Problem with Wins server

[paul]

I have a problem with my wins server, it is an isolated
wins on a windows 2000 network ie I have no replication
partners. I am stuck where to go from here I have not
noticed any impact on the network but we have a high
percentage of legacy win98 machines on the network. Any
help would be appriciated.

If I view the wins server locally on machine where
installed it says responding but if drill down name I get
a red cross and the message "Cannot find the wins server.
The wins server you specified cannot be located. The WINS
server might be down, there might be network problems, or
the WINS service might not be installed". All the action
options are greyed out down to all tasks.

I checked the service was running and any services listed
as WINS depends on. So I restarted the wins service, but
the problem persisted. I checked the remote registry
service KB 287727 was running. There are no wins related
errors in the system or application event logs but the
error eventID 3034 Source MRxSmb occurs if I stop and
start the WINS service. So I checked the
UserAccountControl as KB 826902, if I run DCdiag it
generates no errors and I can browse the server shares.

When I viewed the WINS server remotely from an admin PC,
the server was showing as responding, under the name it
showed as green but would not let me view active
registrations. I decided to restore from the backup
directory so stopped wins, deleted the files in the wins
directory, fired up the mcc, "the restore from backup" was
still greyed but the status was updating. After this no
change locally but also red remotely. So I restored from
backup tape which was two days old. Now I can view records
remotely but still not locally and the records are
incomplete.

TIA
Paul

 

[Marina Roos]

Do you have any 3rd party programs like Backup and Antivirus loaded on that
server, and which programs are they?
How many nics in the server?

 

[Paul]

I have only one nic on the server, the backup exec remote
agent is loaded v8.6 but it is not a media server and
inoculateIT v6 is running.

Regards
Paul

 

[Steven Liu]

Hi Paul,

First, please make sure the WINS server is pointed to itself as the WINS
server also.

If you have installed the hotfix described in the artivle 828297, it may
cause the issue. Please contact PSS to obtain hotfix of 832258.

828297 Memory Leak in Lsass.exe
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=828297

832258 "Cannot Find the WINS Server" Error Message After You Install the
Hotfix
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=832258

We can also refer to the article to solve the problem.

268749 WINS Does Not Function Without File and Printer Sharing Enabled
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=268749

And, the FireDaemon NTWRK32 service also may cause the problem. If you have
installed the application, please remove it.

Thanks for using Microsoft News Group!

Sincerely,

Steven Liu [MSFT]

Microsoft Online Partner Support

MCSE 2000

Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security

This posting is provided "as is" with no warranties and confers no rights.

 

[paul]

Hi Steven,

Thanks for the reply. I am not sure when I last checked
the WINS server locally as I usually check remotely so it
is difficult to pinpoint what may have changed since it
was last working. However, it was definitely working in
December and it points to itself and File and print
sharing is enabled.

I haven't installed either hotfix 828297 or firedaemon on
the server, I think I did go into the WINS configuration
last week in which case I haven't installed anything new
since it was last working.

Everytime I open WINS locally there is a corresponding
entry in the system event log, eventID 3034 Source
MRxSmb "The redirector was unable to initialize security
context or query context attributes". If I view remotely
everything appears to be fine the records are updating ok.
I have tried login on locally using the same account and
get the same errors.

Regards
Paul

 

[Steven Liu]

Hi Paul,

If your computer cannot connect to a resource on the network, you may see
one or more warnings in the System event log with event ID 3034 and a
source of MRxSmb (MRxSmb is the Server Message Block, or SMB,
mini-redirector in Windows 2000, with secure SMB capabilities). The
description for the event is:

The redirector was unable to initialize security context or query context
attributes.

On the WINS server, let's do the following steps.

1. Refer the following article to backup the WINS batabase

244810 Restoring a Windows 2000 WINS Database from Other Backup Sources
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=244810

2. Remove the WINS service

3. Reinstall the WINS service

4. Restore the WINS database as the steps described in the above article

5. Make sure the WINS server has point to itself as the WINS server address
in the TCP/IP properties

Try to see whether the problem still occurs.

Thanks for using Microsoft News Group!

Sincerely,

Steven Liu [MSFT]

Microsoft Online Partner Support

MCSE 2000

Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security

This posting is provided "as is" with no warranties and confers no rights.

 

[paul]

Hi Steven

Unfortunately, I continue to have a problem with the Wins
service. I stopped the service but was unable to back up
as these options are greyed out, it performs a backup on
shut down. Removed the service, reinstalled, checked to
see if the restore option avaiable but it was still greyed
out. However, the service was restarting and it has picked
up the options from registry. It is still showing the red
cross locally but accessible remotely and all options are
greyed out locally. I repeated the process this time
deleting all files in the wins directory but get same
result except records have been lost and will update
tomorrow morning.

Regards
Paul

 

[Steven Liu]

Hi Paul,

Go to the command prompt and check for admin shares. Do a NET SHARE and if
the ADMIN$ & IPC$ are there. If not, scan for a virus and then add them
back. (run the "net share IPC$" and "net share admin$")

If this does not work, do the following steps.

1. Run regedt32 go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurePipeServers\winreg
2. Check perms against a working system. If any permission is missed, add
it manually
3. You may also want to check permissions on and register the following if
the above fails to work.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\CurrentControlSet\Services\WINS
4. Ran "REGSVR32.EXE C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\WINSSNAP.DLL"

Thanks for using Microsoft News Group!

Sincerely,

Steven Liu [MSFT]

Microsoft Online Partner Support

MCSE 2000

Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security

This posting is provided "as is" with no warranties and confers no rights.

 

[Paul]

Hi Steven

Thanks for the help but I am still getting the problem

The shares were there, no sign of a virus. The server is
given a full scan each night and is clean.

The permissions for shared pipe seem ok. The permissions
for WINS were all the same except security which had just
administrators and authenticated users. This was more
restrictive than in dhcp and dns where permissions were
inheritted from the parent, I allowed this on the security
tree but still not working. Registered the dll. Also tried
loading wins admin from mmc.exe but same problem.

Obviously I would like to know why it is not working but
if I can't get the Wins admin to work on this server, what
would be the best way to transfer the role to another
server. Most clients are shut down at night so the
information is updated the next day, WINS is being used
for legacy clients but most users use network neighborhood
to find shares. The WINS server ip address is issued by
DHCP. Should I the update the servers with a new WINS
address, change the DHCP entry, remove WINS from original
server and install on a different server. I would do this
after the majority of clients had shut down.

Many Thanks for the help
Paul

 

[Steven Liu]

Hi Paul,

We can refer to the article to backup the WINS database from the server and
restore it to another WINS database.

244810 Restoring a Windows 2000 WINS Database from Other Backup Sources
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=244810

We can test whehter this works.

Note: you should modify the DHCP settings to assign the new WINS server IP
address to the clients.

Thanks for using Microsoft News Group!

Sincerely,

Steven Liu [MSFT]

Microsoft Online Partner Support

MCSE 2000

Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security

This posting is provided "as is" with no warranties and confers no rights.