I cannot add a BDC over a WAN.

A. To add a BDC to a domain, the PDC has to be contactable. Therefore the first task is to check that communications are working.

If you are using TCP/IP then ensure you can PING the PDC,

ping <ip address of the PDC>

If this is OK then the problem is at the NetBIOS level. If you have WINS on the network ensure the BDC is configured to use the WINS server as when the PDC starts it will register the WINS name <domain><1Bh> which is used to identify the domain controller.

Alternatively the LMHOSTS file can be updated.

1. Start Notepad
2. Open the file <systemroot>\system32\drivers\etc\lmhosts
3. Add a line with the following syntax
   <IP address> <machine name> #PRE #DOM:<domain name>
4. Save the file

To use the lmhosts file during installation you should create the file on another machine and copy it over when the BDC is being installed.

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