Problem adding a laptop to our school network

[Phildw]

Ok I have a school running Windows Server 2003, and each teacher has their own school laptop. Up until now they have been logging on to their laptops locally and accessing the network throught there. I have been going through the process of setting them up global accounts, however on one of them I am having trouble getting it to join the domain. It is an XP machine, and when I try to change it to be a member of the school's domain I can an error message saying "The network path was not found."

This is my first job in ICT and I am pretty n00b.

Help please!!

[accura2000]

make sure they havent got custom DNS and IP address settings on the laptop, make sure its getting an IP address from the DHCP server, check to make sure the date and time is correct...

[Phildw]

make sure they havent got custom DNS and IP address settings on the laptop, make sure its getting an IP address from the DHCP server, check to make sure the date and time is correct...

Cheers Accura... have checked the DNS settings and it incorrect , so changed those. Checked ip config, IP address is also fine and it is finding the domain fine there. rebooted and got a new error instead: "A domain controller for the domain xxxx could not be contacted. Ensure the domain name is typed correctly."

Edit: Ok, turns out the DNS settings I used where incorrect. Tried it on another XP laptop which needs to be added and everything is fine, despite having the same (old) settings .

[Phildw]

Anyone else got any ideas?

[Davit2005]

If the staff had full admininstrator rights (which I suspect) I'd be inclined to image the laptop with a fresh image before sticking it on the network to clear anything off that might of been loaded or any potential problems.

Not talking about personal expereince but I know how they like to sometimes share their SCHOOL laptops to all their family members and then wonder why they have problems.