Cannot join domain

[treysha]

Hi
I have got a problem that I suspect may have been faced by many.

I am trying to join two brand new PCs to my domain. The first PC was joined without any problems.

Now the second PC.

I tried the exact same steps on this PC as I did on the first one.

When I tried to join the domain in the System Properties | Change ID -> Member of -> Domain, I get an error msg that says , "A domain controller for the domain XXX could not be contacted. Ensure that the domain name is typed correctly....".

I have verified that the LAN cable is working and the network point it is connected to is active.

I did a nslookup and got this result:
"Default Servers are not available. Default Server:Unknown"

I tried to ipconfig /release, I managed to release the IP. But when I tried to ipconfig /renew, the command prompt does not react.

I tried to repair the LAN connection, but got the following result:
"The following steps of the repair operation failed: Renewing the IP address"

After that, I got stumped.

Hellllpppp!!!

[BigLad]

While the cable to the 2nd PC, and the network port may be active, something is preventing the 2nd PC from picking up an IP Address.

I would rule them out completely and move the 2nd PC to use the same connection cable and techplate as the working first PC. That way if still not working, you know its the 2nd PC and NOT the previous cable / techplate port.

The 2nd PC should pick up an IP address automatically via DHCP ( You don't say what you have performing DHCP function - either your domain controller server or your cable / braodband router - firewall etc).

If you type IPCONFIG /ALL and do not see the 2nd PC having a valid ip address in the range your using, then there is no network connectivity.

Getting no result from a IPCNFIG / RENEW means your 2nd PC did not have network connectivity to the DHCP Svr OR the DHCP Svr ran out of free IPs to assign.

No errors in Event logs ? All software, drivers etc working 100% ?

[treysha]

thanks a million, dude.

Think you got it all figured out there.

Thanks to your reply I managed to find out more about managing my DHCP server.

Appreciate it lots, dude!