Client Computer won't connect to Windows Server Domain

lumencreative · 28 Mar 2017 at 17:37

I have spent today setting up a network in our new office (6 computers in total). I have installed Windows Server 2016 Essentials on our Server box, and Windows 10 Pro on the 6 Client PC's.

I have gone to http://SERVERNAME/Connect and started the Windows Server Essentials Connector, and it gets as far as asking for username and password, and when I put those in, click 'Next', it seems to hang for a while (presumably trying to connect to the server), and then comes up with the following error:

Cannot connect this computer to the network
The server is not available. Try connecting this computer again.

However, from the same machine (have even tried it at the same time), I can RDP to the server, and can mount the shared drives using the 'Map a network drive' option), so there can't be a connection issue with the server.

I have also tried switching off the Windows firewall on both ends, and that's not resolved it.

I was jut wondering if anyone here could give any advice on what I could try next as I'm close to tearing my hair out.

APM · 29 Mar 2017 at 15:27

Is it a permissions settings thing?

Active Directory domain set up?

https://social.technet.microsoft.co...008-domain-controler?forum=winserverMigration

DNS issues,

https://www.sevenforums.com/network-sharing/89044-windows-7-wont-connect-domain.html

hope it's ok to cross reference to to other forums.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj713510(v=ws.11).aspx

brendy · 29 Mar 2017 at 15:33

lumencreative said:
I have spent today setting up a network in our new office (6 computers in total). I have installed Windows Server 2016 Essentials on our Server box, and Windows 10 Pro on the 6 Client PC's.

I have gone to http://SERVERNAME/Connect and started the Windows Server Essentials Connector, and it gets as far as asking for username and password, and when I put those in, click 'Next', it seems to hang for a while (presumably trying to connect to the server), and then comes up with the following error:

Cannot connect this computer to the network
The server is not available. Try connecting this computer again.

However, from the same machine (have even tried it at the same time), I can RDP to the server, and can mount the shared drives using the 'Map a network drive' option), so there can't be a connection issue with the server.

I have also tried switching off the Windows firewall on both ends, and that's not resolved it.

I was jut wondering if anyone here could give any advice on what I could try next as I'm close to tearing my hair out.

ignore, I misunderstood.

Caged · 29 Mar 2017 at 16:53

What does the event log on the client/server say?

Glanza · 30 Mar 2017 at 10:39

What error do you get when trying to connect to the domain the old way via computer name / join name.

Sp00n · 30 Mar 2017 at 11:14

Imaged machines? Sysprepped?

What's in the eventlog?

Can you browse to \\domainname or ping it?

LizardKing · 30 Mar 2017 at 11:55

Are the desktops pointing to the server for DNS?
what happens if you ping your FQDN?

I'm sure this is relevant

lumencreative · 2 Apr 2017 at 22:10

Thanks everyone. I had set the dns to the IP address of the server although that didn't resolve it, but then noticed that the dns on the server was pointing to the broadband modem....changed that to 127.0.0.1 and it worked.

Next had an issue where Symantec Endpoint blocked the internal network traffic but have decided to ditch Symantec and trialling Avast Endpoint at the moment.