I got an error when my win7 machine tried to join a w2k3 domain. The error message is "An attempt to resolve the DNS name of a domain controller in the domain being joined has failed. Please verify this client is configured to reach a DNS server that can resolve DNS names in the target domain" I have followed all the suggestions from this post, http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itpronetworking/thread/472e98ad-5616-422e-8135-cc8e0f36e73c Basically, win7 can ping the w2k3 DC, TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper Service is on and firewall is off. On the other hand, the same network settings with a XP machine joins the domain without any problems. Could anyone give me some suggestions? Thanks.

Please post the results of ipconfig /all for the win7 computer and the domain controller. This is almost always exactly what the error message says. Something is wrong with DNS. It could be settings, a communication problem, etc. Kerry Brown MS-MVP - Windows Desktop Experience

Hi, Please try the following steps to troubleshoot the issue. 1. Please click "Advanced settings" on the Windows Firewall, and allowed all incoming and Outgoing traffic in the below profiles: a. Private b. Domain c. Public Then, please restart "Windows Firewall Service" 2. Restart the DHCP Client service and DNS client service on the problematic machine. Then, please join the machine to domain again. If the issue persists, please try the next steps. 3. Using Group Policy Editor a. Click Start, type "gpedit.msc" (without quotation marks) into Search bar and press ENTER. b. Click Continue when the User Account Control (UAC) prompts. c. Navigate to the following branch: Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options. d. Double-click "Network security: Configure encryption types allowed for Kerberos" and select the first 5 checkboxes for the encryption types supported. e. Click OK. Close Group Policy Editor and restart the computer. What's the result? Thanks, Novak