It appears that this {still strange 2me} glitch seems to be fixed.
My WinXP clients have NOW re-populated their NetNeighborhood views with
everybody else that are currently alive/hot.
And, following a re-boot of my W2K server, its' NetNeighborhood window also
shows everybody else that are currently alive/hot.
I freely accept a 'Master Browser' issue. Not clearly found yet, but am
using BrowStat to focus in on the matrix as it is now. I always ASSUMMED
that my Server would/should be the 'Master Browser.'
It seems that my poor Server (W2K) is now outnumbered by 6 XP clients that
seem to 'feel' otherwise...... LOL!
I do so love a network challenge........mystery........whatever!
For the moment, all seems to be OK. Yes, I did 2 things in the recent past
that may have caused this:
1. Changed my chosen/in-use IP series from 192.168.x.x to 10.0.0.x.
2. Updated the f/w of my NAS (RAIDiator v4.1.5).
Shame on me.........Ben was right! But, the LAN 'feels' better
now................. :)
I will come back to the list later with some questions about WINS
Server.......... :)
Thanks,
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
__________ NOD32 4024 (20090421) Information __________
This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus system.
http://www.eset.com
