Computer Browser Problem, XP workstations taking over!

Running a Windows 2003 server Standard Edition SP1 on a domain with about 200
XP Pro workstations.

My XP Pro workstations seem to always win the browser election to become
master browser (seems like usually laptops). This creates a problem with
users try to browse the network. It forces us to use the full unc path, as
well as creates other problems.

This problem is described in a KB article 843517, but is supposed to be
resolved in SP1, which I'm running. As a result of me having SP1, Microsoft
will not issue the hotfix.

I run browstat from my server to see the list of transports currently bound
the browser, it doesn't list any, I figured it should.

I verified that computer browser service was started on my server, it was.

I looked in the registry on my server to key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\Browser\Parameters

I verified that IsDomainMaster is set to TRUE, MaintainServerList is YES,
and the ServiceDll points to %systemroot%\system32\browser.dll and I check to
verify that file was there.

Does anyone have a clue what's going on, because I sure don't.

Thanks a bunch!

SORRY I DOUBLE POSTED THIS MESSAGE, The first time I was trying to post it
said ERROR, try again later. Don't be confused, it's the same problem.

"Deryk" wrote:

> Running a Windows 2003 server Standard Edition SP1 on a domain with about 200
> XP Pro workstations.
>
> My XP Pro workstations seem to always win the browser election to become
> master browser (seems like usually laptops). This creates a problem with
> users try to browse the network. It forces us to use the full unc path, as
> well as creates other problems.
>
> This problem is described in a KB article 843517, but is supposed to be
> resolved in SP1, which I'm running. As a result of me having SP1, Microsoft
> will not issue the hotfix.
>
> I run browstat from my server to see the list of transports currently bound
> the browser, it doesn't list any, I figured it should.
>
> I verified that computer browser service was started on my server, it was.
>
> I looked in the registry on my server to key:
> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\Browser\Parameters
>
> I verified that IsDomainMaster is set to TRUE, MaintainServerList is YES,
> and the ServiceDll points to %systemroot%\system32\browser.dll and I check to
> verify that file was there.
>
> Does anyone have a clue what's going on, because I sure don't.
>
> Thanks a bunch!
>

In news:E1876704-8A7F-4752-AD39-(E-Mail Removed),
Deryk <(E-Mail Removed)> typed:
> SORRY I DOUBLE POSTED THIS MESSAGE, The first time I was trying to
> post it said ERROR, try again later. Don't be confused, it's the
> same problem.


See my reply to your earlier post.

You might want to consider using a news client, such as Forte Agent,
Thunderbird, or even Outlook Express, rather than the pretty clunky web
interface to the newsgroups. It's a lot easier to do nearly everything that
way. You can mark messages to be watched, filter the views so you can see
replies to your posts easily, and search. You'll also end up with far fewer
duplicate posts.

The Microsoft public news server is msnews.microsoft.com and you can
subscribe to as many groups as you like; no authentication is required.

Good Afternoon,


I had the same issue and installed Wins which took care of the problem,

Microsoft say's there is no need for wins since Dns and AD go hand in
hand...But i find that its not always the case.


Thanks

"Deryk" wrote:

> Running a Windows 2003 server Standard Edition SP1 on a domain with about 200
> XP Pro workstations.
>
> My XP Pro workstations seem to always win the browser election to become
> master browser (seems like usually laptops). This creates a problem with
> users try to browse the network. It forces us to use the full unc path, as
> well as creates other problems.
>
> This problem is described in a KB article 843517, but is supposed to be
> resolved in SP1, which I'm running. As a result of me having SP1, Microsoft
> will not issue the hotfix.
>
> I run browstat from my server to see the list of transports currently bound
> the browser, it doesn't list any, I figured it should.
>
> I verified that computer browser service was started on my server, it was.
>
> I looked in the registry on my server to key:
> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\Browser\Parameters
>
> I verified that IsDomainMaster is set to TRUE, MaintainServerList is YES,
> and the ServiceDll points to %systemroot%\system32\browser.dll and I check to
> verify that file was there.
>
> Does anyone have a clue what's going on, because I sure don't.
>
> Thanks a bunch!
>

Aloha Wade,

WINS is fairly low impact so I usually install that service on one server
in a network; especially if there is an Exchange server present.

-Ben-
Ben M. Schorr - MVP
Roland Schorr & Tower
http://www.rolandschorr.com
Microsoft OneNote FAQ: http://www.factplace.com/onenotefaq.htm

> Good Afternoon,
>
> I had the same issue and installed Wins which took care of the
> problem,
>
> Microsoft say's there is no need for wins since Dns and AD go hand in
> hand...But i find that its not always the case.
>
> Thanks
>
> "Deryk" wrote:
>
>> Running a Windows 2003 server Standard Edition SP1 on a domain with
>> about 200 XP Pro workstations.
>>
>> My XP Pro workstations seem to always win the browser election to
>> become master browser (seems like usually laptops). This creates a
>> problem with users try to browse the network. It forces us to use the
>> full unc path, as well as creates other problems.
>>
>> This problem is described in a KB article 843517, but is supposed to
>> be resolved in SP1, which I'm running. As a result of me having SP1,
>> Microsoft will not issue the hotfix.
>>
>> I run browstat from my server to see the list of transports currently
>> bound the browser, it doesn't list any, I figured it should.
>>
>> I verified that computer browser service was started on my server, it
>> was.
>>
>> I looked in the registry on my server to key:
>> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\Browser\Paramete
>> rs
>> I verified that IsDomainMaster is set to TRUE, MaintainServerList is
>> YES, and the ServiceDll points to %systemroot%\system32\browser.dll
>> and I check to verify that file was there.
>>
>> Does anyone have a clue what's going on, because I sure don't.
>>
>> Thanks a bunch!
>>

I'm running WINS on the server. However, there could be something wrong
with WINS. How would I know if there was?


"Ben M. Schorr - MVP" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) .com...
> Aloha Wade,
>
> WINS is fairly low impact so I usually install that service on one server
> in a network; especially if there is an Exchange server present.
>
> -Ben-
> Ben M. Schorr - MVP
> Roland Schorr & Tower
> http://www.rolandschorr.com
> Microsoft OneNote FAQ: http://www.factplace.com/onenotefaq.htm
>
>> Good Afternoon,
>>
>> I had the same issue and installed Wins which took care of the
>> problem,
>>
>> Microsoft say's there is no need for wins since Dns and AD go hand in
>> hand...But i find that its not always the case.
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> "Deryk" wrote:
>>
>>> Running a Windows 2003 server Standard Edition SP1 on a domain with
>>> about 200 XP Pro workstations.
>>>
>>> My XP Pro workstations seem to always win the browser election to
>>> become master browser (seems like usually laptops). This creates a
>>> problem with users try to browse the network. It forces us to use the
>>> full unc path, as well as creates other problems.
>>>
>>> This problem is described in a KB article 843517, but is supposed to
>>> be resolved in SP1, which I'm running. As a result of me having SP1,
>>> Microsoft will not issue the hotfix.
>>>
>>> I run browstat from my server to see the list of transports currently
>>> bound the browser, it doesn't list any, I figured it should.
>>>
>>> I verified that computer browser service was started on my server, it
>>> was.
>>>
>>> I looked in the registry on my server to key:
>>> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\Browser\Paramete
>>> rs
>>> I verified that IsDomainMaster is set to TRUE, MaintainServerList is
>>> YES, and the ServiceDll points to %systemroot%\system32\browser.dll
>>> and I check to verify that file was there.
>>>
>>> Does anyone have a clue what's going on, because I sure don't.
>>>
>>> Thanks a bunch!
>>>
>
>

You mentioned using GP to disable computer browsing service on workstations.
I've used GP several times before to configure things and distribute
software, but I'm not familiar with where this setting would be in GP. I
figured you're a whiz, which I'm not, and would know off the top of your
head. If you do, I would appreciate a bit more info of where in GP I would
do this.
Thanks!
"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"
<(E-Mail Removed) ahoo.com> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> In news:E1876704-8A7F-4752-AD39-(E-Mail Removed),
> Deryk <(E-Mail Removed)> typed:
>> SORRY I DOUBLE POSTED THIS MESSAGE, The first time I was trying to
>> post it said ERROR, try again later. Don't be confused, it's the
>> same problem.
>
>
> See my reply to your earlier post.
>
> You might want to consider using a news client, such as Forte Agent,
> Thunderbird, or even Outlook Express, rather than the pretty clunky web
> interface to the newsgroups. It's a lot easier to do nearly everything
> that way. You can mark messages to be watched, filter the views so you can
> see replies to your posts easily, and search. You'll also end up with far
> fewer duplicate posts.
>
> The Microsoft public news server is msnews.microsoft.com and you can
> subscribe to as many groups as you like; no authentication is required.
>
>
>

More Info: Sorry to be a pain, but I didn't set this server up, and thus
don't know everything about it. I got stuck dealing with it after the fact.

Under "Advanced" in tcp/ip properties the network adapter on this server is
assigned two different IP addresses. I don't know why this would be
necessary. Could I just delete one of the addresses? Would that even help?
Does having two IP addresses assigned to the same adapter on the server make
it multi-hommed even though it is a single adapter? I can see how that
might affect computer browser service. Also "enable LMHOSTS lookup" is
checked. Does that affect it?

I also find it interesting that when I run "browstat dumpnet" from the cmd
line on the server it doesn't show any transports currently bound to the
browser.


"Deryk" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:26F0241E-8D64-49D2-9648-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Running a Windows 2003 server Standard Edition SP1 on a domain with about
> 200
> XP Pro workstations.
>
> My XP Pro workstations seem to always win the browser election to become
> master browser (seems like usually laptops). This creates a problem with
> users try to browse the network. It forces us to use the full unc path, as
> well as creates other problems.
>
> This problem is described in a KB article 843517, but is supposed to be
> resolved in SP1, which I'm running. As a result of me having SP1,
> Microsoft
> will not issue the hotfix.
>
> I run browstat from my server to see the list of transports currently
> bound
> the browser, it doesn't list any, I figured it should.
>
> I verified that computer browser service was started on my server, it was.
>
> I looked in the registry on my server to key:
> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\Browser\Parameters
>
> I verified that IsDomainMaster is set to TRUE, MaintainServerList is YES,
> and the ServiceDll points to %systemroot%\system32\browser.dll and I check
> to
> verify that file was there.
>
> Does anyone have a clue what's going on, because I sure don't.
>
> Thanks a bunch!
>

Hey Deryk,

I would suggest that you remove the second ip if not needed, under wins tab
make sure that both PRIM and Secondary are set to the local machine. This is
assuming that the Wins server is local to the machine that your talking about.

Goto C:\WINDOWS\system32\wins and rename the j50.chk, winstmp.mdb and the
wins.mdb and restart the wins server. This will prompt for a new bowser
election.


Lets see what happens


"Deryk Hagey" wrote:

> More Info: Sorry to be a pain, but I didn't set this server up, and thus
> don't know everything about it. I got stuck dealing with it after the fact.
>
> Under "Advanced" in tcp/ip properties the network adapter on this server is
> assigned two different IP addresses. I don't know why this would be
> necessary. Could I just delete one of the addresses? Would that even help?
> Does having two IP addresses assigned to the same adapter on the server make
> it multi-hommed even though it is a single adapter? I can see how that
> might affect computer browser service. Also "enable LMHOSTS lookup" is
> checked. Does that affect it?
>
> I also find it interesting that when I run "browstat dumpnet" from the cmd
> line on the server it doesn't show any transports currently bound to the
> browser.
>
>
> "Deryk" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:26F0241E-8D64-49D2-9648-(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Running a Windows 2003 server Standard Edition SP1 on a domain with about
> > 200
> > XP Pro workstations.
> >
> > My XP Pro workstations seem to always win the browser election to become
> > master browser (seems like usually laptops). This creates a problem with
> > users try to browse the network. It forces us to use the full unc path, as
> > well as creates other problems.
> >
> > This problem is described in a KB article 843517, but is supposed to be
> > resolved in SP1, which I'm running. As a result of me having SP1,
> > Microsoft
> > will not issue the hotfix.
> >
> > I run browstat from my server to see the list of transports currently
> > bound
> > the browser, it doesn't list any, I figured it should.
> >
> > I verified that computer browser service was started on my server, it was.
> >
> > I looked in the registry on my server to key:
> > HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\Browser\Parameters
> >
> > I verified that IsDomainMaster is set to TRUE, MaintainServerList is YES,
> > and the ServiceDll points to %systemroot%\system32\browser.dll and I check
> > to
> > verify that file was there.
> >
> > Does anyone have a clue what's going on, because I sure don't.
> >
> > Thanks a bunch!
> >
>
>
>

In news:(E-Mail Removed),
Deryk Hagey <(E-Mail Removed)> typed:
> You mentioned using GP to disable computer browsing service on
> workstations. I've used GP several times before to configure things
> and distribute software, but I'm not familiar with where this setting
> would be in GP. I figured you're a whiz,

Heavens, no. That's why I lurk in the Group Policy group to learn stuff like
this.

> which I'm not, and would
> know off the top of your head.

" "

> If you do, I would appreciate a bit
> more info of where in GP I would do this.

It's in computer config \ windows settings \ system services.





> Thanks!
> "Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"
> <(E-Mail Removed) ahoo.com> wrote in
> message news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> In news:E1876704-8A7F-4752-AD39-(E-Mail Removed),
>> Deryk <(E-Mail Removed)> typed:
>>> SORRY I DOUBLE POSTED THIS MESSAGE, The first time I was trying to
>>> post it said ERROR, try again later. Don't be confused, it's the
>>> same problem.
>>
>>
>> See my reply to your earlier post.
>>
>> You might want to consider using a news client, such as Forte Agent,
>> Thunderbird, or even Outlook Express, rather than the pretty clunky
>> web interface to the newsgroups. It's a lot easier to do nearly
>> everything that way. You can mark messages to be watched, filter the
>> views so you can see replies to your posts easily, and search. You'll
>> also end up with far fewer duplicate posts.
>>
>> The Microsoft public news server is msnews.microsoft.com and you can
>> subscribe to as many groups as you like; no authentication is
>> required.