I'm running an evalutation version of windows server 2003. I've installed active directory and dns but have been unable to log on with an xp pro computer. From the server I can ping everyone on the netowrk but the cannot ping the server from any other computer. I can't ping it by its fqdn I did make an account to log in on the server(ad - both user and computer), but the client can't even find the domain to join. I do have dhcp running, but i also have it running on the router (linksys) but i assigned the server a specific ip from the router. (i also tried have it assigned automatically from the router but that didn't work either) No errors show in the event viewer. Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

Is the server pointing to itself for DNS? Is the client pointing to the server for DNS? "Milk was a bad choice!"

the server is point to these addresses for dns: 194.25.0.68 194.25.0.60 194.25.0.52 i don't know where these address came from. The servers address is 192.168.0.108 The server used to also look to itself for dns but i removed the static ip when trying to troubleshoot. The client used to have the server listed as one of its dns when i ipconfig /all but is not currently doing so. the client is using the router for dns.

Both server and client must point to the server as its DNS server. That's a non-negotiable. "Milk was a bad choice!"

"I do have dhcp running, but i also have it running on the router (linksys) but i assigned the server a specific ip from the router. (i also tried have it assigned automatically from the router but that didn't work either)" Whoa, whoa! The DC should have a static IP. DO NOT set it to obtain an IP address automatically, even if you set it for a reservation in the DHCP server, that's still an exceptionally poor idea. Secondly, you should only have one DCHP server per broadcast domain, so you need to turn off one of those DHCP servers. Whatever DHCP server you have should again be giving out your DC's IP address as the DNS server to use. Set DNS in the DC under forwarders the ISP's DNS servers. "Milk was a bad choice!"