Browsing Network Neighbourhood

[Nick Whitworth]

Hi there,

I have setup RRAS on our Windows 2000 DC and have a Win98 user connecting
remotely using ADSL. The user can log onto the network and access the
Exchange server without any problems. However, the user cannot access
shares, map drives or browse network neighbourhood.

The Win98 VPN adapter is assigned IP address, DNS address and WINS address
by the DHCP server on the office network. I checked the WINS server and
found that the win98 client was not being added dynamically. I created a
static entry in WINS and the next time the client connected to the VPN, his
own machine appeared in network neighbourhood but none of the office
machines did. I can ping machines on the office network by IP and netbios
name ok.

The only problem I am having is accessing shared resources. Do I need to
install the active directory client on the win98 machine? Should the win98
machine be using share level or user level access? Any help would be much
appreciated.

Thanks,
Nick

 

[Bill Grant]

First up, it is not a great idea to install RRAS on a DC, especially if
it is the first/only DC (ie the PDC emulator). See MS KB 292822.

Browsing the LAN has nothing to do with AD, so installing the AD client
will not have any effect on that. Browsing depends on the NT-style computer
browser service. LAN broadcasts will not cross the VPN connection, so the
remote client will not be in the same browse list as the LAN machines.

It should be possible for the remote client to browse the LAN, but that
will depend on doing the fixes in 292822 to get your browser working
reliably.