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A single machine on my network won't apply ANY policies because it cannot retrieve \\my.domain.net\SysVol\my.domain.net\Policies\{hash}\gpt.ini . The file is visible under \\controller.my.domain.net\SysVol\my.domain.net\Policies\{hash}\gpt.ini on this machine, but I can't see it under \my.domain.net\SysVol\
What could be causing this and how do I fix it?
\\my.domain.net\sysvol\ is the correct access point for group policy clients - stick it in an explorer window and see.
What errors are you seeing that indicate that it's not successfully applying policy?
Verify that the desired GPOs are linked to an object that the computer account is under, and that the computer is in the security filters for those GPOs.
Check rsop.msc to verify which policy the system's current settings are from; if any come from the Default Domain Policy or any other domain GPO, then you know that it's working; the event log should be a good source of troubleshooting information, too.
\\controller.my.domain.net because the file is readable on \\controller.my.domain.net but not \\my.domain.net.
Aug 16, 2011 at 18:59
In addition to what Shane stated in his answer (RSOP can show you what settings are being applied and by which GPO) it would be useful to run Group Policy Results from the GPMC to get more in depth GPO information, such as which polices are being denied (and why) as well as which policies are being applied (which can be determined with RSOP as Shane stated), user and computer group membership, the last time of policy application, errors related to policy application, and events related to Group Policy application.
Your domain \\my.domain.net\SysVol\ should point to one of your DCs. It sounds like you're having some kind of DNS issue from your single Mahcine.
From your problem machine: Try running through ipconfig /release and ipconfig /renew, make sure you don't have a static IP address for your DNS server. Then do an ipconfig /flushdns followed by an ipconfig /registerdns. Then try an nslookup from the machine to see what kind of results you get.
\\controller.my.domain.net. DNS is fine (as far as I know, how would I test it?) and this problem exists only on this one machine, of a network of about 70 boxes.ipconfig /flushdnsfollowed by anipconfig /registerdns. Then try annslookupfrom the machine.