Secondary DC still not authenticating

This problem is driving me nuts. First of all, I am an administrator who has
had to learn on the job and have no formal training so be gentle. I have two
DC's, one is running Windows 2003 Enterprise edition and would be what used
to be considered the primary dc. The second is running Windows 2003 Standard
edition.
When I installed the second one I ran the wizard to make it a dc and told
the wizard it was another dc in an existing domain. I followed and answered
all the questions so that it would setup replication.
EVerything seems to be fine from that point of view. The active directory is
on the second dc and when I check the event viewer the file replication is
working fine.
I have static ip addresses for the two servers. On all the clients I have
set the DNS order to be - ip of main server, ip of secondary server, ip of
external ISP.
When I unplug the network cable from the main server to take it offline and
go to a client to log in, after a minute or so I get the error - Could not
log you in lseeserver (this is our main server) is unavailable.
What am I missing? What could be wrong? Why wouldn't the wizard have covered
all the bases so that guys like me could not screw this up?
Help - please.
Thanks in advance.
TK

I'm not sure, but get rid of the ISP's DNS Server in those settings. Each DC
should point to the other one first and itself second,...and no other.

For external naming you want to use a Forwarders List in both of the DNS
Servers' Configuration that lists the ISP's DNS as one of the "Forwarders".

If it still doesn't act right I usually demote the problem machine back to
being a Member Server, make sure all the components are installed (DNS,
WINS, DHCP, and whatever else you need), wait a couple hours (or better yet,
overnight) then make sure all the Event Logs aren't hollering about anything
on either Server, then when I'm sure everything is "healthy" I promote it
back to a DC again.

--

Phillip Windell [MCP, MVP, CCNA]
www.wandtv.com


"TK" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> This problem is driving me nuts. First of all, I am an administrator who
has
> had to learn on the job and have no formal training so be gentle. I have
two
> DC's, one is running Windows 2003 Enterprise edition and would be what
used
> to be considered the primary dc. The second is running Windows 2003
Standard
> edition.
> When I installed the second one I ran the wizard to make it a dc and told
> the wizard it was another dc in an existing domain. I followed and
answered
> all the questions so that it would setup replication.
> EVerything seems to be fine from that point of view. The active directory
is
> on the second dc and when I check the event viewer the file replication is
> working fine.
> I have static ip addresses for the two servers. On all the clients I have
> set the DNS order to be - ip of main server, ip of secondary server, ip of
> external ISP.
> When I unplug the network cable from the main server to take it offline
and
> go to a client to log in, after a minute or so I get the error - Could not
> log you in lseeserver (this is our main server) is unavailable.
> What am I missing? What could be wrong? Why wouldn't the wizard have
covered
> all the bases so that guys like me could not screw this up?
> Help - please.
> Thanks in advance.
> TK
>
>