q and a

I have an established small network running w2k server with a single domain. I am using a switch to connect all.
I am trying to add an addition computer to the network, and when I try to join the domain I get a message that the
domain does not exist or is not available. I know it exists and is working.

The only thing I can come up with is that the new workstation that I added temporarily has the OS product key. Could this be causing my problem?

A: Make sure you have good connection (green light on nic and switch?). Cancel the "join the domain" and continue to finish the setup. Then use ping, ipconfig and net view tools, nslookup to troubleshoot, For the details, go to http://www27.brinkster.com/chicagotech, click windows and network tools page.

I am successfully sharing a cable internet connection for my 2 desktops & 1 laptop using a router. However, I must
have missed a basic step in setting up Workgroup asalthough I can see that I am connected to a LAN on each
computer, I cannot see the three computers listed & cannot share printer or files. Any advice?

A: you need to have the same workgroup, protocol (TCP/IP), enable file and printer sharing and necessary permission.

Whenever I try to make a new Internet connection (a VPN one), I always get the following error message: «Unable to create the specified connection. This can be caused by insufficient memory or not enough disk space.»

A: Which OS? If it is win9x, have you logon the domain? if it is win2000, has win2000 joined the domain?

I have windows 98 SE on my laptop, whenever i connect to the network i get the following error message "No Domain
Server Was Available to Validate ..." even though such an error message is not suppose to come on windows 98 - what
am i suppose to do ? Thanks for your help

A: Have you checked the network settings and the domain name matching your network domain name?

If the settings is OK, you may press Esc key to pass the logon screen. If you laptop uses DHCP, you can use ipconfig to check the ip status. If DHCP assigns ip to the machine, your laptop is talking to the network. if not, go back to check the network settings.

File and printer sharing is enabled on all the computers. I can ping the win98 by its IP address. From the Win98 I can see and access all other computers on the network, but the WIN 98 does not show up on the list of network computers on any of the computers, including the
win98. I checked the website and there was nothing there that helped. Any other ideas?

A: You just mentioned "I can ping the win98 by its IP address". But can you ping \\computername? you may want to enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP on win2000. For more information, go to http://www.chicagotech.net. check network page.

I am trying to setup a network at home, I got two mechine at home on one windows 98 and on the other hand is Windows
2000 professional, i can see each mechine on both, but i can get into the windows 98 from windows 2000 pro but i can't get into the windows 2000 pro frin win 98. could let me what would be the prob its says "its not accessable" with the red cross on the massege.

A: Since your computers can see each and win2000 can access win98, I am assuming that you have setup the same workgroup and protocol on the both machines. The problem is permission. You may have three options: 1) use the same logon id on the both machines, 2) create a id for win9x on win 2000, 3) enable guest account in win 2000 (it is risky). 4) the w2k/xp computer name or shared name is longer than 15 characters. For more details, to go http://www.chicagotech.net. click network page.

I have a work laptop running Win 2000 setup to connect to domain and I would like to share my home printer connected to my home desktop running XP Home. I have both setup to share, but since one is ona workgroup and the other on a domain, I cannot get both on the same workgroup. I cannot get them to see each other or the printer. How can I share at home. I do not want to join the domain.

A: Logon a same id and password on the both machines and also you may need to enable the guest account on win2000.

Q: no domain server available

I have setup networking in Win98 to logon to a NT domain. Everything is setup correctly with the domain name and the correct ip address. When I logon to the domain, I get the message no domain server available. I would appreciate any suggestions to this problem.

A: Have you used ping, tracert, ipconfig, nslookup and net view to troubleshoot?

I am using a Win 2000 box for my file storage. I have 1 windows XP box, 2 win 2000 boxes & 3 win 98 boxes all on the network (it's peer to peer). I just added the 3rd win 98 box onto the network. I can see all of the computers on the network but I can't get in the file server. It keeps
asking me for a password in a box that only comes up on that box. I hope that you can see the attached bit map

A: Whenever getting IPC$, you have permission and workgroup issues. Since you are using peer-to-peer, you need to create a local user account who will logon the win9x in win 2000. Also you may wan to try to disable simple file sharing and re-share it.

Q: using net view on a win xp home box i get an access denied message when trying to map to a shared resources on a win2K box. any suggestions on if this is a permission problem etc?

A: if you get error 5, it may be permission/network setting issue; if error 53, it may be name resolution issue.

I use Windows XP Pro on my laptop computer, at office I've made it a member of a Windows 2000 Active Directory Domain. I would also like to be able to make it a domain member of another domain at another site.

A: you may try netsh.exe and create trust relationship. However, as a consultant, I may work on different domains every day. So the netsh is not for me. I always create a username and password that match the domain username and password, and then logon local computer using that username. I can access most domain resources.

Q: Any suggestions on how to setup a home network with a 2 win2k, a win98 and a win98SE laptop?

A: The key for networking w2k and win98 is NetBIOS. For more information, go to http://www.ChicagoTech.net check network analysis and setup pages.

Q: I accidentally set my displays background and text to the same color. Dumb---I know. I'm now looking at a almost totally black screen. I do see a few icons. Any ideas on how I can change my setting back???

Trying to setup ICS and get this: "Cannot enable shared access." "Error 2: The system cannot find the file specified." ipconfig/all shows DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.253.1 and IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.2 on 3com.

OK. DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.253.1 on 3com and IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.2 on Diamond Multimedia Home are
the problem. 255.255.255.0 subnet must be 192.168.0.0 or 192.168.253.0 network. Now, 3com is in 192.168.253.0 network and Diamond Multimedia Home is in the different subnet 192.168.0.0. Is it possible you setup static ip on Diamond Multimedia Home? you may have some options: 1) setup obtain ip from dhcp on Diamond Multimedia Home. 2) change the dhcp to 192.168.0.0 network and setup 3com using 192.168.0.1.

Q: How can I connect to the domain network without logon domain

I'm going to several client sites with my laptop so each place i have to change my domain name to their domain name to connect to
their network for print and browse the network. So without changing, is there any way for me to connect.

A: I do not setup domain in my win2000 laptop. Whenever I connect to a domain, I create a domain user account that matches my win2000 local user account with the same password. I am always be able to access to the domain resources. I may create a local logon.bat to map the network and printer. Here is a mapping example, net use h: \\server1\marketing password /user:ntdomain\logonid (you may or may not need the password in the command).

Q: I recently upgraded my servers from NT4 to W2K. Something I didn't think about is connectivity to another location. I'm a small city on a single domain using 172.xxx.x.0 scheme. Our Fire Department is on a different domain with its own IP scheme (192.168.0.x). We have a Cisco router
in place with an ACL that allows specific ip addresses to get to our mail server (which used to be a BDC) and an AS400 on our domain. He's able to log onto and even ping the AS400 with no problem. He cannot log onto the mailserver. If I try to ping his IP address from the mail server, it times out. In fact, from my mail server, I can ping the inside interface (172..)of the router, but not the outside interface (192..). I can ping inside and
outside from my former PDC. Is there something in 2000 that I don't understand that. I have not configured correctly?

A: Assuming fire depart has a router connecting to your network and then your network router connects to the internet. Before you upgraded to w2k, the NT server had router table to point to fire depart's router. Since the upgrade, w2k lost the table. So you may need to create one.

Q: I get error whenever I try to setup ICS

A: If the ICS does not work, you may try to setup it manually. To do that, give a static IP 192.168.0.1 to the LAN (Kingston in you r case), subnet
255.255.255.0 and left the gateway blank, and also give your ISP DNS (66.133.170.2 and 66.133.128.138 in your case). In your client, try to setup ip 192.168.0.2, gateway 192.168.0.1 and same the subnet and DNS. that should work.

Q: How to connect to three different network

I connect to three different networks: At home I connect using my 3Com NIC card to a cable modem where my IP address and DNS servers are assigned automatically. At work, I connect using the same NIC to our LAN where I have to assign its IP address manually. Finally, I have to connect to a computer within an ATM or cash dispenser using the same NIC, using NetBuie and yet another IP address. I'm getting tired of constantly changing my network properties depending on where I am or what I'm doing, and Win2000 will not let me create additional connections. Is there a way to allow to these 3 ways of connecting that doesn't require constant tweaking?

A: as a consultant, I use my laptop connecting to different domains every day. I may use netsh.exe or hardware profiles, but I prefer to logon the local computer and get the network IP to access the domain/home network. For more information, go to http://www.ChicagoTech.net check top logon faqs and workgroup network faqs.

I recently upgraded the domain from NT4 to 2000 and gradually all the Windows 98 clients are loosing the ability to logon. Can anyone help me on this issue.

A: Is it possible you change the DHCP, DNS or WINS settings? If you re-setup DHCP and DNS, the client may have correct settings whenever DHCP release the net new DNS. Check the DHCP, DNS and WINS setting.

Q: Cannot logon after removing the domain

I have a windows 2000 professional laptop workstation. I used to belong to a domain on my network, but I recently
changed by network settings to belong to a workgroup. Once I restarted my machine, it won't let me log into windows 2000 at all! The error says wrong user name or domain. For some reason, I think it's trying to access the domain - even though I don't belong to it anymore. Even when I'm not connnected to the network, I cannot log into windows 2000 at all. How can I get into windows 2000? How can I change this?!

A1: You may have other two options.

1. Can you have your company administrator help you?

2. If this is home network and since you have the domain, you should have a server. Can you logon your server? If you can logon server, you should be able to rejoin the win2000 into the domain.

Robert L

A2: It seems like the following was the sequence of events:
1) You had an account you were logging into the laptop with, that had administrator rights
2) You did not know the laptop's local Administrator password
3) You disjoined the domain.
4) After reboot you can't log in.

It sounds as if the account you were using in 1) was a domain account. When you disjoined the domain, that account was no longer valid to log in to the laptop with, since the laptop was no longer on the domain.

The short of it is that if you don't have the laptop's local Administrator's password, or the password of a local account on the laptop with
administrative rights, that's pretty much the end of the road unless you have a recovery disk (and most people don't create one). Without Administrator rights on the laptop you can't join the domain, or recover the files in your old user profile (assuming you were using NTFS). You also can't force the laptop to join the domain without local administrator rights.

This is described in the following article:
Q321305 How to Log On to Windows XP If You Forget Your Password
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q321305

I would suggest that before you reinstall Windows XP as described in the article, that you first do a "parallel" install to a different directory and
backup all of the files and information you wish to keep.

Subject: VPN w98 works but nor w2k

Here's the situation. We're trying to use a Win2k and w98 laptops to our office over a VPN to our office. from this location the Win2K client will connect correctly and authorize correctly, but you cannot browse the remote network. You cannot ping a remote network address, nothing. At the same location a Win98 client will connect correctly and browse the network no problem. What's the difference in the networking of the two that would cause this to happened?

A: Win2k and XP both use DNS to find other machines whereas Win98 uses NetBIOS or Wins. So, you will need to set up the DNS on VPN Server and clients

Subject: WinXP Home and Network

Q: I have just been told that to share/ Access/ Edit shared files using the XP HOME machine is not easy and EVERY time I want a file I would need to enter a password or something.

A: I believe XP Home uses simple file sharing as default. It suppose making home computer sharing easy. But if you setup a peer-to-peer\domain network, accessing the Internet and concerning the security, you may need to make some changes. XP Home can't join domain network but you
can setup it just like win98 to share file and printer. If you do experience the problem like entering password, the first thing you may try is disable
simple file sharing and re-share it manually. For more information, go to http://www.ChicagoTech.net check network setup and
troubleshooting.

Q: I have a network installed. I have one computer running Windows XP, the other running Windows 98. However, I have heard that sharing the printer between the two doesn't work. I picked up a copy of PC World, and they had an article about it. It said that they both needed NetBeui
(sp) on it, and it doesn't install with WinXP. But, it's located on the disc. So I put it on my computer, but printing still doesn't work. Any help. BTW, my printer is the Lexmark X83

A: 1) winxp and win98 can be in the same network if you enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP on xp. This is why MS does not install NetBIOS.
2) If both commuters load NetBEUI, that should also work. you may need some network tools like ipconfig and net view to test the network settings. For more information, go to http://www.ChicagoTech.net check network setup, analysis, tools and troubleshooting.