Client can't find dc (host) with internal switch

Hope this post is in the correct location. Been stuck on this problem for way too long.
Can't join vm client to host dc domain with internal switch. I am connected to host with the internal switch, ping gets through. Also on guest vm ncpa.cpl it says "unidentified network" on the internal vNIC.

When entering domain name "meaning.fourtytwo" to join with "settings>accounts>access work or school>join a domain" wizard I get alert "the domain couldn't be found. check the domain name and try again" I tried just "meaning" out of desperation, and it asked me to enter credentials... then it shut down the vm. Restarted it and on boot it's not on domain. Found it confusing that it appeared to take "meaning" but not fqdn "meaning.fourtytwo" so i tried just "meaning" again, it asks for credentials... but this time doesn't reboot and just tells me domain can't be found.

Tried join through system properties. Again it can't find the actual domain name "meaning.fourtytwo" so I tried meaning again, though I don't know why that would work and the fqdn wouldn't. It asks for credentials again, then hangs forever til it pushes the alert "the specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted." -- this is the same kind of behavior with sys-properties wizard or the "change..." button, slight variations. End of the day I can't join the domain.
meaning.fourtytwo is the correct domain name.


Host (win server 2019 evaluation version 1809) internal NIC settings
IP: 192.168.1.41
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
everything else blank

Guest (win 10 enterprise evaluation version 1909) internal NIC settings
IP: 192.168.1.40
Subnet: 255.255.255.0
pref DNS: 192.168.1.41

guest ipconfig /all does show 192.168.1.41 as the only dns

I probably gave a bunch of detail you don't need and didn't give info you do need lol, but thanks in advance I'll provide whatever you ask for, plx halp i'm lost.

Check whether dns zone is configured & ad/dc records are registered. Or if it is too complex, install & use wins.
You can also use wireshark to capture network traffic.

Unless the server is running as a dns server dns isnt used it will just look on the local subnet can you enter DCs IP and see if that works is the switch managed with vlans?

I have roughly 0 idea as to why it decided to work all of a sudden. This is a problem I had since last night, so ofc I'd rebooted since then. The only difference is when I booted system back up today, after posting this thread and having lunch, I remembered to sign is as the admin user account I created, rather than default admin account.

Does being logged in as administrator on DC cause weird issues like that or was it probably something else?

Either way, works now.... but I didn't learn anything! lol

Does being logged in as administrator on DC cause weird issues...

User logon has no effect on AD services.

...or was it probably something else?

Probably dns service not running before restart for some reason, check event logs.