BROWSTAT status

[Guest]

Hi,

I have a problem on my network, where I cannot browse the network using My
Network places. The network consists of 2 Windows 2000 domain controllers, a
few Windows 2003 member servers, about 70 XP and 2000 client PC's and 10
Mac's.

I have run "BROWSTAT status" on the domain controllers, and I get the
following:

Browsing is NOT active on the domain
Master name cannot be determined from GetAdapterStatus

The Computer Browser service is started and running on the two domain
controllers. Ive also checked all client PC's to make sure the firewall is
disabled.

Any ideas on how to fix this?

Thanks in Advance,

Will

 

[Kurt]

It's not an XP firewall issue, browsing works by default with the firewall
enabled. Are you using DHCP? maybe the node type is set wrong. I think
you'll find that many of us find NetBIOS over TCP/IP to be unreliable. Since
you have "2 Windows 2000 domain controllers, a few Windows 2003 member
servers", why not just install WINS on one or two of them. Browsing problems
solved.

....kurt

 

[Guest]

Hi,

Thanks for your response.

Ive now fixed this issue, so ill post how I did this incase anyone esle has
the same problem:

I have a NetPilot firewall (www.netpilot.com) on the network. In the admin
pages, there is an option to 'Set master options'. I unticked the option to
'Be domain master', and also changed the workgroup the firewall was in to
something different to my domain.

This worked! If I now run Browstat status it shows the master server, and I
can browse the network by Network places.

It seems the Netpilot firewall was trying to become the Master browser - no
idea why it would want to!!

Cheers,

Will