Win Server 2k and Win 7 client

I have a Win Server 2000 system with AD configured. The network consists of an OKI printer, a network server, a wifi router a Win 2k client and the server. I'm trying to connect a Win 7 client. The purpose of the network, besides sharing equipment is to move files from client to client and scatter backups over more than 1 machine.

The Win 7 client is configured for DHCP and does in fact receive it's IP and DNS configuration from the server and it sees the printer, wifi router and network drive, but does not see the Win 2k client nor the Win 2k server.

I have tried the LAN Management Authentication Level set to 'Send LM & NTLM responses' with the 128 bit encryption removed. I've also done the registry hack on the key 'LmCompatibilityLevel'.

Neither of these have helped.

I have two questions:

1. Is there a fix or is Win 2k totally incompatible?

2. Is the best (or quickest/cheapest) fix to upgrade the server to Win 2k3 and not worry about the Win 2k client?

Thanks for any help.

Ray Kruse Buffalo, KY

From serverfault Ray Kruse

• I don't think either of those things have any bearing on seeing the other machines on the network. Is the Win7 computer joined to the domain? Is network discovery turned on on the Win7 computer? If the Win7 computer is not joined to the domain, is it's workgroup name the same as the domain name? I would check these things first before modifying the authentication methods.

  From joeqwerty

• I don't have an 'edit' button showing under my original question as the FAQ indicated that I should, so while I try to figure this out, I'll reply to Joeqwerty's answer/comment through the 'answer' process.

  I should have added that I did try to join the domain, but the Win7 machine came back with 'unable to find AD DC' or 'unable to find network path'. I went into the Win2k Server and created an account for the client computer, but that didn't help either.

  Discovery is turned on, otherwise the Win7 box would not have told me that the OKI printer, the wifi router, the networked HDD were there and available.

  The only devices that were not recognized were the two Win2k machines.

  I didn't try naming the workgroup in the Win7 box with the domain name. I'll have to give that a try and report back.

  In the meantime, if someone could tell me where I can find the 'edit' button I would appreciate it.

  Thanks

  Ray

  Richard Gadsden : You're not seeing the edit button because you've lost your cookie that is used to track that you're the same person as the original questioner. I suggest you create a proper account on serverfault, so that can't happen again, and contact a mod who can join the cookie-based accounts to a proper, logged in OpenID account.
  From Ray Kruse

• Is the Windows 7 on the same domain as the other computers? I'm not sure 'unable to find AD DC' is a real error message, what was it? When you say it got DHCP, did you validate that the DNS entries it got allowed it to find the DC? Can you ping the DC name from the Windows 7 PC? If not, can you ping the long name for the DC (hostname.domainname)? If not, what DNS servers is the Win7 computer looking at?

  From Jon Angliss

• Hi Jon,

  The Win7 machine is on the same network as everything else (very small system, only one network), but I can not configure it to join a domain. The message 'unable to find AD DC' I took to mean 'active directory domain controller'.

  The Win7 machine is configured to get IP and DNS info through DHCP, and the IP address it configured with (verified by IPCONFIG) was a valid one. It also showed up on the server/domain controller in the DHCP/computers area. I didn't check the DNS address, but would assume that it was correct since the DHCP transaction went through for IP. I can ping the server IP address but haven't tried to ping the DC name.

  The system consists of only one server which handles the file sharing and the domain controller functions. As I said previously, the Win7 machine can see everything on the network except the Win2k machines (one server, one client).

  I can also get out through the satellite router to the Internet, so, again, it seems to show that the DHCP address configuration is correct.

  Ray

  From Ray Kruse

• What version of Windows 7 do you have? You need Pro, Enterprise or Ultimate. Can you ping the DC by name? NetBIOS name or FQDN? In the TCP/IP properties is there a WINS entry for the Win7 PC? While there, do you have the DNS Suffix for your domain listed? When you try to add the Win7 PC to the domain, do you enter the NetBIOS domain name or the FQDN? try both. Can you post a screen capture of the error you get when you do this?

  From cwheeler33

• Thanks for the response. I found a solution a couple of weeks ago, but have lost my notes from it so I can't provide the exact details. It involved creating a Win2000 emulation entry in the registry. That allowed all the Win2k nodes to show up on the Win7 discovery.

  From Ray Kruse