Hi Joe, 
 
i had a similar problem a few weeks ago on a W2K3 native domain..... 
 
it turned out to be something really simple in the end - where the NICs were down on 
the server that the clients could not even ping it! - I know in your case the VPN is 
down and SO IT WAS in my case!!! - co-incidence galore or what!, but can your (any of 
your) client machine in the UK site ping the DC? - could give you a clue. 
 
but eitherway you will need to get someone to logon to the DC locally, get someone to 
logon as a domain admin but refrain from using UPN username, but force to logon to the 
domain 
 
if all else fails, pull the plug and do a Hard reboot!
 
sorry i haven't been too technically helpful with my pointers
 
regards, 

anton

________________________________

From: Joe Pochedley [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Wed 11/08/2004 19:01
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [ActiveDir] Logging into a disconnected DC



Good afternoon..  Hoping someone can give me some pointers here... 

We have an office in the UK that is connected back to our US HQ via a VPN link (over 
the Internet).  At that site, they have a AD DC which is also a GC and DNS server.  
This afternoon their VPN link is down (Internet issue) and for some reason they can 
not authenticate against their local DC for logins...  All clients are Win 2kPro or 
Win XP Pro and receive an error similar to 'Unable to contact the domain' when they 
attempt to login...  the users at the site can't even log into the DC machine itself 
with an administrative domain account (error: Please check that the username and 
password are entered correctly...  I've verified that the name and password they have 
are correct and can log into DC's in our site - they've used the credentials in the 
past and I'm pretty sure that with the number of times they've tried they should've 
typed the info correctly at least once)

I do check AD replication on a semi-regular basis and have never noticed anything out 
of the ordinary with that site (dcdiag, netdiag, replmon, and the AD Replication 
Monitor app)...  The domain is a Win2k Native domain...  I know I've tested 
disconnected sites before and they've always been able to authenticate locally while 
the VPN link was down (we have other sites that operate like this) and have never seen 
this problem...  

At this point I'm just looking for some possibilities or pointers on things to check 
until the site is back up and I can take a look at that server, Event Logs, etc...  

TIA 

Joe Pochedley 
A computer terminal is not some clunky old television 
with a typewriter in front of it. It is an interface 
where the mind and body can connect with the universe 
and move bits of it about. -Douglas Adams 



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