Problems setting up NT domain

[Anand]

I am new to setting up Windows NT on a network. I have two machines. One running
Windows NT server and the second running Windows NT workstation. I setup the NT server machine as the primary domain controller for my domain. I have an 8-port 10-baseT ethernet HUB with UTP Category 5 cables that I connect to the 1st and second ports of the HUB from my two machines. AFter setting up my PDC (I did not have any problems with this process) I installed NT workstation on my other machine and tried to add my workstation to the domain. This is where my problems started. My PDC is never recognized. I kept getting the message "Primary domain controller for this domain could not be located". I know that I have the correct domain name. Also I created a computer account on my PDC for the workstation before I tried to add it to the domain. The message is always the same. I then tried to install Windows95 on my workstation and tried to add it to my domain and login. Again the message was "Domain server to validate login was not found" or something along those lines. I have a network card from Davicom Semiconductors inc that came with my server machine. IT is an Onboard 10/100 ethernet card. I had to manually install the drivers from a disk that came with my machine. However when I installed the drivers everything seemded ok and i was succesfully able to designate my server machine as a PDC. So I am guessing that my network was up and running correctly. I am a novice to networking I just purchased the ethernet 10base T hub connected the UTP cables from my machine to the first two ports of the HUB. The HUB has an uplink switch for connectivity to another hub but i set it to normal mode. I also tried to ping my machine from the same machine and do a loop back ping with 127.0.0.1 both of it was success ful. I Am at a loss trying to understand what is wrong. Can someone help me please!!!!

[Big Ed]

Hi Anand

Sounds as though you're certainly on the right track but I think you should verify first that networking is configured correctly on both your machines. You can do this easily by opening up explorer and then drilling down into Network Neighbourhood. If you receive a message like "Unable to browse the network" you're not quite there yet. Try it and let us know how you get on.

[Anand]

Hi

On my PDC I am able to open network neighbourhood and see my machine and also under entire network I see the Microsoft Network icone under which I find my domain and under the domain I find my server. However when I install NT workstation on a machine and try to add it to my domain the PDC is not located. Same thing happens when I try to add my windows95 based workstation to the domain. It seems like everything regarding NIC and tcp/ip is installed and working properly because I can do a loop back ping on my server and workstation. Also When I check the services and devices startup everthing is started and running properly. The one thing I cannot verify is what are my IRQ port settings. But NT would give a message wouldnt it thru the event log if my IRQ settings were incorrect? I am at a loss trying to understand what is going on.

[Big Ed]

Sounds like all your TCPIP settings are fine, veriy this by pinging the server from your workstation and vice versa. your problem definitely isn't IRQ related because that's at a way lower level and you wouldn't have got this far.

Have you actually tried to log into the server as administrator from your workstation or does it give you the same error. I have had some odd experiences with machine names under NT so try and get around it by trying to log straight in without telling NT about your machine. You could even try to change your machine name and then try to log in.

Are there any other devices on your network? If there are try and share a drive or a printer and see if you can access it.

[Anand]

Hi

I cannot ping the server from my workstation because my server is not visible to my workstation. I try to add my Nt workstation to my domain but this always fails. Also when I try to do a ping on my server ip address this times out. I guess my workstation first needs to be on the same domain before I can do a ping on an ip address in that domain?

I have an administrator account on the server and since it is the Primary domain controller and I cannot login to this machine without logging into my domain I am guessing that the admin account is a valid account on this domain. I also installed windows95 on the workstation and set it up to logon to my domain and rebooted and tried to logon to my domain from the workstation
and I got the message "Domain server not found to validate login password" so obviously my PDC again is not even being recognized on the network. But as far as I can see there is no conflicts in IRQ settings on my server nor in I/O addresses. Also I am able to successfully do loopback pings so I am guessing TCP/IP and my network card are setup properly. I do not get any event log messages when I boot the server and I also verified that all my services and devices are starting up and running correctly like my network card drivers etc etc. My last resort is the network itself. I verified my UTP cable Category 5 is working by replacing it with a new set. The other factor is my network cards are 10/100 ethernet while my HUB is a 10baseT hub. So I bought some crossover cable and I am going to try to connect the server and workstation directly and see if this solves the problem. Do you have any other suggestions. Thanks for your help.

[Big Ed]

This is good, we're getting somewhere now. I made the assumption TCPIP was OK because you could see everything on your LAN, but in hindsight I guess you only saw your own machine.

Assuming we're going to use static IP addresses, you should be able to ping your own machine. I don't mean the loopback address but the one you specified in TCPIP properties, e.g. 10.1.1.2

Next thing is to make sure that all devices are on the same subnet, if your PC is 10.1.1.2, your server's address must be 10.1.1.x (where x is any number between 1 and 254, except 2 in this case because it has been used). Set your subnet mask to 255.255.255.0 Don't worry about your default gateway at the moment.

If the devices are not configured on the same subnet they will not be able to contact each other and you will not be able to log in.

[Anand]

Hi

I have done this. My server IP address is 131.107.2.200 and my workstation IP address is 131.107.2.201. The subnet mask is 255.255.0.0

Also I tried pinging my machine from my machine using the IP address assigned to it. This worked fine.

[Big Ed]

Oh dear, looks like it might be network related after all. Do try to ping your server's IP address from your server console. Apart from that check you've got the correct lights on your hub. (Green or yellow) and the activity light should flash every now and then. Just to be on the safe side connect your devices to ports 2 and 3 on your hub, the you can be sure any uplink or mdi/x switches aren't affecting your setup.


Under network properties check your bindings to make sure IP is bound to the network cards.