Windows 2000 server !HELP!

[Aen]

Hi,
I'm a system admin of a small company (around 15 computers). This morning when I came to work strange things started happening. First some people could not log on, they were getting a (The system can not log you on now becasue the domain is unavailable) error. So I checked my server, all was well. I checked the NIC cards to make sure they were plugged in, I then checked my switch to make sure it was working...it was. Yet some people could log on with NO problem what so ever. After a while of poking and proding I did get some of them to be able to log on, except their roaming profiles could not be found so they had to do a local login, after logging in locally(the ones that could anyway) I tried to ping, first my server...nothing, then any other computer on the network....nothing. I believe it has something to do with DNS but I am not sure.....PLEASE HELP.
BTW I my server is running WIN2k Server SP2, and the workstations are running Win2k Pro SP2. Thanks in advance!!!

[-Memnoch-]

On the server and the clients-
Establish your WINS and Gateway in the tcp/ip stack.

On the server-
Make sure the DNS and DHCP service are configured correctly.

What setting did you have configured before this failure?

How long have thses settings ben in place?

If everything looks as it should, Start looking at the Nic in the server of the hubs and switches. It could be a simple bad cable or loose plug.

IP conflicts can create this in smaller private networks as well.

If you could explain the configuration of the network prior to the issues at hand it might be helpful

[Aen]

Sorry about my non-descriptiveness I've been at it for about 10 hours. Ok well I do not have WINS setup, my gateway has been established, I'm using Static IP's(But I did notice on the one I was able to login on that it had autoIP's set from the OS) This configuration has been in place for about 10 month's and nothing has changed, no new software etc., I did have a problem about 3 weeks ago with the computer names not working(IE to map a drive, instead of using "\\Station1\share" I had to use the actual IP address. As far as the configuration of the network here goes: Ethernet running through the walls to a rack which connect to a 24 port AOPEN Switch, I have a primary domain controller and a secondary domain controller, active directory up and running, we've also got a ISDN router(and I use it's internal IP as our gateway) I have a list of all of my internal IP addresses so I know that there is no conflict. But even if there was I cannot gain access to the computers(not even locally) except for a one. On an even stranger note, I can login with a test account I made along time ago, but if I use MY admin account it tells me that the domain is unavailable, if you need me to give you any more info, please ask....I need serious help!! Thanks for you reply.

{{EDITED}}
Heres some helpful info. I can see the computers that are having this problem, in network neighborhood, form one of the computers that is having this problem, and I can ping them, but nothing else, also when I clicked on one of the computers in network neighborhood I got an error message saying "Cannot connect to this computer because no logon service is available".

[-Memnoch-]

If all the equipment checks out, no bad cables or switches, Then I go back to the server.

Sounds like something changed on the domain. Several different problems. Something traumatic happened to the server.

DNS isn't working properly since it is the only thing that can resolve machine names if WINS isn't running. I think this will end up being the root cause of all the issues.

It might also be a Netlogon issue. Best guess: The Administrator password was recently changed, and some of these critical services logged in as Administrator to start the service and now cannot. I have seen this happen a few times.

[Kdr Kane]

If your client can connect and it's IP address is 169.254.x.x (I'm inferring this from your AutoIP description), then your server has the same type of address? That's where your problem lies right now. As Memnoch stated, the issue lies at the server/ domain controller/ WINS level.

The bigger problem lies in that you have no DNS. I don't care if you're using Microsoft's DNS or any other. But, Windows 2000 Active Directory is founded on DNS, not WINS or broadcasts. You shouldn't even be using WINS if all of your clients are Windows 2000.

So, to make it clear, it's not a client problem under any way of looking at it. It's an infrastructure problem. The problem with your clients is that you don't have "firewall" IDs on your clients. You should have scripted something to allow you into the machines through a local administrative account via a backdoor. Or you should have used the same password for your local administrator account on each workstation.

Please don't bump threads. You will get as much help as is available.

[slugo3]

Like people have already said, I would suspect DNS problems.
Is anything coming up in the event log on the server?
another thing you might want to check is that you have enough licenses in license manager (or disable the service) I had a similar problem caused by this.