I am missing the domain controller for Microsoft Networking.I also get a note indicating "no domain server (Network server). I wonder if there is a website that offers a free download of these items. I can still logon but I get a message noting "no server password not accepted". I then get popups after and click on OK and for some reason I can logon>However the note indicates that I may not have access to all websites. I need to know how to correct these errors or if possible find these components and re-install them. I would appreciate your assistance and need to resolve these problems or get new re-installs.

I look forward to a prompt reply and your help. I am using Windows 98SE OEM version and Internet Explorer 6. Thanking you in advance and look forward to a prompt response.



Wayne LaDouceur 1/17/2004 7:29:55 AM

Good article. RAS has been a thorn for many of us and we appreciate all the help we can get! If you need to verify domain authentication with a Win9X machine, see the following Microsoft article: Q150898 - How to Display Domain Logon Confirmation in Windows. Or, you can simply use the registry poke it describes:

Use Registry Editor to add a DWORD value named "DomainLogonMessage" (without quotation marks) to the following registry key:



HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\Network\\Logon


Set the data value for DomainLogonMessage to 1.

It works just fine.

Dave Davidson 2/7/2000 10:44:14 AM

You did it again! You took a complicated subject and made it simple for people like me to understand. I work in a large company. The PDC is in New York, and a BDC is at a site in Chicago. Users in Chicago log on (via a 56Kbps connection) to the New York domain. One user calls frequently and complains about how long logon takes. How do I tell which domain controller logged on a user?

--George Kimmel



If the user is running Windows NT Workstation, ask the user to run NT Diagnostics, click the Network tab, and check the Logon Server entry. If the user is running Windows 9x, you probably can’t get that information without running Network Monitor. I recall that Windows for Workgroups (WFW) gave you the option of getting a pop-up dialog box at logon that identified which machine logged you on. I haven’t found anything like that in Win9x.

--Mark Minasi

George Kimmel 8/6/1999 4:38:25 PM

The scenario about a fictitious company that Mark Minasi presents in Inside Out: “Pick Users’ Domain Controller” (February) worries me. The author states that the Galway, Ireland, domain controllers might respond to a “cry for help across the WAN.” How would the Galway machines hear this cry for help? Routers don’t forward (by default) the NetBIOS broadcasts that the Chicago, Illinois, computers would use to find servers, so the cry for help would never reach Galway.
Another concern worth mentioning is the unlikely chance that the domain controllers would ever be swamped, given the number of users in the example (1000). Microsoft says a domain controller (if configured for Maximum Throughput for Network Applications) can service 20 logons per second. Therefore, all 1000 users would have to log on within a 10-second period to substantially stress the domain controllers. Microsoft also says you need only one BDC for every 2000 users and having more BDCs might decrease network performance because of excessive synchronization traffic.

--Simon G. Brock



The article explains that the client gets a list of domain controllers from WINS, then sends the domain controllers directed messages. These directed messages aren’t broadcasts, so they could make it to any branch office anywhere. My experience regarding Microsoft’s recommendations for the number of domain controllers you need is that sometimes the values are valid and sometimes they aren’t valid.

--Mark Minasi

Simon G. Brock 8/6/1999 4:37:05 PM