I cannot get my Win7 laptop to connect to a server.

I am trying to connect my Win7 laptop to a new server system.  I can pull  up the server in my browser.  Work on the server.  But when I try to change Win7 to a Domain and enter the domain name ( either full name or NetBIOS name) I get a "...path not found." error. Or this error: "The error was: "No records found for given DNS query." (error code 0x0000251D DNS_INFO_NO_RECORDS)"  Can anyone provide some insight into this one??  I can connect from several other Win XP computers.
  The new server is running Windows Server 2012.  I have an administrator account on the server.  Any help???

  And I am having this problem with THREE Win7 machines.  All the same.