[thelist] OT: Windows 2000 Networking - Solved.

[David Mitchell]

Hi Ken,

Yes, I had tried that several times and it would actually hang explorer. 
I was not able to ping the machine in question by the ip address either. 
Basically the problem came down to this: The 2 Win2k Pro boxes on the 
network could not talk to eachother. They would show up in the Net 
'Hood, but trying to browse them would hang Explorer as well.

What  I did to get it working was:
1) shutdown all the machines on the network
2) unplug the router, plug it back in
3) start all machines up again.

Everything works fine. I still think that the Linksys had something to 
do with my woes, since I have had other strange networking issues since 
installing it (as is probably painfully evident, I am in no way a 
networking guru).

Thanks for all your insight, Ken, and thanks to everyone else who helped 
me out with this.

Cheers,

Dave



Ken Schaefer wrote:

>Hi,
>
>I've asked you a couple of times already, but can you do this please:
>
>\\192.168.0.1
>
>in the Explorer bar of machine (3), where the IP address is replaced with
>the one that's assigned to machine (4) below? I think you have a routing
>problem of some kind (something to do with the browse list broadcasts not
>being propogated perhaps, or announcements not being propogated), and then
>that's causing browse list maintenance problems...
>
>Because you don't have a domain model, you're not using DNS for name
>resolution. Instead, when a machine starts up (and it has NetBT bound to an
>adapter), it forces an election on the network (to elect a browse master).
>The browse master maintains a master list of shared resources on the
>network. The election also results in backup browsers, which receive a list
>of resources from the master browser. When you want to access a resource by
>name, your machine contacts a backup browser. You run into problems when:
>a) the election doesn't work properly (eg a machine might be running a
>firewall that stops it receiving incoming election broadcasts, and then
>appoints itself a master not realising that there are other masters on the
>network)
>b) the master browse list hasn't propogated to the rest of the backup
>browsers yet, and your machine contacts a backup browser that has an
>out-of-date list of resources.
>
>Using \\IP-Address-Here helps get around some of these problems by
>dispensing with name resolution.
>
>Alternatively (this is better, but requires a little more effort), using
>browstat.exe to determine what the browse list status is on all your
>machines. (I can email it to you offlist if required).
>
>(I assume that you can ping all the machines from each other - it's only
>accessing SMB or NetBT resources like file shares etc that's causing
>problems).
>
>Cheers
>Ken
>
>Microsoft MVP - Windows Server (IIS)
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>From: "David Mitchell" <dave at dbmdata.com>
>Subject: RE: [thelist] OT: Windows 2000 Networking
>
>
>: Here's the lowdown on the machines:
>:
>: 1) Windows 2000 server - sees all and can be seen by all
>: 2) Windows XP pro - see all and can be seen by all
>: 3) Windows 2000 pro - sees above 2, but can't see new machine (4)
>: 4) Windows 2000 pro (new machine) - sees (1) and (2) but can't see (3)
>:
>: All all using the same protocols and are members of the same workgroup.
>The
>: only anomaly I can think of is (3) is a laptop and is on a wireless
>: connection. My router is set up to serve DHCP. Maybe this could be the
>: factor?
>:
>:
>:
>:
>: -----Original Message-----
>: From: thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org
>: [mailto:thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org]On Behalf Of Michael Pemberton
>: Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2003 11:20 PM
>: To: thelist at lists.evolt.org
>: Subject: Re: [thelist] OT: Windows 2000 Networking
>:
>:
>: Can you give a bit more info about the various setups?  eg.  OS on laptop
>vs
>: OS on other PCs.
>:
>: <warning src="memory" alt="may be a bit rusty" />
>:
>: On many win9x machines, TCP/IP is not installed by default and they use
>: NetBEUI.  The reverse is the case in Win2k/XP setups.
>:
>: Since ping is based on TCP/IP, this may explain the problem with not being
>: able to ping the machine.
>:
>: Try using NBTSTAT.EXE to test rather than ping.  This can sometimes work
>: better between various network setups.
>:
>: ---
>: Michael Pemberton
>: evolt at mpember.net.au
>:
>: David Mitchell <dave at dbmdata.com> wrote:
>:
>: > Hey All,
>: >
>: > Have a really annoying problem here trying to add a new PC to my network
>: > at home. Here's the problem. I have 4 computers all connected to a
>: > LinkSys router sharing my cable connection. I just added a new computer
>: > tonite running W2k Pro. All the computers can see eachohter except for
>: > the laptop I am typing this email on. This laptop can see all the
>: > existing computers on the network except for the new one,  and all the
>: > other computers can see the new PC except for this laptop. I can also
>: > see the laptop from the computer that I can't see from the laptop, if
>: > you know what I mean. Any ideas? I'm sure you'll need more info, so if
>: > you do please let me know.
>: >
>: > Thanks in advance,
>: >
>: > Dave
>
>  
>