Knowledge Base

Err Msg: Could Not Find Domain Controller for This Domain

Article ID: 245172

Article Last Modified on 2/27/2007

APPLIES TO

Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Edition
Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server
Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Standard Edition

This article was previously published under Q245172

SYMPTOMS

When you attempt to establish a trust relationship from a trusting domain by connecting to a primary domain controller (PDC) running Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 in a trusted domain, you may receive the following error message:

Could not find domain controller for this domain.

CAUSE

This behavior can occur if the 1b (domain master browser) and 1c (domain controller) NetBIOS names for the PDC in the trusted domain are not registered in the Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS). This can occur when the WINS servers in the two domains do not replicate to each other.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, modify the Lmhosts file that contains the 1b and 1c entries for the PDC of the trusted domain:

In a text editor (such as Notepad), open the Lmhosts file located in the %SystemRoot%\System32\drivers\etc folder.
Add the following lines to the Lmhosts file, using the name of the trusted domain, the Internet Protocol (IP) address, and the NetBIOS name of the PDC in the trusted domain, as indicated in the following example:
```
    10.0.0.1   PDCName   #PRE #DOM:DomainName
    10.0.0.1   "DOMAINNAME     \0x1b"   #PRE

                    
```
- Replace 10.0.0.1 in the example with the IP address of the PDC in the trusted domain.
- Replace the PDCName with the NetBIOS name of the trusted domain PDC. When you specify the NetBIOS suffix (the sixteenth character), the spacing between the quotation marks is critical. There must be a total of 20 characters within the quotation marks (the domain name plus the appropriate number of spaces to pad up to 15 characters plus the backslash (\) plus the NetBIOS hex representation of the service type).
- Replace DomainName with the Windows NT 4.0 domain name of the trusted domain.
Save the changes to the Lmhosts file.
Specify the use of the Lmhosts file:
1. In Control Panel, double-click Network.
2. Click the Protocols tab.
3. In the Network Protocols box, click TCP/IP Protocol, and then click Properties.
4. In the WINS Address tab, click the Enable LMHOSTS Lookup check box, and then click OK.
Click Yes when you are prompted to restart your computer.

MORE INFORMATION

This behavior can also occur if you manually added the RestrictAnonymous registry value to the registry on the PDC of the trusted domain. This value prevents null session connections. In addition, this registry value also prevents a trusting domain from connecting to the PDC in the trusted domain to establish a trust relationship.

For information about establishing a trust relationship between domains, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

178640 Could Not Find Domain Controller When Establishing a Trust

For more information about using an Lmhosts file, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

180094 How to Write an LMHOSTS File for Domain Validation

163409 NetBIOS Suffixes (16th Character of the NetBIOS Name)

Keywords: kbprb KB245172

Microsoft KB Archive/245172

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