i've installed Windows server 2003 R2 in my server. I've installed and configured DC. now when i'm trying to join my winxp pro pcs to that domain. an error is popping 'format of specified network name is invalid'. i can ping to server ip, DC and server by network name from other pcs. my server is not running DHCP, as i'll use static for each client. my domain configured as mydomain.local, server full name is server.mydomain.local, win xp pcs i'm trying with name like pc1,pc2... please help me to resolve the problem

How are you joining the clients? Are you logging into each client and setting the Domain, and authenticating to the Domain properly? At what point do you receive the error? This may also help: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&... Life is more painless for those who are brainless.

no i'v googled that already, but that couldn't help me. I'm having problem when setting domain name from Syatem>Computer Name>Change. When giving my domain, it's asking for user name and password. after giving that UID/PWD which i'v created in AD, that above mentioned problem is coming.

Make sure you're authenticating with your Domain Admin account in the proper format: domainname\userid password Life is more painless for those who are brainless.

i tried that. used user name as 'mydomain.local\Administrator'. still it's showing error - "The following error occurred attempting to join the domain "mydomain.local": The format of the specified network name is invalid." i've used wizard to make domain and set AD.

Was the client machine in another domain before? If it was, try uninstalling the NIC from device manager, rebooting and reinstalling the NIC drivers. "Computer security." — Oxymoron

no, the client wasn't in any domain before. all thye clients were in workgroup. so it's my first try to take them under a domain. FYI, i havn't config. the domain or zone, it's all done by AD setup wizard. i'v just gone through the wizard.