Browsing problems

I have one 2003 server, out of many, which is not showing up in the
browse list. Our domain has a working browser infrastructure, as
browsing works on 10+ other servers, and has been fine for over a year.
Yet this single server refuses to announce itself.

The short is that I ran ethereal on this server for over two hours, and
it never once made an announcement over udp 138.

This is the only server we've installed 2003 sp1 on.

The long:

A brief review of

- two domain controllers in a root forest domain (2003 SE)
- two domain controllers in a domain under that forest (one is 2003 SE,
one is 2003 EE)
- two servers acting as DNS/WINS/DHCP (both are 2003 SE)
- two ISA 2004 servers (both are 2003 SE)
- one server acting as a print server (2003 SE)
- one server acting as an SMS server (2003 SE)
- one server acting as a WUS server (2003 SE)
- one server acting as an Ex2003 server (2003 EE)
- and more than I am going to list here

All in all, we have about three EE servers - Exchange 2003; our master
file server, so that we may run multiple DFS roots (this is the problem
server, btw); our domain master, for CA/PKI. The rest are SE.

ALL these servers are win2003, connect to the same switch, are on the
same physical and logical subnet, and they all appear in the browse
list. No firewall is in the way.

Just one server is not showing up, which just so happens to be the only
server running sp1. This machine is not appearing in the browse list,
nor does it make UDP announcements. Using browstat, I can "force" it to
appear in the browse list, but at some point in time, it drops out.

We've tried a number of things - a new network card; editing the reg
with various parameters under the Browser service (MaintainServerList,
IsDomainMaster); plugging the machine into a different switch port;
verifying NetBIOS over TCP; and others. Pings, netview, nbtstat, all the
standard tools work as expect. I could post the results of browcon, but
all that tells me is that there is no WINS entry "1b", which is not true.

A call to Microsoft tells us to reinstall Windows 2003, so I'm hoping
someone here might have some real-world solutions.

---
Bill D'Augustine
County of Morris
bdaugustine at co dot morris dot nj dot us

"Bill D'Augustine" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:
> I have one 2003 server, out of many, which is not showing up in the
> browse list. Our domain has a working browser infrastructure, as
> browsing works on 10+ other servers, and has been fine for over a year.
> Yet this single server refuses to announce itself.
>
> The short is that I ran ethereal on this server for over two hours, and
> it never once made an announcement over udp 138.
>
> This is the only server we've installed 2003 sp1 on.
>
> The long:
>
> A brief review of
>
> - two domain controllers in a root forest domain (2003 SE)
> - two domain controllers in a domain under that forest (one is 2003 SE,
> one is 2003 EE)
> - two servers acting as DNS/WINS/DHCP (both are 2003 SE)
> - two ISA 2004 servers (both are 2003 SE)
> - one server acting as a print server (2003 SE)
> - one server acting as an SMS server (2003 SE)
> - one server acting as a WUS server (2003 SE)
> - one server acting as an Ex2003 server (2003 EE)
> - and more than I am going to list here
>
> All in all, we have about three EE servers - Exchange 2003; our master
> file server, so that we may run multiple DFS roots (this is the problem
> server, btw); our domain master, for CA/PKI. The rest are SE.
>
> ALL these servers are win2003, connect to the same switch, are on the
> same physical and logical subnet, and they all appear in the browse
> list. No firewall is in the way.
>
> Just one server is not showing up, which just so happens to be the only
> server running sp1. This machine is not appearing in the browse list,
> nor does it make UDP announcements. Using browstat, I can "force" it to
> appear in the browse list, but at some point in time, it drops out.
>
> We've tried a number of things - a new network card; editing the reg
> with various parameters under the Browser service (MaintainServerList,
> IsDomainMaster); plugging the machine into a different switch port;
> verifying NetBIOS over TCP; and others. Pings, netview, nbtstat, all the
> standard tools work as expect. I could post the results of browcon, but
> all that tells me is that there is no WINS entry "1b", which is not true.
>
> A call to Microsoft tells us to reinstall Windows 2003, so I'm hoping
> someone here might have some real-world solutions.

Why do you say it's not true? Perhaps that particular machine is unable
to resolve the 1b entry in order to find the DMB or domain master browser.
Have you check connectivity between the problem server and the PDC
emulator (holder of the 1b entry / domain master browser [DMB])?
Attempt to map a share on the DMB from the problem server. It is
possible the problem machine can't find a master browser so it is
attempting to maintain the list on it's own.

Michael Giorgio - MS MVP wrote:

>
> Why do you say it's not true? Perhaps that particular machine is unable
> to resolve the 1b entry in order to find the DMB or domain master browser.
> Have you check connectivity between the problem server and the PDC
> emulator (holder of the 1b entry / domain master browser [DMB])?
> Attempt to map a share on the DMB from the problem server. It is
> possible the problem machine can't find a master browser so it is
> attempting to maintain the list on it's own.
>
>

admcdomain[1b] = 192.168.90.101, which is admcmaster.

admcfile = 192.168.90.105, problem machine

From the problem machine:

C:\>net view
Server Name Remark

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\\ADMCBES
\\ADMCDNS1
\\ADMCDNS2
\\ADMCMAIL
\\ADMCMASTER
\\ADMCPRINT
\\ADMCPROXY1
\\ADMCPROXY2
[ deleted for brevity ]
The command completed successfully.

The problem machine should appear between DNS2 and ADMCMAIL. Well, it
normally does if I "force" it using browstat.

Same machine:

C:\>net use * \\admcmaster\c$
Drive Y: is now connected to \\admcmaster\c$.

The command completed successfully.

"Bill D'Augustine" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:
> Michael Giorgio - MS MVP wrote:
>
> >
> > Why do you say it's not true? Perhaps that particular machine is unable
> > to resolve the 1b entry in order to find the DMB or domain master
browser.
> > Have you check connectivity between the problem server and the PDC
> > emulator (holder of the 1b entry / domain master browser [DMB])?
> > Attempt to map a share on the DMB from the problem server. It is
> > possible the problem machine can't find a master browser so it is
> > attempting to maintain the list on it's own.
> >
> >
>
> admcdomain[1b] = 192.168.90.101, which is admcmaster.
>
> admcfile = 192.168.90.105, problem machine
>
> From the problem machine:
>
> C:\>net view
> Server Name Remark
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
> \\ADMCBES
> \\ADMCDNS1
> \\ADMCDNS2
> \\ADMCMAIL
> \\ADMCMASTER
> \\ADMCPRINT
> \\ADMCPROXY1
> \\ADMCPROXY2
> [ deleted for brevity ]
> The command completed successfully.
>
> The problem machine should appear between DNS2 and ADMCMAIL. Well, it
> normally does if I "force" it using browstat.
>
> Same machine:
>
> C:\>net use * \\admcmaster\c$
> Drive Y: is now connected to \\admcmaster\c$.
>
> The command completed successfully.

Good. Now run net view against the missing machine. Do
you get a response?