Browse List Inconsistent

We have a Windows 2000 Native Active Directory domain that is having
intermittent browsing problems. Browsing communication (for lack of the
right term) is critical because Veritas Backup Exec uses it to communicate
between our backup server and our Exchange 2000 Server during Mailbox
backups. We find (estimate) that our browse list (net view) drops to a small
fraction of the total PCs at least once an hour, alternately displaying all
the PCs properly. On our master browser (PDC), single NIC, we don't even see
it's own presence in the list.

We've run nbtstat, netdiag but don't see problems at those times when the
list displays properly.

Please offer suggestions...

Thank you,

Bob Biegon

"Bob Biegon" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:A57E3B71-F332-48B7-BF1D-(E-Mail Removed)...
> We have a Windows 2000 Native Active Directory domain that is having
> intermittent browsing problems.

Native or other domain modes are irrelevant.

> Browsing communication (for lack of the
> right term) is critical because Veritas Backup Exec uses it to communicate
> between our backup server and our Exchange 2000 Server during Mailbox
> backups. We find (estimate) that our browse list (net view) drops to a
small
> fraction of the total PCs at least once an hour, alternately displaying
all
> the PCs properly. On our master browser (PDC), single NIC, we don't even
see
> it's own presence in the list.

It's almost certainly a NetBIOS problem as you seem
to have surmised.

Do you have multiple subnets? If so it is most likely a
WINS server configuration problem.

Either failure to replicate the WINS servers if you have
more than one or perhaps (maybe most likely) failure
to list the correct WINS server address on EVERY CLIENT
NIC -- this includes the DC and other "server" NICs.

> We've run nbtstat, netdiag but don't see problems at those times when the
> list displays properly.

BrowStat from support tools might be more useful.

Thanks for the quick reply, Herb.

Browstat indicates that our Browse Master is the same server (FL-SRV01) as
run from all of the servers in our LAN. Running NBTSTAT -n on FL-SRV01 shows
the 1b entry associated with our domain name, not the PDC -- is this proper?
WINS Server is a consistent DHCP option in all of our subnets -- I didn't
check to see if any PCs have a fixed ip yet (but it's on my list). We do
have 9 subnets in our WAN.

Bob

"Herb Martin" wrote:

> "Bob Biegon" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:A57E3B71-F332-48B7-BF1D-(E-Mail Removed)...
> > We have a Windows 2000 Native Active Directory domain that is having
> > intermittent browsing problems.
>
> Native or other domain modes are irrelevant.
>
> > Browsing communication (for lack of the
> > right term) is critical because Veritas Backup Exec uses it to communicate
> > between our backup server and our Exchange 2000 Server during Mailbox
> > backups. We find (estimate) that our browse list (net view) drops to a
> small
> > fraction of the total PCs at least once an hour, alternately displaying
> all
> > the PCs properly. On our master browser (PDC), single NIC, we don't even
> see
> > it's own presence in the list.
>
> It's almost certainly a NetBIOS problem as you seem
> to have surmised.
>
> Do you have multiple subnets? If so it is most likely a
> WINS server configuration problem.
>
> Either failure to replicate the WINS servers if you have
> more than one or perhaps (maybe most likely) failure
> to list the correct WINS server address on EVERY CLIENT
> NIC -- this includes the DC and other "server" NICs.
>
> > We've run nbtstat, netdiag but don't see problems at those times when the
> > list displays properly.
>
> BrowStat from support tools might be more useful.
>
>
>
>

"Bob Biegon" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:8C0C3DA4-B949-4550-AEC1-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Thanks for the quick reply, Herb.
>
> Browstat indicates that our Browse Master is the same server (FL-SRV01) as
> run from all of the servers in our LAN.

The misconception above (or our misunderstanding)
is that there is NOT "one Master Browser" but one
PER SUBNET, PER DOMAIN.


> Running NBTSTAT -n on FL-SRV01 shows
> the 1b entry associated with our domain name, not the PDC -- is this
proper?

For the Master Browser of a subnet it sounds fine, but
for the DOMAIN Master Browser it is always the
PDC Emulator (or similar.)

> WINS Server is a consistent DHCP option in all of our subnets -- I didn't
> check to see if any PCs have a fixed ip yet (but it's on my list).

Fixed IPs need it too -- and this is ESPECIALLY true
of Servers since they are more likely to become Master
Browser AND they are more likely to be needed by
other computers. (Name resolution etc.)

Chances are you PDC Emulator is NOT a WINS Client,
which it needs to be.



> We do have 9 subnets in our WAN.

Then you have a practical need for WINS Server.

"Bob Biegon" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:B3358DCB-A07C-4721-A52E-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Herb:
>
> Thank you so much for your focus and detail attention to my post.

You are very welcome.

> Despite
> not being onsite at this client, I believe we're well on the way to
resolving
> their browsing problem.

Let us know if you need more help.