w2k client cannot join sbs2003 domain "cant find the path"

Help!

I have been slowly building my sbs2003 network and have been doing OK so far
(with a little help from you lot!). I have even manged to join w2kpro and
XPpro clients to the domain from a remote network connected via router
supported VPNs (Note I do NOT use SBS for DHCP or VPN support, the routers
do that just fine!) after a bit of IP address enabling on the server!

Now I have a third network (my second remote network) which is set up just
about identically to the other remote network except it uses a different
subnet (172.31.1.?) I have enabled this subnet in the same way as the other,
successfull remote network on the server and the new client can see the
server AND run the "join network" wizard. BUT it is simply NOT joining. I
have done the join manually (via Network ID wizard in the "Properties" of
the W2K client) just like I have done for virtually ALL other clients. After
all the dialogs about valid user names/computer names and domain names I get

"Could not join the domain"
"system could not find the path"

Derrr WHAT path. searches of groups and web pages suggest some tantalising
possibilities,but none seem to have worked. Any ideas?

Thanks

Stuart

 

The message normally means it can't find the server.

Can you ping the server by name from the affected client machine?

You should also be able to connect to the shares. Click start/run and type
\\servername. It should prompt you for a username and password. Type in a
valid username/password from the server and try to login. If these don't
work, a domain join will not work.

I would start with name resolution. Make sure DNS is correct.


Best Regards,

John Bay, MCSE 2003
Microsoft Support Engineer

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.