"Access Denied" when connecting to domain

[fredski]

I have set up my first windows 2003 small business server, and while I can get some pc's running xp pro to connect to the domain, I get access denied on others. The server is attached to a netgear router which has dhcp turned on so I have disabled that on my 2003 server. In the network settings on my server I have set the gateway to the router ip. I have added all the computers to the active directory users and computers. I have then added all the users apart from guests to a new group with the same permisions.

The only difference that I can see is that the pc's that are getting the access denied are on hubs connected to the main switch, where as the computers that can connect are connected directly to the switch along with the server. Would that make any difference? The hubs are connected using uplink. When setting them up to connect them to the domain the computer account can be found, but at the user part I get the "access denied", I've tried to use one of the user accounts that I can use to connect on the computers that can't and still get "access denied". So it's not the users permission settings.

Any help would be much appreciated. And please remember that I'm a noob when it comes to windows 2003 server :blush:

Thanks

[homecomputeraid]

Hello fredski,

Welcome to the forum! :)

I understand that you've added a 2003 Server Active Directory Controller to your domain. (You ran DCPromo after building the Server, correct? I don't think you'd get the options for domain users and computers if you didn't, but I want to be clear on it).

Was this the first Windows Server of any kind on your Domain? If you had a Windows NT Domain, or a Windows 2000 Domain, there are some other considerations we should take care of.

The PC's connecting via a hub should not connect any differently. I'm not sure why you're having that problem. I always start with the basics though. Please go to Start, Run, type cmd, and hit Enter. In the command window that opens, type ipconfig /all on a PC that logs into the Server, and on one that cannot. Look for any differences and let me know what you find.

[fredski]

Running ipconifg /all generated no differences in the output of the pc's that can connect and the ones that can't. The active directory was setup as part of the default installation, so there was no need to run dcpromo. And yes this was the first server of any kind on our network. Previously we had been using workgroups.

I have managed to log on from the access denied pc's using an account from the admin group, I then copied this user and gave it a new name and password. It can then log in on the problem pc with that account. If I copy an account that isn't in the admin group but can connect on the pc's with no problems, and use that to log in on the problem pc's then access is denied error occurs again. It seems that only the admin group can connect on the problem pc's.

[homecomputeraid]

Have you tried making the PC's members of the domain by going to one of the problem PC's, Right clicking on My Computer, selecting Properties from the menu, clicking on the Computer Name tab, clicking on the Change button, and under Member of, clicking the Domain radio button, and typing in the Domain Name? If you do that, you'll get a pop-up window asking for a login with Domain Administrator credentials to add the computer to the Domain.

I prefer this method for adding PC's. Please give it a try and let me know how it goes.

One of the first things to accomplish is to make sure you have no computers that think they're still on a workgroup.