I have a DSL connection with the modem, then a linksys wireless access point and a router w/ 4 port switch. (Model BEFW11S4) I have a laptop connected to the the router using the workgroup, "WORKGROUP". I now have a 2000 server that is connected to the router and it connecs to the internet fine, can see its domain and the workgroup. But when I try to get the 2000 laptop to join the domain it give me an error: The following error occurred validating the name "DomainName.com", This condition may be caused by a DNS lookup problem. For infomation about troubleshooting common DNS lookup problems, please see the following Microsoft Web site: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=5171 The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted. Does anyone know how I can fix this problem. Your help is greatly appreciated. Thanks, Mario

First off, a server is not a Domain controller until you have installed active directory and DNS. Once you do that, then you will be able to join your domain. And if this still fails after you've done the above, find your HOSTS file on your laptop and add your server name with the IP address.

Thanks for your help, The Server is completly set up, I brought it from another network I previously had so I know it is working fine. The laptop I am trying to connect is a new client so it has never been connected to the network. You said to find my hosts file. Where is that located and how do I go about modifying it? Thanks for your help, Mario

Instruct your laptop to use your 2000 server's IP address as primary DNS server.

Try PhArAoH's resolution. You need to go into the laptops tcp/ip settings and set the ip address of your server as the laptop primary DNS server. Also, is the laptop and server on the same subnet? Meaning, what are you using to obtain ip addresses. Is your linksys router handing out Ip addresses to both your server and laptop, is the server static, and your laptop is using dhcp from the router, or are both static, or is the laptop using a private ip address like 169.254.x.x the server and laptop have to be on the same network address to see each other. can you ping one from the other? Most likely your server is static from when it was in a production environment and the laptop is getting an ip address on a different network. post what the ip address is on both the server and laptop and we can go from there.

My Server's IP is 192.168.1.2 and the rest of the clients are assigned by the router. i.e. 192.168.1.X. I do not have a static IP address, the router is setup to get a PPPoE DSL connection. Any other suggestions?

Go to the tcp/ip properties of your laptop and make sure the primary dns server is set to 192.168.1.2. Also make sure the servers primary dns server is set to the same ip address. A dns server has to be a client of itself. Can you ping your server from the laptop by ip address and fqdn (fully qualified domain name)?