Question : Domain controller not found

Users of clients running Win XP keep getting messages to log on to the Server (running SBS 2003) even though they've already been logged on for some time.

Problems experienced are -

Error occurs daily after the user has been logged on to the system for some time. Without warning (and with seemingly no apparent physical disconnection from the network) they are required to log in as administrator to use the network print service or update their emails via Outlook (Outlook is suddenly offline and a computer restart is necessary). They would have been using these services fine prior to this.

Suddenly user cannot print on a networked printer (message: print spooler not running). Restarting the print service in services.msc does resolve the problem). Use of their user name and password is rejected. Message says their user name and password was tried already and a domain contoller cannot be found for the user. Restarting the user's computer helped once for one user.

Users suddenly cannot continue using the accounting software (a network installation). Upon restarting the software, the company cannot be found. The network drive usually requires remapping.

Users have at least Domain Admin permissions for network functions.

Use of the administrator username and password provides only a temporary resolution to these issues.


As IT administrator I get message saying WINS service has stopped. This is a daily occurrence in the early afternoon. Was advised that this does not pose a problem to network users. But the recent developments listed above makes me tend to disagree. Does this have anything to do with the issues above?

We have DHCP enabled on our clients but use static IPs. The modem does the automatic DHCP assignments and is connected to the network switch. Our ISP's  IP address is used for both the primary and sec DNS servers. Should I use our server as the primary DNS server and default gateway in TCP/IP settings?

What can I do to resolve this issue of users being required to log on to the server with admin password and username in order to print or update their Outlook even though these services were running fine when they logged on at the beginning of the day?

Answer : Domain controller not found

Your DNS sounds a little confusing...
You should:
1. Have SBS as your DHCP server.  Less problems with that and DHCP is easier to manage on the server.
2. I would APPEND your internal domain to the "DNS suffix for this connection" area in the advanced tab then DNS tab in your network connection properties.  (This is also a good trick to make //server/connectcomputer work when it sometimes fails :)
3.  Your gateway should be your internal router.  
4.  These settings usually MUST be correct especially for SBS 2003 which is a great OS but VERY PICKY if not setup correctly.
For example: if your server is named... say .... "server"... when you ping it it should show the full domain path, ie:
ping server
reply should be "pinging server.yourdomain.local" 192.168.x.x with etc....
When you mentioned your ISP's DNS settings.... hopefully your clients don't have that... they should have the SBS box of course.
IF you made any recent changes, I'd prob run the EICW wizard again too.