While at work I was assigned the task of wiping the hard drives of several laptops, reinstalling Windows, and setting the laptops for use again. Well during the installation process (XP) when the time comes to add the computer to a domain I do so and type in my user information. The computer takes a moment but always returns with a message stating that I have entered an incorrect domain name although I know it is the correct one. I've done this before with desktops and laptops but I had this problem tonight. The laptop is connected to the network physically through a LAN cable and the light comes on at the Ethernet port. I am not sure what is wrong so does anybody have any solutions or hints they would like to throw my way? Thanks in advance.
No. The domain is set on all other computers on the network and they are working just fine. I am really dumbfounded.
If you can't ping the domain, then either it is down or you put in the wrong ip address on the laptop.
No, I mean I am unsure the information I need to ping the domain. I never entered an IP address anywhere. I've never had to before.
Your IP configuration is probably wrong. If you've never had to put it in before then your most likely using DHCP to provide addresses so make sure the XP machines are on a network where they can get a proper address. One other thing that I believe someone else mentioned.... Join the domain after the pc is up and running. You should be able to join it during install but I've had issues where it didn't work then but worked just fine after the install was finished. Another argument for waiting till the PC is built before you join the domain is that you can build it offline, install AV software and then connect it to the real network.
