Hi, Do i need to setup user(or DC)policies before i can connect my PC to DC? I setup a DC and created a computer account then follow by user account.when i tried to connect my PC to a domain, it first pop up the "Computer name changes"menu for username and password, after entering them, i got the Error occurred attempting to join the domain: "Access is denied". I try to use "net time" to query DC time and got "System error 5 has occurred. Access is denied".Because my DC is behind firewall(in DMZ) and my PC in LAN, so i check the port 123(win32time server) and is open from LAN->DMZ. i donno whether i need to setup permissions (user policy) to join a DC and to use "net time" or is bcoz of firewall (but i check the firewall log and nothing is blocked). Besides, if i want to setup a local Domain which will not have access to internet, do i still need to have a valid FQDN and DNS? Thanks very much.

When you "pre-staged" the computer account in Active Directory, which account did you specify to added the PC to that domain? This is how I would do it: 1- If needed, rename the PC to your naming standard and reboot 2 - Added the account to Active Directory with your domain creditials 3 - Log on the client PC with an account which has administrative permissions. Right-click on My Computer, select Properties, Network ID Tab, and select properties. Select Domain, enter domain name, and when prompted for creditials type in domain\username and password. The creditials should be the account in which you entered for creating the object in AD. 4- reboot DNS is somewhat of a requirement for AD. In a smaller environment, you can get away with added the DNS services to the DC. ~PhillyMCSE

I am setting up a test lab for windows 2003 active directory. I have 3 computers in this lab, one is the Domain controller named DC1, one is the Internet Authentication Service named IAS1, the other is a APN server named VPN1. In the Active Directory Users and computers of DC1, I create the Domain called example.com, and create the computer accounts named IAS1 and VPN1 for computer IAS1 and VPN1. And then in the IAS1, I want to join this computer to the domain example.com, but when I click ok to finish the change name, it asks me the username and password. But when I create the computer account in DC1, I haven't create the password for the computer account. what can i do?