Come across this error on occasion when joining a Linux server to a Windows domain using Samba/Winbind, has always been solvable using one of the two methods.

• Edit /etc/hosts and create a host entry for the main IP address of the server you’re attempting to join to a domain, localhost is configured by default.
• Specify the server name, instead of the domain.  For example if the domain is company.domain, use the full server name that is hosting the domain, i.e server.company.domain.  This can be specified in the join parameters:  net rpc join -S server.whatever.domain -U username