I was trying to get my Debian Linux machines authenticating to a Microsoft Active Directory. There are a few howtos on this subject, but I had to merge them together to get it to work in a nice way on my Debian machine.

Therefor I wrote this little howto, so it should be easier for Debian users to get their Linux box authenticated on a Windows Active Directory.

There are some steps you've to follow to get it to work. There are some variables in this text, where you have use your own names or IP's.

Well, let's start!

Last week, there was something wrong with the Service Pack 3 update on some Windows XP clients. The update for SP3 had one or more major bugs in it. I saw it happen on different architectures with different hardware.

Like we know from Windows, you have to guess what the problem is. And of course, it took a while before I got the real point.

The problem started when some Windows XP clients, at random, choose to freeze once in a while. But offcourse, the once in a while became more often.

First, I thought there were some problems on the network itself. Kind of strange, but you never know. After checking the Linux servers and clients it became clear that the network was doing fine. It was almost sure that it must have been a Windows issue.