Problems logging on to a Windows 2000-based server or a Windows 2003-based server

When you try to log on to a Microsoft Windows 2000-based or a Microsoft Windows Server 2003-based domain, you may receive the following error message: Also, event ID 681 (account logon failure) and event ID 529 (unknown user name or bad password) may be logged in the Security log on the server.

You must restart your computer before a successful logon can occur.

This problem occurs because the Windows 2000-based server rejects your logon password when the client computer does not correctly de-allocate an internal structure that is used to track the logon session. The client attempts to reuse the expired encryption key that is passed to it by the server during the original logon.

This problem does not occur in conjunction with Microsoft Windows NT-based clients because the client does not attempt to use Distributed File System (DFS) because the session that is reused is against a DFS referral from the Windows 95-based or Windows 98-based client.

To work around this problem, perform the following steps:

• Restart the client.
• Start Winipcfg.exe and release the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) information and renew it.
• Open the share in Network Neighborhood.
• Use the net use command at a command prompt on the original Windows 2000-based server. - or -
  
  
• Click Start, click Run, and then type \\servername, where servername is the name of your server.

For additional information about how to control the local area network (LAN) Autodisconnect feature in Windows 2000, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

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