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…….) |
