Get a list of available domains (NT4 and Active Directory)

Question

Does anyone know (in c#) a way of getting the available NT4 domains (a bit like the WinXP login box dropdown)?

I know that this is fairly easy for Active Directory using the DirectoryServices namespace, but I can't find anything for the old NT4 domains. I'd rather not use API calls if at all possible (that might be asking a bit much however).

Also, for bonus points (!), we are finally switching to Active Directory later on this autumn, so how would I construct a way of my domain list automatically switching over from NT4 to AD, when we migrate (so I don't need to recompile and re-release)

Answer 1

Unfortunately I think your only option is to use the ADSI API. You can switch between NT4 and Active Directory by changing providers in your code. NT4 uses the WinNT provider and Active Directory uses the LDAP provider.

If you query the RootDSE node of whichever provider you are using, that should return naming contexts to which you can bind, including domains. RootDSE is an LDAP schema specific identifier. For WinNT you can query the root object as "WinNT:" to get available domains.

ADSI is available through VB script BTW.