Computer Browser Service keeps stopping

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

I have a small home network (workgroup set up through a home router). I need
the service to be able to connect from one machine to the other. I have one
machine on which the service keeps stopping by itself. It is set for
Automatic - but can stop in the middle of a session or after logging off and
back on.
 
Well, you do not need the browser service in order to be able to connect to
another computer. You need the browser service in order to browse, but you
only need it on one computer in the workgroup. Probably, the browser
service failure is merely a symptom of the real problem. What happens if
you run:

net stop server
net start server

Doug Sherman
MCSE, MCSA, MCP+I, MVP
 
This did not help. If it makes any difference, I had checked the workstation
and server services and they both were running.

The computer I'm having the problem with is the one with the printer
attached that I want to share. Also, I will want to browse for files as
well. I have it running most of the time and use my laptop on and off. I
don't want to have to reboot this machine to get it to use the laptop's
browser service after starting it up.

Additional info:
I'm running XP Pro, SP2; M$ firewall service is not running and though I
have Northon Internet Security installed, Personal Firewall, Intrusion
Detection, Privacy Control and Parental Control have been disabled, to no
help.
 
Well, if the browser service were disabled on the desktop, and enabled on
the laptop, then when the laptop started up it would become the master
browser and the desktop would announce its shared resources - no reboot
would be required unless there is something else wrong here..

Also, the default recovery option for a service is Take No Action. You can
change this to Restart in the Services applet. What happens if you run net
start browser? What errors appear in Event View when the service stops?
Does the service fail only when the laptop is on the network - if so this
may be related to an election - what happens if you disable the service on
the laptop? When the service fails on the desktop, can you still share
files - ie. what happens if on the laptop you run \\IPaddressofDesktop ?

Doug Sherman
MCSE, MCSA, MCP+I, MVP
 
RESOLVED

What it appears to have been was that I didn't have the Windows Firewall/ICS
service running. Once I invoked that, the browser service was started and
remained running. Thanks for your help.
 
Back
Top