Windows Browse Master?

Okay as a followup to my question about Windows' unreliable networking.
It was pretty much concluded that this is a result of the randomness of
which machine picks up the browse master baton and runs with it. The
solutions were to setup a domain controller on one of the machines, or
setup a Linux box with Samba and all of this unreliability will go away.
Assuming neither of those are feasible at this point in time, then what
can I do to make sure a specific machine becomes browse master? Let's
say a machine that I don't want to be the browse master has already
picked up that baton, how do I make it give it up? And how do I manually
make the other machine pick it up?

Yousuf Khan


Yousuf Khan

On Tue, 29 Nov 2005 17:00:13 -0500, Yousuf Khan <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Okay as a followup to my question about Windows' unreliable networking.
>It was pretty much concluded that this is a result of the randomness of
>which machine picks up the browse master baton and runs with it. The
>solutions were to setup a domain controller on one of the machines, or
>setup a Linux box with Samba and all of this unreliability will go away.
>Assuming neither of those are feasible at this point in time, then what
>can I do to make sure a specific machine becomes browse master? Let's
>say a machine that I don't want to be the browse master has already
>picked up that baton, how do I make it give it up? And how do I manually
>make the other machine pick it up?
>
> Yousuf Khan


Stop/permanently disable the browser service on the system(s) you don't want
to run for election, then restart the browser service on one of the systems
you do want to be browse master, and make sure the service is set to start on
those nodes.

"Yousuf Khan" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed).. .
> Okay as a followup to my question about Windows' unreliable networking.
> It was pretty much concluded that this is a result of the randomness of
> which machine picks up the browse master baton and runs with it. The
> solutions were to setup a domain controller on one of the machines, or
> setup a Linux box with Samba and all of this unreliability will go away.
> Assuming neither of those are feasible at this point in time, then what
> can I do to make sure a specific machine becomes browse master? Let's
> say a machine that I don't want to be the browse master has already
> picked up that baton, how do I make it give it up? And how do I manually
> make the other machine pick it up?
>

Isn't that the problem? IOW, if this could be readily solved, wouldn't MS
have done so? The answer is a domain controller! The problem w/ a strictly
"peer" based network such as Windows workgroups is, well..., EVERYONE IS A
PEER! There is no centralized domain controller, which would naturally lend
itself to be the "master browser" since it runs 24/7. Trying to establish a
master browser on Windows workgroups is a contradiction, peer based clients
come and go, the machine is turned off for long periods, then on for
extended periods, laptops come and go, and well..., who's to say ANY of
these should be the master. What you're asking for is some sort of "quasi
master browser", which when it goes offline, uses some algorithm to make
some other PC the master browser. I suppose such a thing could be
concocted, but the reason you won't see it from MS is that they have the
solution already, a domain controller (as you can see, the problem and
solution is circular).

One thing I've done is to make my desktop a 24/7 machine, thus I rarely have
these "I can't see the other PCs on my network" problems. I suppose I could
fix up the registry to FORCE it to be the master, but running 24/7 seems to
have circumvented problems w/o taking this measure. But IMO, you're
fighting a losing battle here. Windows workgroup networking is
fundamentally flawed in this regard. Perhaps one solution (workaround)
would be to make one machine a WINS server, and configure all clients to use
it. It still requires a 24/7 machine to service WINS, but it's a little
more straightforward than mucking w/ the registry.

Bottomline is, in a peer based network, there is no master browser, or
master ANYTHING, by definition. And no matter what you do, trying to make
it behave like a client/server network (ala 24/7 domains) is problematic.
If this feature is absolutely critical to you, then either a) move to a
domain, b) keep a PC up 24/7 w/ either a WINS server or registry change to
force it to be the master browser, or c) define a HOST/LMHOSTS files shared
by all clients w/ these names defined. Personally, I find the browser
facility of little use. As long as I can UNC names w/ IP addresses (and my
network is small enough that I know their IP addresses), I can still reach
any client. Works for me.

Jim


> Yousuf Khan

The reason that I'm a little hesitant to setup a domain controller at
home is because I don't want it to interfere with whatever domain
configurations are already setup on a specific machine that is
connected to either the workplace network or the home network.

Yousuf khan

YKhan wrote:

> The reason that I'm a little hesitant to setup a domain controller at
> home is because I don't want it to interfere with whatever domain
> configurations are already setup on a specific machine that is
> connected to either the workplace network or the home network.
>
> Yousuf khan
>
Follow the other guy's suggestion and lock one machine as browse
master. Either way, you'll need to have one machine up whenever
any of them are in use. It might as well be the browse master
as the domain controller.

--
The e-mail address in our reply-to line is reversed in an attempt to
minimize spam. Our true address is of the form che...@prodigy.net.

daytripper wrote:
> Stop/permanently disable the browser service on the system(s) you don't want
> to run for election, then restart the browser service on one of the systems
> you do want to be browse master, and make sure the service is set to start on
> those nodes.

What is the name of that service anyways? I looked it up on the Google,
and it seems to me it's called "Service.exe", is that right? It seems
like that could do other things besides just browse master services?

Yousuf Khan

"Computer Browser"

Jim


"Yousuf Khan" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:qzskf.6905$(E-Mail Removed).. .
> daytripper wrote:
> > Stop/permanently disable the browser service on the system(s) you don't
want
> > to run for election, then restart the browser service on one of the
systems
> > you do want to be browse master, and make sure the service is set to
start on
> > those nodes.
>
> What is the name of that service anyways? I looked it up on the Google,
> and it seems to me it's called "Service.exe", is that right? It seems
> like that could do other things besides just browse master services?
>
> Yousuf Khan

On Sat, 03 Dec 2005 21:32:50 -0500, Yousuf Khan <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>daytripper wrote:
>> Stop/permanently disable the browser service on the system(s) you don't want
>> to run for election, then restart the browser service on one of the systems
>> you do want to be browse master, and make sure the service is set to start on
>> those nodes.
>
>What is the name of that service anyways? I looked it up on the Google,
>and it seems to me it's called "Service.exe", is that right? It seems
>like that could do other things besides just browse master services?
>
> Yousuf Khan

From an XP Pro system Services applet:
Service name is Browser
Display name is Computer Browser
Path to executable is C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe -k netsvcs