Knowledge Base

Cannot join Windows XP-Professional-based computer to a Windows NT 4.0-based domain

Article ID: 314366

Article Last Modified on 5/25/2004

APPLIES TO

Microsoft Windows XP Professional Edition

This article was previously published under Q314366

For a Microsoft Windows 2000 version of this article, see 258832.

SYMPTOMS

You may not be able to join a Microsoft Windows XP Professional-based computer to a Microsoft Windows NT 4.0-based domain. When you try to change the domain membership for the Windows XP Professional-based computer in the Identification Changes dialog box, you receive the following error message:

Network Identification:

The following error occurred validating the name "domain name".

The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted.

If you try to use the net view command from the Windows XP Professional-based computer, you receive the following error message:

System error 53 has occurred.

The network path was not found.

If you try to ping by name from the Windows XP Professional-based computer, it does not work. You can ping by IP address.

CAUSE

This problem may occur if both of the following conditions are true:

NetBIOS over TCP/IP (NetBT) is disabled on the client computer.
The TCP/IP protocol is the only protocol that is installed on the client computer.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP (NetBT) on the workstation. To do this, follow these steps.

Note You must be logged on as an administrator or as a member of the Administrators group to complete this procedure. If your computer is connected to a network, network policy settings may also prevent you from completing this procedure.

Click Start, click Control Panel, click Network and Internet Connections, and then click Network Connections.
Right-click the network connection that you want to configure, and then click Properties.
On the General tab (for a local area connection) or on the Networking tab (for all other connections), click Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), and then click Properties.
Click Advanced, click the WINS tab, and then click Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP.

Note If the DHCP server provides the NetBIOS settings, you can click Default: Use NetBIOS setting from the DHCP server. If static IP address is used or the DHCP server does not provide NetBIOS setting, enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP.

Click OK two times, and then click Close.

Note If network configuration requirements make it impractical to enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP (NetBT), you may be able to work around this problem by installing a new protocol, such as NetBEUI, on both the Windows XP Professional-based client and on the Windows NT 4.0-based server.

MORE INFORMATION

To join a Windows XP Professional-based computer to a domain, follow these steps.

Note You must be logged on as an administrator or as a member of the Administrators group to complete this procedure. If your computer is connected to a network, network policy settings may also prevent you from completing this procedure.

Click Start, click Control Panel, click Performance and Maintenance, and then click System.
On the Computer Name tab, click Change.
Under Member of, click Domain, type the name of the domain that you want to join, and then click OK.

You are prompted to provide a user name and a user password to join the computer to the domain.

Click OK to close the System Properties dialog box.

You will be prompted to restart your computer to apply your changes.

Notes

You can also use the Network Identification Wizard to join a domain. To use the Network Identification Wizard, follow these steps:
1. Click Start, click Control Panel, click Performance and Maintenance, and then click System.
2. On the Computer Name tab, click Network ID, and then follow the instructions that appear on your screen.
Use computer names that have 15 characters or less. If your computer has TCP/IP networking protocol installed, the computer name can be up to 63 characters long, but the name should only contain the numbers 0 through 9, the letters A through Z, a through z, and hyphens. You can use other characters, but doing so might prevent other users from finding your computer on the network. If your network is using the DNS server, you can use any characters except periods. If other networking protocols are installed without TCP/IP, the name is limited to 15 characters.
If you specify a computer name that is longer than 15 characters and you want longer names to be recognized by the Active Directory domain, the domain administrator must enable registration of DNS names that are 16 bytes or more.
If you rename your computer or your workgroup when it is disconnected from the network, duplicate computer names might result. Contact your network administrator before you rename your computer.

For more information about NetBIOS over TCP/IP (NetBT), see RFCs 1001 and 1002.

For additional information enabling NetBIOS over TCP/IP and Windows 2000, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

204279 Direct hosting of SMB over TCP/IP

For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

256083 Error message: The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted

Additional query words: win2000hotds WINXPUPD

Keywords: kberrmsg kbenv kbnetwork kbprb KB314366

Microsoft KB Archive/314366

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