CAn you help me figure out why three out of four computers on my network cannot find a domain?

Question

This is driving me nuts. I have a computer network in Vietnam (I am in the US) and there are three computers on the local network that suddenly cannot see our domain on the internet (not the local). All are running Windows XP in DHCP with Firefox and Thunderbird clients.... three of the four cannot browse via http or connect via pop to our domain on the web (www.cpi.org)... while one computer can can... ARGH... I am not there in person, so it is adding to my frustration.... any ideas?

I said "can can" in the text... that i sa typo... I assure you... none of the comps can dance.

Answer 1

It sounds like either a DNS or DHCP issue to me.

Either the three nonfunctional computers are using a different DNS server (or servers) than the one that is working, and that DNS server has ceased to operate, or else the one that is working still has an IP address, while the 3 nonfunctional ones lost their IPs when their leases expired, and for some reason are unable to acquire new ones.

More details would be helpful - for example:

- Can the computers all "see" one another?
- Can some or all of the computers ping the servers in question by IP address? by name?
- have you confirmed that all the PCs have apropriate IP addresses?

Answer 2

Check the DNS settings on the clients to make sure they're pointing at a DNS server that serves the active directory. If not, then that can cause this behavior.

Also, if you have a firewall between the locations, you might make sure it's not doing anything strange. If there is a firewall, were any changes made to its configuration since these other computers worked?

Answer 3

You said suddenly they stopped working so they must have been working once. Probably the settings are OK unless somebody messed with them. Try "pinging" these PC's to see if there are any physical connection problems. Try having somebody on site ping the router or TracerT should find any physical problems. I would look for wires that are loose or other physical problems.