master browser error and ongoing connection problem

[Lenny]

Hi,
I have a draytek wireless router with 2 wireless PC's connected to it. Both
XP Pro. One with IE 7 and one with IE6. I seem to be loosing my internet
connection on the IE6 machine a little to regularly. I am still connected to
the router (or at least that is what the wireless connection icon is telling
me) and it has given me an IP address but I am unable to connect to it via
its 192. x address. Outlook is also not getting a connection.

I have checked in the Event Viewer but there is nothing that corresponds to
the same times. What I am getting a lot of on both computers is Event ID:
8003 with the following description.
The master browser has received a server announcement from the computer
OFFICE that believes that it is the master browser for the domain on
transport NetBT_Tcpip_{744E20D8-D392-495B-A1. The master browser is stopping
or an election is being forced.

Is this normal?

Cheers

Lenny

 

[R. McCarty]

On a peer-to-peer network one computer takes on the role of being
the Browse Master. You can manually change a Registry setting to
nominate one computer as the Browse Master. Doubtful this event is
the cause of the problem. If you only have two PCs, I'd just set each
to use a Static IP address instead of DHCP.

The Registry key for Domain Master is found at:
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Browser\Parameters
Keyname = IsDomainMaster
Set Value to True for one PC and False for all others. This will stop
elections from occurring.

 

[Lenny]

Thanks for the reply. What is the point of having a master browser? Apart
from stopping the elections from occurring are there any other reasons that
the other PC(s) should be set to False? Will this make any difference at all
if one of the computers is a laptop and it is used at various locations?

 

[R. McCarty]

It's one of the "Nuts-&-Bolts" inner-workings of XP. If you are
interested, Microsoft has a KB article that explain what it does in
a White Paper type format:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/188001
I only suggested the Registry Key value change as a way to stop
the Event log entries. You wouldn't always want the notebook to
try and assume the role as BM if it participates on other networks