220-1102 Question 384
Single answerActive DirectoryA technician joins a new Windows 11 workstation to the company domain and asks the user to sign in with their domain account for the first time. The user receives a message that the username or password is incorrect, but the same credentials work on another domain-joined PC. The technician confirms the new workstation has internet access but cannot open shared folders on the file server by hostname. Which action should the technician take FIRST to resolve the issue?
- A
Configure the workstation to use the organization's internal DNS server instead of a public DNS server
- B
Reset the user's password in Active Directory Users and Computers
- C
Remove the computer from the domain and rejoin it using a local administrator account
- D
Disable the Windows Defender Firewall profile for the domain network
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
In an Active Directory environment, clients should use the organization's internal DNS servers, typically hosted on domain controllers or integrated with AD DNS, so they can locate services such as domain controllers through SRV records. A workstation configured with a public DNS server may still browse the internet but will often fail to authenticate properly to the domain, locate file servers by hostname, or apply Group Policy consistently. This is a common real-world issue after imaging or manually configuring a PC. Microsoft best practices for Active Directory emphasize proper DNS configuration as a foundational requirement for domain logon and resource access.
- A. Correct.
Correct. Active Directory relies heavily on DNS for locating domain controllers and other domain services. If the workstation is using a public DNS server instead of the organization's internal AD-integrated DNS server, it may have internet access but still fail to locate domain resources such as domain controllers and file servers by hostname. This would explain why the user can authenticate on another domain-joined PC but not on the newly joined workstation.
- B. Incorrect.
Incorrect. The user's password is unlikely to be the problem because the same credentials work on another domain-joined computer. Resetting the password would not address the workstation's inability to find domain services and could create unnecessary disruption for the user.
- C. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Rejoining the domain can fix trust relationship or computer account issues in some cases, but it is not the first step here. The more immediate clue is that the workstation cannot access shared folders by hostname, which strongly suggests a name resolution or DNS configuration problem rather than a broken domain join.
- D. Incorrect.
Incorrect. The Windows Defender Firewall can affect some network communication, but disabling the domain firewall is not an appropriate first troubleshooting step and is not the most likely cause based on the symptoms. Inability to reach domain resources by hostname after joining a domain more commonly points to incorrect DNS settings.