Ok,took delivery of new Dell Server with Win2003 Standard loaded.
During the setup it asked a question regarding a NETBIOS name which I
set as AKNETBIOS. The domain is AK.LOCAL.

When setting up the XP workstations, I tried to join the domain AK but
it would not work. Looking into Network places it identifies the
domain as AKNETBIOS with the server name MAIN under it.

I am confused as to how I am logging into the 'domain' AKNETBIOS and
not AK.

Could someone explain what I have done here and how I make AK the
domain that I login to not AKNETBIOS.

Thanks

Mike

Hi Paul

There are two names for every domain -- the NetBIOS name and the DNS name.
The NetBIOS name is used for compatibility with clients and servers that do
not understand the DNS name, such as Windows 9x and Windows NT.

At the login screen, you can either log in by selecting the domain from the
"log on to" drop-down list or by typing the UPN (user principle name) in the
form paul@ak.local. The former will use NetBIOS to log you in and the
latter will use the DNS name.

In any case, the DNS name of the domain is the fully qualified name, not
just the first portion (e.g. ak.local vs. ak).

There is a domain rename utility with Windows Server 2003. Look for a tool
called rendom or domren (for some reason, the tool has one name while the
directory it's in has another) on your Windows Server 2003 CD. However, I
wouldn't recommend doing this without a lot of reading. If you have
introduced Exchange into the environment, domain rename is not supported.

If you're still in the experimentation phase, you could just reinstall and
start again. The first installation is something we all use to learn how to
do it properly the second time. In your case, answer "ak" when asked for
the NetBIOS name.

Hope this helps

Oli



"Paul Walker" <ps@notathtisaddress.com> wrote in message
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