OU stands for "Organizational Unit", it is a container object in server 2003.  You 
will find various OUs, such as "Computers", or "Users."  OUs are the only thing you 
can apply group policy to.  Your "Computers" OU will contain the computer accounts 
of every computer that has joined the domain.  You should see the computer name you 
are having trouble with, listed in the "Computers" OU.  If you have joined the domain 
successfully, then I am sure you will see the PC listed in the OU.

The .local extension is just a default that Microsoft recommends for internal domain 
names.  You are using a public domain name it sounds like and so you will not have 
a .local after your domain name.

You do not have to setup user accounts on the XP machine.  This is the whole purpose 
for a server, all authentication is done on the server and user accounts are all 
managed from the server.  Someone didn't configure it properly if they are having 
to have local user accounts with the same name and password.

If you have joined the domain properly, then (and if you wouldn't have created that 
local user account with the same name and password, you would not have this confusion) 
make sure you click the "options" button when the login screen pops up.  This will 
expand the "Log on to" field, that will now list your domain name, and the local 
name of the PC.  Make sure you are logging on to the domain and not to the local 
PC.  

At this point, you are able to access any resources on the server that the user you 
created has permissions to access.  Look in my network places.  I would suggest, 
copying an existing user account (right-click the user account on the server) and 
just changing the name and login name.  This way, the new user account you created 
will have the same permissions as the user account you copied.  Otherwise, you will 
need to add the new user account to the proper security groups in order to access 
certain resources.  Very complicated stuff in deed and hard to explain in a few short 
paragraphs.. :)


By explaining what you "can't see" on the server, you may help me to lead you in 
the right direction.

• Reply or follow-up to this message

• Search this forum
• Start a new thread on a different subject

• Report abuse of the forum