Neil
Mon Jun 20 13:38:10 CDT 2005
did you hear "Briscobar" <youcant@sendmespam.com> say in
news:uO0ExLbdFHA.3864@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl:
>
> Also, he (I'm talking to you, OP!) can edit this registry key
>
> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Browser\Parameters
> \IsDo mainMasterBrowser (Or IsDomainMaster) on a bunch of machines to
> make them NOT become Master Browsers. This will never solve the issue,
> but it will make it rear its ugly head less frequently, I imagine.
>
> Also,
> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Browser\Parameters
> \Main tainServerList is worth looking at as well. It's not very
> intuitive (to me, anyway) what the difference is between these two reg
> keys. TechNet might be able to help with that more than I can. I'm
> just a stupid poo poo head.
>
from
http://www.interex.org/pubcontent/enterprise/sep01/ntqa0901b.jsp:
"Specifying Browser Computers
When you start a computer running Windows 2000, the browser service looks
in the registry for the entry MaintainServerList to determine whether a
computer will become a browser. MaintainServerList is found in the
following registry subkey:
\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services
\Browser\Parameters
Possible values for MaintainServerList are as follows:
Value: No
This value prevents the computer from participating as a browser.
Value: Yes [Default]
This value makes the computer a browser. Upon startup, the computer
attempts to contact the master browser to get a current browse list. If
the master browser cannot be found, the server will force a browser
election. The computer will either be elected master browser or become a
backup browser. This value is the default on a computer running Windows
2000 Server and Windows NT Server.
Value: Auto
This value makes the computer a potential browser. It might become a
browser, depending on the number of currently active browsers. The master
browser notifies this computer whether or not it is to become a backup
browser. This value is the default for computers running Windows 2000
Professional and Windows NT Workstation.
On any computer with the value of MaintainServerList set to Yes or Auto,
the browser service starts when the computer is booted.
When experiencing continual or intermittent problems with browser
functionality, you may want to dedicate computers to the browsing process
on each network subnet to maintain a consistent domain-wide list. When
the browser service is started on the preferred master browser, the
browser service forces an election. Preferred master browsers are given
priority in elections, which means the preferred master browser always
wins the election if no other condition prevents it. This gives an
administrator the ability to configure a specific computer as the master
browser.
The subkey IsDomainMaster, helps determine which servers become master
browsers and backup browsers. Setting the value of IsDomainMaster to True
gives the server preference during elections in becoming the master
browser for the network subnet. Any computer running Windows 2000 or
Windows NT can be configured as a preferred master browser. If servers
are frequently shut down and restarted, consider placing a BDC or a
Windows NT member server on each network subnet with the value of the
IsDomainMaster entry in the computer's registry set to True. To specify a
computer as the preferred master browser, set the value of the
IsDomainMaster entry to True. This entry (data type Reg_SZ) appears in
the following registry subkey:
\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services
\Browser\Parameters
Unless the computer is configured as the preferred master browser, the
value of the IsDomainMaster entry is always set to False or No. There is
no user interface for making these changes; the registry must be modified
using a registry editor (Regedt32.exe or Regedit.exe).
The browser service is very sensitive to the configuration of routers on
an IP intranet. Since the browser roles are determined by broadcast
elections, UDP broadcasts must not be forwarded. Unpredictable behavior
can occur if UDP broadcast traffic is forwarded in one direction but not
the other. This can cause a continuous cycle of elections.
In Windows 2000 an additional registry entry can be added to change how
often a browser announces itself. This can be accomplished by adding the
registry entry called Announce with a value that has the REG_DWORD data
type. Set the value of the Announce entry to the number of seconds that
the browser should wait between announcements. The Announce registry
entry can be added to the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\
lanmanserver\parameters
For example, if the value of the Announce entry is set to 720 (default),
the announcement interval is 12 minutes. Before the new value can be used
by all computers, the value of the Announce entry must be changed on all
computers in the workgroup. As you decrease this value, announcement
traffic increases. Increasing the value of Announce reduces the amount of
announcement traffic, but it increases the length of time that an
unavailable computer appears on the browse list.
You can monitor the master and backup browsers within a workgroup or
domain with the command-line tool Browstat.exe. In addition to gathering
information on browser functionality, Browstat.exe has the ability to
force an election and the ability to force a master browser to stop so
that an election occurs."
and to weigh in with my 2¥, yes it is likely a browser issue. If there is
any chance that the systems (Domain controllers and workstations) are on
separate segments, have at least one machine (prefereably 2) that do not
get turned off set as master browsers in each segment (the
MaintainServerList YES). A second to act as the Backup Browser should
also be set. (in truth the Master browser sends requests to backup
browsers so that the master browser can maintain the list of servers).
Additionally the workstations will only appear if they are sharing
something (if you have file and print sharing enabled and the Server
Service started).
--
Neil MCNGP#30
- Never start a project until you've picked out someone to blame.