Connecting a Mac to an Active Directory domain

These are the steps you should follow in order to connect MacOSX to an existing active directory domain. I tried this using MacOSX Snow Leopard 10.6.2. The domain server is Windows Server 2003.

1. In the Mac, go to System Preferences -> Accounts
2. Click the lock icon to unlock it and enter the admin password to gain access to administrative settings.
3. Click "Login Options"
4. Under "Network Account Server", click "Join"
5. In the popup, click "Open Directory Utility" and make sure all the tick marks are checked.
6. In the "Server" field, enter the server name (without "\\" or anything) which is hosting the active directory service.
7. If it finds the server, it will ask you for the information shown below:
8. Make sure to use the client computer ID that your administrator has given.
9. Enter the correct details for the settings and click OK.

To login as a domain user, enter the user name in the usual domain\username format in the MacOSX login window.