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I'm using the sysinternals AD Explorer quite frequently to search and inspect an Active Directory without any big problems.

But now i'd like to connect not only to a single AD Server. Instead i like to inspect the global catalog.

If i enter within the AD Explorer connect dialog only the dns name of the machine (e.g. dns.to.domain.controller) that is serving the global catalog i only receive the concrete domain for which it is responsible, but not the whole forest (that's normal behaviour and expected by me).

If i'm going to add the default port number (3268) for the global catalog in the form dns.to.domain.controller:3268 AD Explorer will simply crash without any further message.

The global catalog itself works as expected under the given name and port number, cause our apache server use exactly this address and port number to authenticate some users.

  • So any hints or tips to access the global catalog out of AD Explorer?
  • Or there are any other nice tools like AD Explorer out there that doesn't have any problems to access the global catalog?
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Just write in the IP-Adress without the port. ADExplore won't crash and list the Active Directory.

Alternative you can use the JXplorer. There you can add a specific port.

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If i simply connect to the server without specifing the port i only get the catalog for the domain the server is responsible for, but i don't see any entries for the other domains that are listed in the global catalog of that server. –  Oliver Aug 10 '11 at 10:00
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