Importing an LMHOSTS File During Windows NT 4.0 Setup

Last reviewed: February 19, 1998
Article ID: Q156425

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 4.0
Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0

SUMMARY

As with Windows NT 3.x, an LMHOSTS file can be imported during installation to enable a computer running Windows NT Workstation 4.0 or Windows NT Server 4.0 to join a domain across a router when WINS is not available to facilitate name resolution. The TCP/IP configuration options presented during setup depend on whether DHCP client support is selected on the client.

MORE INFORMATION

If the TCP/IP protocol is selected in the "Installing Windows NT Networking" phase of Windows NT Setup, the user is prompted with the question:

   If there is a DHCP server on your network, TCP/IP can be configured to
   dynamically provide an IP address. If you are not sure, ask your System
   Administrator. Do you wish to use DHCP? Yes/No.

If the YES option is selected, the TCP/IP configuration dialog is bypassed, along with the ability to configure the following:

Import an LMHOSTS file.

For more information, see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge base:

      ARTICLE-ID: Q101927
      TITLE     : The LHMOSTS File for TCP/IP in Windows NT

      ARTICLE-ID: Q180094
      TITLE     : How to Write an LMHOSTS File for Domain Validation

      ARTICLE-ID: Q180099
      TITLE     : Troubleshooting LMHOSTS Name Resolution Issues

Manually specify WINS server address (useful if you want multiple domain controllers to register with the same WINS server).
Enable TCP/IP routing.
Define DNS address and domain name.

The TCP/IP configuration information can be configured with DHCP enabled by clicking the "Back" button two times from the following dialogue box:

   Windows NT is now ready to start the network so that you can complete
   the installation of networking. Click Next to start the network. Click
   Back to stop the network if it is running.

Click the Back button two times to go back to the TCP/IP Properties screen. Here, you can choose to import the LMHOSTS file.

Unlike previous versions of Windows NT, the LMHOSTS file can be accessed from any locally available device (floppy disk drive, hard disk drive, CD-ROM drive) during setup instead of the root directory of a:\.

NOTE: After the LMHOSTS file has been imported and networking has been initialized, it cannot be reimported. Even though it is possible to back up and tell the installation process to reimport LMHOSTS, it will not be written to the cache. If the wrong LMHOSTS file is imported (for whatever reason) the installation will have to be restarted from the very beginning. There is also no way to remotely purge and reload the cache.

Keywords          : ntsetup NTSrvWkst kbsetup
Version           : WinNT:4.0
Platform          : winnt
Issue type        : kbinfo

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Last reviewed: February 19, 1998
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