Unable to bind MacBook Pro (running 10.6 - Snow Leopard ) to Windows Server 2003 domain

Question

Hi there, I've been working on this problem for a few hours now (and a few hours last Thursday) and don't feel I'm getting anywhere, so I'm reaching out for help....
My organisation has just purchased a new MacBook Pro, running Snow Leopard (OSX 10.6) and as a Technical Support Engineer I have been asked to configure it for an end user.
I am currently trying to join it to our corporate domain, which is a Windows Server 2003 domain operating at the Windows Server 2003 Native domain functional level.
The MacBook is configured to use DHCP, and has been assigned valid IP address, DNS servers etc by the DHCP server. It can resolve all names on our network, including the names of our domain controllers. When I use nslookup to resolve the name of the domain "my_domain.local" it returns a list of DC's on the domain, which would indicate to me that name resolution is working perfectly. It is using our primary DNS server, 'Ponus' to resolve these names - Ponus is also the Domain Controller in this site.
To attempt to join the MacBook to the domain I have created a computer account for it on the domain, in the Computers container. I have gone into System/Library/Core Services and run the Directory Utility.
In the directory Utility I have ticked Active Directory and clicked on it to edit. The 'Forest' field is greyed out and set to 'Automatic', in the 'Domain' field I have entered my_domain.local, which is the FQDN of my domain. I click Bind and when prompted enter my Domain Admin username and password (in the 'Create Computer Account in:' field it displays correctly as CN=Computers,DC=my_domain,DC=local.)
When I click OK I get the message: Invalid domain. An invalid Domain and Forest combination was specified. You should enter a fully qualified DNS name for the domain and forest (e.g., ads.company.com).
I have attempted writing the domain as my_domain.local, my_domain.local., MY_DOMAIN.LOCAL and MY_DOMAIN.LOCAL. but I get the same error each time. I have checked and rechecked DNS is resolving OK, and cannot see why it cannot find the Domain and Forest from the FQDN that I am entering. Even so I tried creating records in the hosts file on the MacBook to point to the main Domain Controller at this site (Ponus) but this didn't change anything.
I have seen a few people report the same issue online but the responses tend to fizzle out before anyone gets to the bottom of it. I have seen some indication that people with an understore (_) in their domain name, or with a .local domain name may experience issues with joining Mac hosts, however these details are very vague and if true there must be a workaround.
If anyone could help me with this I would greatly appreciate it, I'm running out of time to complete this work and have run out of things to try.
I have an inkling that this is due to the Mac for some reason not reading the SRV records for the DCs and LDAP in DNS, or to do with the Mac looking only at one SRV record (ie. there is one for a new DC that we haven't deployed yet), not being able to reach this and giving up, but I'm clutching at straws really with my limited knowledge of the Macs process for joining the domain.
Many many thanks,

Answer 1

Hi there,
A simple suggestion , please make sure both MacBook Pro clock and the server clock are the same meaning the hour/Min/ sec both should match. A least difference of 3 seconds is fine.
I had faced this problem in many place and only solution was to match the time and it will bind immediatly.