User May Be Authenticated by Wrong Domain

When you log on to a Windows 2000 domain, you may receive either or both of the following error messages:

• Logon Denied--The password is incorrect. Please retype your password. Letters in passwords must be typed using the correct case. Make sure that Caps Lock key is not accidentally on.
  The Local policy of this system does not permit you to log on interactively.

This behavior can occur if two domain controllers are promoted using Dcpromo.exe with identical domain names, and both domain controllers are installed as the first domain controller for the specified domain.

You cannot reliably configure two separate domains with the same name. Because both domains register with DNS, there is no way to control which name is resolved to the client.

Two resolve this issue, use either of the following methods:

• Remove one of the domains with the identical name.
• Using Dcpromo.exe, demote all the domain controllers in the second domain, then use Dcpromo.exe to promote these computers to be domain controllers in the original domain.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.