samba - Nov 2011 - Can't find domain (but domain logins for joined WS and roaming profile works! ; -/ !

I'm trying to join a 2nd workstation to my domain -- but it can't find 
the domain
name.

It's a Win7 machine (same as 1st)...all settings are the same and
wireshark shows the problem is the DC is claiming it can't find
the domain name (that it is the DC for!?)...  um...

Lets see:
 > wbinfo --all-domains
BUILTIN
BLISS
 wbinfo --own-domain
BLISS
 wbinfo --verbose -D Bliss
Name              : BLISS
Alt_Name          :
SID               : S-1-5-21-33333-77777-33333
Active Directory  : No
Native            : No
Primary           : Yes
 > wbinfo --ping-dc
checking the NETLOGON dc connection succeeded

Looks ok so far...and don't know what is really causing the problem, but
the next output didn't look right:

 > wbinfo --dsgetdcname=Bliss
ISHTAR
\\ISHTAR
2
00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
BLISS
(null)
0x00000000
(null)
(null)


Is that supposed to be that way???  How do I fix/repair it?

Tnx....

(just noticed the tdb_file lib on the perl CPAN archive is very outdated.,
and tdbtool is a very awkward way to make repairs, though I've used
it successfully.  Once.  Are there any better tools for tdb editing? and
better...ones that have samba specific labels??? ;-)....*sigh*...maybe
there's an easier way.