I recently purchased a new laptop with Windows Home Premium installed. I then upgraded it to Windows 7 Professional. I have an existing isolated (intentionally without any connection to the internet) network with Domain Name BDS1 and the following computers: 192.168.10.5 Grumpy - Windows Server 2003 Standard - Domain Controller 192.168.10.6 Happy - Windows Server 2003 Standard 192.168.10.15 Sneezy - Windows XP Professional SP2 192.168.10.16 Doc - Windows XP Professional SP3 The network has worked perfectly with these four computers for several years. I setup the new laptop's network adapter ipv4 as: 192.168.10.250 VaioLaptop - Windows 7 Professional All five computers : Mask = 255.255.255.0 Gateway = 192.168.10.16 DNS Servers = 192.168.10.5 192.168.10.6 All five machines can successfully ping each of the other four. Grumpy has a HOSTS.TXT file properly listing all five computers. "VaioLaptop" has been added to Grumpy's Active Directory under "Computers". But when I go to the laptop and try to add it to the domain, I get: "Your computer could not be joined to the domain because the following error occurred. An attempt to resolve the DNS name of a domain controller in the domain being joined has failed. Please verify this client is configured to reach a DNS Server that can resolve DNS names in the target domain."

Copy Grumpy's HOSTS file to your Windows 7 PC using a USB drive or some other method. Joining a Domain requires some sort of name resolution on the client and since you're using HOSTS and not DNS each PC should have its own copy of HOSTS defining the address of all the other PCs. If your DC isn't running as a DNS server then the DNS settings in your configuration are irrelevant. If you are using DNS, the the HOSTS file, while not irrelevant, is not really needed except to define the local loopback address (127.0.0.1) and you should add your new Windows 7 PC to DNS. Oh, and a file named HOSTS.TXT won't work properly. The HOSTS file should reside in c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc on each computer and should have no extension.

Hi Johnson, after checking the issue, it seems this is a general Windows server 2003 related issue. As this forum focuses on Windows 7 specific issues, this inquiry would best be posted to Windows server forum: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/windowsserver The reason why we recommend posting appropriately is you will get the most qualified pool of respondents, and other partners who read the forums regularly can either share their knowledge or learn from your interaction with us. Thank you for your understanding.

I will do so, but I disagree with your reasoning. Windows 7 is a new product. It's failure to properly integrate with previous systems should be its responsibility.

Windows 7 integrates just fine with Windows 2003, and I agree with you, this is a Windows 7 issue since your XP boxes work with your server and more than one person seems to be having exactly the same problem with Windows 7. But I think it's more of a configuration problem than an actual software glitch. Your original post didn't say whether you are using DHCP or static addresses (I assumed static) and if you're using an actual DNS server or just your router. Try my suggestion of adding your server's address to you Windows 7 machine's HOSTS file and see if that resolves the issue. If not, it's on to something else like digging deeper into your DNS setup.

I am indeed using static addresses. I did make double sure the HOSTS files were in the correct place - c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc. I usually just check c:\ where I keep a copy as HOSTS.TXT for quick reference. And the Domain Server is indeed performing the DNS Server role. I'm afraid the problem is going to insist on being somewhat recalcitrant.

Okay, since you are using an actual DNS server, you need to check to make sure all your machines have an "A" record in your Forward Lookup Zone; also make sure that the correct Reverse Lookup Zone addresses (PTR records) are being created if you're using Reverse Lookup. And then you can ignore everything I said about the HOSTS file.

I don't know what a "Forward Lookup Zone" is. I can't find that term in Help and Support; not even in the glossary. The DNS Server is running Active Directory, and I have added the "VaioLaptop" computer to the Active Directory. MDJ

Not a problem; although it's getting beyond the scope of Windows 7 at this point, here goes: Adding the computer to AD doesn't add it to DNS, it just creates a computer account. To add a static address to your DNS do this: On the server open up the DNS Management Console - Start->Run->dnsmgmt.msc; a window that looks like this will appear: Expand your Primary DNS server's list and then expand Forward Lookup Zones. Right-click on your Domain name and select New Host (the New Host box is shown in the image). Enter your laptop's name in the box and its IP address in the correct place. If you have a Reverse Lookup Zone place a check mark in the "Create associated pointer (PTR) record" box so that it creates a reverse lookup entry as well. Then click Add Host. The entry fields should clear. Click Cancel to close the New Host dialog. Close the DNS Management Console. Wait a few minutes for your addition(s) to replicate (if you have more than one DNS or AD server) then try to join again. Remember to use your full domain name - in my case it would be "edcodie.com"; yours will be different of course.

Excellent - That worked. Thank you very much! MDJ

I have been cruising around trying to find solutions and this seemed close to my problem, but alas I am still searching. I thought maybe if I drop a link to my thread master Bob might be inclined to take a gander. http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itpronetworking/thread/5f2442f6-c3e9-4e09-9965-c984cfd60d22/ :) worth a try right?