Windows 2000 Prof. joining an NT4 Server Domain


Although you can access from Windows 2000 Professional an NT4-server via workgroup
networking, it is preferred in company networks to have the Windows 2000 Prof.system to
join the domain“, to take advantage of the common Domain Security system and of Logon scripts.
The procedure on Windows 2000 Prof. to “join the domain” is very similar to the NT4-workstation
procedure
, but with more help from wizards:

Before starting the steps to join the
domain, make sure that both the
Windows 2000 system and the
NT4-server see each other in the
Network- Neighborhood” on the
NT-server / “Computer Near Me
on Windows 2000.
For this, select the “Properties” of
My Computer“:

tab “Network Identification“, then
the button “Properties
make sure, that the name of the
Workgroup is defined EXACTLY the
same as the name of the Domain, which
you like later to join.
Then both systems, the Windows2000
Prof.system and the NT-server must
be displayed in “Network Neighborhood
on both systems (after a change, it may
take a few minutes to show up) before
you continue with the process to
Join the Domain“.

make sure that you are working as a Windows 2000 user , which has
Administrator permissions !

To “join the Domain“, select the
Properties” of “My Computer“:
tab “Network Identification
the button “Network ID
This starts the “Network
Identification Wizard

select “Next”
screen :
“Connecting to the Network:
Select that the computer
is part of a business network
(Microsoft seems to assume
that people will NOT have
Domain servers at home )
then “Next”
Select that you use a
network with a domain
then Next
You will need to provide
this information.
The administrator of the Domain
server will have to create the
username (and password) for
the connection to the Domain
server (and unless you are
yourself the server administrator,
you will NOT be allowed to
do that job on your own !)

Once you have all the info,
then “Next”
Screen:
“User Account and
Domain Information”
Enter the information for:
– Username
– password
– Domain server
This is the username and
password as defined on the
DOMAIN Server.
then “Next”
When connection from an NT4
or Windows2000 system to a
Windows Domain, it is not
sufficient to just define the
usernames (as it is on Windows95
or 98 or ME systems)
, but also
the Windows 2000 computer
itself must join the domain as
a “Computer Account
Enter the name of your
Computer (as displayed
in the “System Properties”
at the start of this procedure
)
then “Next”
Only the administrator of the
Domain server can add a
Computer Account, either on
the Domain server itself using
the “Server Manager” or here
on the joining station by
entering here the Username and
password with Administrator
permissions on the Domain-
Server
(not just on the local
Windows 2000 system !)

If you get the following Error message :
“Your computer could not be joined to the domain because the following error has occured:
The credentials supplied conflict with an existing set of Credentials”:


then you did NOT logon to your Windows 2000 Prof.system as user with Administrator
permissions : Log out and login as user with administrator permissions and start all over again
with this procedure
.

The procedure continues
allowing to define the
user account
Screen :
“Access Level”
for the new user, you need
the define the Level of
access:
– Standard User
– Restructed
– Other
With the next screen,
you are done.
You will need to restart
the system for the change
to take effect.

You can now Logon to the Domain-Server.


When checking now on the NT-domain-server
in the “Server Manager“, it incudes the system
which just joined the domain.
(funny: it thinks that it is an “NT version 5” system,
as Windows 2000 was called before it got renamed
to its new name Windows 2000…….)

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