Steve said:
Client: Windows XP 2002 SP1
Server: NT 4.0
In Windows explorer, I am seeing a partial list of
machines in the domain. I have TCP/IP installed and can
ping the names of those machines not appearing in the
list.
Any ideas what could be wrong?
TIA,
Steve
What you are describing is a browsing problem.
Loads of things could be causing it.
There is not an easy answer.
It's not necessary for browsing to function correctly to
have otherwise normal network functionality, like ping machines,
or explicitly map network drives by machine name, or IP address.
Browsing is an arcane and troublesome process.
Troubleshooting it is equally arcane and troublesome.
Browsing depends totally on NetBIOS, Broadcasts,
and NetBIOS name resolution.
Big Number One: ensure there's no firewall on the LAN connection.
Misconfigured f/walls are the number 1 reason for NetBIOS
based things to fall over.
Browsing works best on a single network segment, with each machine having
one network card, with only one network protocol (like TCP/IP.)
The browse list is maintained per-subnet ( initially );
per-protocol; per-interface.
(A protocol on an adapter is called a browser end-point )
Browsing behaves in a difficult manner if you have any of these:
1) Multilple network cards;
2) Multilple protocols;
3) Multiple subnets.
If you want browsing to work across subnets ( routers ), then you need:
1) A domain ( to set up a "1B" Domain Master Browser; )
2) A common WINS database across subnets, so the DMB can find
Segment Master Browsers for the remote subnets.
( you can mess around with LMHOSTS as a
substitute for (2), but I don't reccomend it
So to troubleshoot your browsing problem , we'd need to know:
1) Is there anything in common amongst the missing machines?
Like OS, network location, etc.
2) Any protocols other that TCP/IP?
3) And multi-homed machines?
( >1 network card )
4) Are the machines seperated by routers?
5) Are there WINS severs?
Describe the network layout a little more.
