John,
Thank you for your concise explanation. The MBR issue did cross my mind,
but I do NOT run the firewall on any of my XP machines. My w2k server also
does not use a sw firewall. I did try Online Armor last month on my
server, but, as a trial it was gutted/de-featured and did not show me much;
I removed it and scrubbed the registry. The only firewall here is the one
in the router.
I did notice this am that my GXP (XP) machine had a funny icon in the
systray. It looked like a TVset/Monitor with a hose/node at the bottom
with a short section of horizontal hose. I have never seen this icon
before. Perhaps, since my GXP is my oldest (1st) XP machine, IT thinks it
is (or it is!) the Master Browser. It is also curious now that when I open
the NetNeighborhood on GXP I see:
Add Network Place
GamerLounge Wireless 108G Gaming Router (**)
Network Setup Wizard
ReadyNAS Duo [nas0] (**)
Wireless Network Setup Wizard
Entire Network
(**) These two objects are NOT seen on any other XP machine's
NetNeighborhood view. The icon used for the ReadyNAS Duo IS the same "new"
icon I saw in the systray this am on GXP!
I begin to wonder if the upgrade of the NAS from RAIDiator v4.1.4 to
RAIDiator v4.1.5 is the culprit here? The update went off without a single
glitch though. I did not have to go into the NAS and fix anything in
FrontView............ Hmmmm?
Thank you very much. Gonna dig out BrowStat and do some peeking!
Best,
Duncan
At 07:32 04/21/2009 -0700, you wrote:
This has the look/feel of a computer browser problem usually caused
by just one machine on the network with a firewall. Even though the
browser service is running on every computer, only the one computer
serving as Browse Master really needs to have it running. This
Browse master maintains the list of computers on the network and
gives it to any machine that requests it when opening Network Places.
What happens when one computer has a firewall is that the firewall
blocks the NetBT broadcasts and it thinks that it is the only machine
on the network so it elects itself as Browse master. The firewall
effectively prevents it from finding out about other computers and
adding them to the list, so its list is empty except for itself. The
reason that it works for a few minutes after you power up is because
the computer that was really elected as the Master Browser starts up
and works for a while until the firewalled computer convinces the
real Master Browser that it really is not the browse master, causing
it to shut down.
The way I've been able to verify this is to use browstat to force a
browser election:
browstat elect <interface> <workgroup>
then, over the next minute or so, use browstat to view the network:
browstat view <interface> <workgroup>
Examine the view output and if you see more than one computer with
the Master Browser (MBR) status, then this is your problem. One of
these machines is your problem machine.
With only 5 machines, you could try getting a network to work
properly with only two computers and add computers one-by-one until
the problem resurfaces.
Another debug method would be to disable the browser service on all
but one computer (then add in additional ones in one-by-one until you
find the problem computer).
Keep in mind that when looking for firewalls, VPN Clients (such as
the Cisco VPN Client) often have a firewall built-in as well.
"Troubleshooting the Microsoft Computer Browser Service"
<http://support.microsoft.com/kb/188305>
--
JRS
[email protected]
Facts do not cease to exist just
because they are ignored.
________________________________
From: DHSinclair <[email protected]>
To: Hardware Group <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2009 7:16:01 AM
Subject: [H] Missing clients?
What causes winXPpro clients to disappear from the net neighborhood?
The only objects I still have are my printer, server (w2ksvr), and NAS.
This is the 2d time I've seen this happen.
It fixed itself the last time through no help from me IIRC!
Stumped I am.
Thanks,
Duncan
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