Cannot browse network on sec. domaincontroller

[news.microsoft.com]

Hi There,

Sometime's I cannot browse the network on my secondary domaincontroller..
and sometimes i can .The server is also a sec.dnsserver for the domain and
has it forwarder set to server 1 ..

When i cant browse i get this error in event viewer:
The browser service has failed to retrieve the backup list too many times on
transport \Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{F9B18C29-C608-45E2-8BD7-DFECE18AFBCE}. The
backup browser is stoppin


Then when i use browstat status I see this :

Status for domain xxxxxx on transport
\Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{F9B18C29-C608-45E2
8BD7-DFECE18AFBCE}
Browsing is active on domain.
Master browser name is: WIN2KSRVR-01
Master browser is running build 2195
1 backup servers retrieved from master WIN2KSRVR-01
\\WIN2KSRVR-01
There are 0 servers in domain xxxx on transport \Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{F9
18C29-C608-45E2-8BD7-DFECE18AFBCE}
There are 0 domains in domain xxxxx on transport \Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{F9
18C29-C608-45E2-8BD7-DFECE18AFBCE}

But when i can browse the network i get this :

Status for domain xxxx transport \Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{F9B18C29-C608-45E2-
8BD7-DFECE18AFBCE}
Browsing is active on domain.
Master browser name is: WIN2KSRVR-01
Master browser is running build 2195
2 backup servers retrieved from master WIN2KSRVR-01
\\WIN2KSRVR-01
\\WIN2KSRVR-02
There are 11 servers in domain xxxx on transport \Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{F9
B18C29-C608-45E2-8BD7-DFECE18AFBCE}
There are 1 domains in domain xxxxxx on transport
\Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{F9B
18C29-C608-45E2-8BD7-DFECE18AFBCE}

Someone knows why i sometimes cannot browse the network and that i get the
error event ?
Hope someone can help me out.. I also have this on some windows 2000 client
computers.

thx
Perry

 

[Raven]

Here is the short answer. Don't use the browser.

Here is the long answer. In any Windows 2000 network, the will be an
election process called a browser election. The browser election can occur
when ever any windows based computer cannot find a browser. This include
even Windows for Workgroups, 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, or 2003.

Now when there is a broswer election, there is a list of who or what can
when the broswer election. To make matter worse, there are three types of
Broswers, Domain Master Broswer, Master Browser, and Backup Browser.

Any machine can start a broswer election. And who can what is based on:

1. What operation system. 2003 beats 2000. XP will be 2000 Pro. 98
beats 95. Etc.

2. What services are running. Is the server a Domain controller. Does it
have Wins installed, is it a global catalog, etc.

3. Only a server running as the PDC emulator will be the Domain Master
browser. If you have not moved you PDC emulator from you first Domain
Controller in 2000.

4. Any Domain controller will become the Master Browser.

5. The Master Broswer decides which machines are Backup Browser.

As for clients, when you Browse the network. You computer first first
contacts the Master Browser. The Master Browser then sends you to a backup
broswer. However, if the Backup Browser does not exist, you get a great
empty browse list.

Then you have to wait for Master Browser to realize there there is a
problem and then it will no longer use the dead backup browser. As for how
the list get populated, The Domain Master browser shares it machine list,
and not share list with out domain Master Browsers in other domains. If
you only have on Domain the Domain Master Broswer is useless.

The Master Browser listens on the network for Netbios broadcasts of
computer names. When it hears one, it adds it to the list. This is why if
you have a routed network, you will usually only see machines your local
network.

The Master Browser will pass their list of machines and share names to
backup browsers.

No to make matter even worse, when ever a computer can't take to a browser,
it will force an election. ALL current browsers lose their list of
computers and share names and the who process starts over. So you end up
with a browse list that grows as time goes on.

The bottomline is browse the network is broken. In fact at some point
Microsoft will disable it all together. Since it showed up in OS/2 with
Lan Server and Lan Manager, it has never worked right. So don't use it
unless you half to.




Things you can do to make sure life is easier for you.

Make sure you have at least three servers. Two configured as domain
controllers.

Run Wins on three servers and configure all servers and clients to use
these servers as wins servers.

And before you ask, "What a minute Windows 2000 doesn't need wins.."

Windows used Netbios names for the browse list, so wins would help. Every
single network I've had problems with browsing, I've fixed by adding wins.

Make sure that all of your domain controlers are configured to be global
catalogs.

Modify the registry on all client computers to disable their ablility to
participate in browser elections. ismasterbrowser = false.

These things should help.