Master Browser elections forced - UDP broadcast forwarding

We have two customers that receiving forced master browser elections from
machines on different subnets. We are looking into why the HP Procurve is
forwarding the broadcasts when only DHCP relay is configured. One has said
that we could set the registry value for IsMasterBrowser to TRUE and Master
List to YES and the error messages on the PDC would go away. My question is
if we do this, what effect will it have on the clients?

"Sam" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:AB61AF74-B1A4-43F5-9B49-(E-Mail Removed)...
> We have two customers that receiving forced master browser elections from
> machines on different subnets.

No,..they are receiving "notifications" of elections,...not the same thing.
Every subnet has elections,...they happen all the time. They never go
outside the subnet. Every subnet has its own Subnet Master Browser which is
determined by the elections.

The Subnet Master Browsers then pass the information they gather to the
Domain Master Browser which will be the DC with the "PDC Role" (no such
thing as a PDC after NT4.0). The the Domain Master Browser compiles the
Browse List and sends it back to the Domain Master Browsers which are then
used by the machine in their particular subnet to populate the Network
Places Display.

>We are looking into why the HP Procurve is
> forwarding the broadcasts when only DHCP relay is configured.

It is not "forwarding broadcasts" and isn't supposed to be doing so,..and
that has nothing to do with any of this.

> that we could set the registry value for IsMasterBrowser to TRUE and
Master
> List to YES and the error messages on the PDC would go away.

No. That is just a "band-ade" to cover up a problem that isn't supposed to
happen in the first place. If you ever did have to really do that, then what
you are supposed to do is fix the cause,...which then prevents you from
having to do it in the first place.

> if we do this, what effect will it have on the clients?

Leave it all alone. I don't see anything wrong with what is happening. The
primary thing that causes problems with this stuff is running the Windows
Firewall when inside a private LAN which often gets in the way of NetBios
activity and screws it up. The Windows Firewall is for "home user"
situations where the machine is directly exposed to the Internet while
attached directly to a "modem". When on a LAN that already has a NAT
Firewall on the network's edge, the Windows Firewall should be disabled.

188305 - Troubleshooting the Microsoft Computer Browser Service
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;188305

--
Phillip Windell [MCP, MVP, CCNA]
www.wandtv.com

"Sam" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:
> We have two customers that receiving forced master browser elections from
> machines on different subnets. We are looking into why the HP Procurve is
> forwarding the broadcasts when only DHCP relay is configured. One has
> said
> that we could set the registry value for IsMasterBrowser to TRUE and
> Master
> List to YES and the error messages on the PDC would go away. My question
> is
> if we do this, what effect will it have on the clients?

By default the MaintainServerList setting is yes, this tells the machine to
participate
in the browse election when determining the SMB or segment master browser.
The
important tithing to remember is that there are three master browsers. The
DMB or
domain master browser maintains the list for it's domain. It's job is to
query all SMBs
to gain their list as well as query all other DMBs for their lists. The DMB
by default
is also the SMB for its local segment. The SMB is responsible for
maintaining the list
on it's local segment then passing on to the DMB in order to merge as well
as passing
the merged list back to all clients which request. The third browser is the
backup
master browser or BMB. The BMB is there in the event the SMB cannot be
contacted.

The IsMasterBrowser setting, by default, is always false even on the PDC
because of
it's criteria it doesn't need a setting of true. This setting doesn't
guarentee a machine
will become the SMB for it's segment but it will boost its changes of
becoming the SMB.

Find out if the HP Procurve has soime sort of NetBIOS helper application
which is
forwarding UDP packets. Next do a network capture and see if the 8005
errors are
going out from the local segment.