NT problem

[elrey103]

I work for a bank, and another guy from a different bank that I talk to quit often called me about a password changing issue he's having. These are NT servers with 98 workstations (so I first told him to upgrade...haha). When a user has to change their password after it has expired because of time-outs, they type in the new password, and get a message that says they are unable to change the password for microsoft networking because you are unable to connect to the device.

Things I told him to try was to delete all the windows passwords (why they use windows passwords and networking passwords I'll never know) including those found in the win.ini file. I told him to try deleting all of his network protocols, ms networking, and all that jaz, then reboot and re-install them. I also told him to check permissions on the servers for these three users (he said it's been the last three in a row and probably the next person that had to do this would have it happen as well).

Any other suggestions you can think of?

[SDK]

This guy work for a bank and using Windows Nt and 98? And he's the admin of is system! WOW! I'm proud I have no money in this bank!

[elrey103]

Would you rather he had a different version of Windows (such as Windows 2000 Advanced Server) and XP workstations - or something all together different like LINUX?

[ol jeb]

unable to connect to the device

if he has 3 machines that are receiving this message, can he even see the DC or any other PC on the network?

btw- NT is fine as long as he has it properly patched and locked down, i would scrap the 98 boxes though and upgrade them to 2k or XP.

[elrey103]

He said they were on the domain properly, but my suggestion to him to delete all the network protocols and what not - and then re-add them would re-confirm that it was properly connected to the network.

[jeffs72]

Are all the machines on the same LAN? This error can occur when NT tries to change passwords over slow network links or through RAS.

[swarisd]

I'm not familiar with the "unable to connect to device" verbage in MS networking, but I am famiiiar with the "domain controller is unavailable" its been a while since I've seen these type messages.

Check to make sure WINS is functioning properly.
Try removing the machines from the domain and adding them back (as you have stated, it sounds more like the computer account for the domain is screwed)
Make sure there are no routers or vlans separating the workstations from the servers.
Last but not least, make sure the workstation network jack is functional.

[tekno]

forgive me if i missed something, but why would it ask the user to change the password if it timed-out? Shouldn't it prompt you to enter your password again and not to change it?


Start at the basics. Is there a link light on the NIC and hub/switch that it's plugged into? If yes, then is this machine able to ping either it's default gateway or the server it's trying to communicate with? If so, then try what the others suggested above.

maybe you've already done the above and now at the point where everything points to the account, but I wasn't sure.

just my $.02

[da'dodo]

NT asks you to set a new password once in a while so that if your password has been cracked, the attacker has only a limited time to use it. I pressume this is what he means.

[bballad]

I ran into this a while ago, if i remember the fix ocrrectly its a win98 not talking t othe domain controller issue, drop the machine from the domain and readdit, he may have to change the passwords for the users at a NT box....remember 98 wasn't built to be on an nt network that was what nt workstation is for, so it dosn't allways work correctly.