. /flushdns and restart, still same error. 3. Found this fix at MS: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947228 this was to edit the registry and insert a new dword of "ScreenBadTlds." Completed this, restarted still same error. 4. There was also another post about Vista problems joining the domain, and they suggested to create the computer object in Active Directory then join the domain. We created the account in AD, and tried to join the vista machine and still same error. 5. There were suggestions to install WINS server on the DC and we do not want to do that. WINS is not needed to join the domain but it does help because if the client cannot resolve by DNS it will resolve by WINS. This suggestion does not solve the problem, it's just a work around. We opt'ed not to do try this suggest. Here is an output of ipconfig /all of a vista client: --- being ---C:\Users\test>ipconfig /all Windows IP Configuration Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Test-Vista Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . : Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : acct.co.us Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : acct.co.us Description . . . . . . . . . . . : AMD PCNet Adapter Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-0C-29-30-C9-64 DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 10.20.30.85(Preferred) Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0 Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Friday, March 28, 2008 10:23:27 AM Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Tuesday, April 01, 2008 10:26:55 AM Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.20.30.1 DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . :10.20.30.101 DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.20.30.100 NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 6: Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : acct.co.us Description . . . . . . . . . . . : isatap.acct.co.us Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0 DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes C:\Users\test> Please let me know if you need further information. Any help or suggestions is much appreciated, thank you.

We are seeing the same issue, but only with SP1 installed. Using Business Edition works fine untill applying SP1. System built with integrated SP1 has same issue. Still looking for resolutions.

Hi pencil151, Before we go further, please collect the following information for further research: 1. Network Monitor:=======================1) Download NetMon3.1 from the following website and install it on a Windows Vista machine and the Domain Controller:http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=18b1d59d-f4d8-4213-8d17-2f6dde7d7aac&DisplayLang=en2) Log onto the machines, right-click the Netmon icon and select Run as Administrator to launch NetMon3.1.3) In the Microsoft Network Monitor 3.1 window, click Create a new capture tab 4) In the new tab, select all the Network Adapters in the Select Networks window.5) After that, press F10 to start NetMon.6) On the Windows Vista machine, try to join domain.7) Once the issue occurs, go back to the NetMon window and press F11 to stop the NetMon.9) Press Ctrl+S to save the Netmon files. 2. Netsetup.log:======================After the issue reproduced, please also collect the netsetup.log from Windows Vista machine. The file is located in %systemroot%\Debug folder. After that, please zip all the above files and upload to the following space: https://sftasia.one.microsoft.com/choosetransfer.aspx?key=bcebda04-f3d3-4714-a3e2-7b7ca0a32ccc Password: kkbaHg9Y)Qld{nc{ Note: Please let me know the IP address of the both machine. Please drop a quick note in the current thread to inform me after uploading the file.

Sounds good. I have never used NetMon before, this will be pretty neat. I will upload the log, hopefully you can see whats going on.Thank you for the responses, I'll keep posting my results.

Hi Joson, sorry for the delay but just got all the output I think you need. Took ipconfig /all for client and server, netdiag, dcdiag, and screenshots, and of course the debug\netsetup.txt, all in the zip file. I looked at the .cap files but unsure what I'm looking at, but uploaded it. If you need to talk about specific network information please email me. I want to prevent our internal network information displayed on the forum. Can't figure this out, thank you for taking time to troubleshoot, much appreciated.

I am having the exact same issue. Were you able to find any resolution to joining the domain. TIA!Eric

Will you be reporting any solutions you discovered back to this forum? I know there are many of us who have tried ALL known solutions without "joy" as they say. My scenario is identical except that we did implement WINS on the DC. Thanks.

Pencil, Have you checked that you have a functioning reverse lookup zone? The give-away that something is wrong is in your nslookup results, where the server is in fact unable to resolve itself via a reverse lookup. After correctly creating the reverse lookup zone, be sure to run a ipconfig /registerdns command from the command line to immediately register the server's reverse lookup record (you can verify exactly when the record is registered through the GUI, of course). Running nslookup now should immediately return a result, rather than request timed out errors. I don't know the complete name resolution process off the top of my head, but I suspect the client is also trying to confirm the server is who it says it is via reverse lookup, in which case, because that is failing, so is your domain join. Feel free to confirm or reject this information. Cheers, Lain

That's incredible. I was setting up a Windows Server 2008 as a DC with Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, NAT/routing, VPN etc... It was my first Active Directory config and I couldn't count on previous experiences. Unfortunately, the first machine I decided to add to the Forest was a Vista Business SP1 Workstation (Murphy's Law is ever round tyhe corner). I experienced exactly what is described in this post, but obviously I thought that there were problems due to my low skills on AD configs/issues. In particular, I configured many times, on 2000 and 2003 servers, the standalone DNS service witout experiencing any problem. In Active Directory setup wizard of Win Server 2008 the DNS servicing is automatically configured with the creation of Direct and Reverse Search Zones. This wizard should help the ICT admin simplyfing the DNS config job (instead of complicating it). Before reading this post, I started manipulatingthe automatically compiled DNSsettings without getting any improvement: the Vista SP1 machine keeps on being unable to log into the DC. So, please, keep the forum informedabout any further, positive develops of the issue. Stefania

Have you found out any further information in regards to this?I too am having a problem connecting vista computers to a domain. This is a new domain which can be connected to by XP computers with no problems but Vista systems will not connect.

Have you tried disabling IPv6 on the Vista machines?

I tried a number of things and it actually ended up being a hardware problem on the server (corrupt firmware on the NIC). If you look through this post there is a lot of helpful information about troubleshooting this particular error.http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/showpost.aspx?postid=3810353&siteid=17Thank you for your response to my message!Ben.

Just in case anybody is still having this problem i was entering the domain name as "domainname.net" which was always accepted in win xp but for some reason Vista wouldn't accept this and threw up this error. I tried just putting "domainname" in and it seemed to work. I don't know if this is specific to my system but maybe just something to try before you go changing too much.