On Mon, 30 Nov 2015 13:18:37 -0500, Wolf K wrote:

On 2015-11-30 12:34, Char Jackson wrote:
On Sun, 29 Nov 2015 16:10:22 -0500, "(PeteCresswell)" wrote:

Per Char Jackson:
I saw a similar issue a few years ago that might be related. If your issue
is like mine, "master browser" and "election" could be good search keywords.

https://www.google.com/search?q=master+browser+election

Got it.

System Properties | Computer Name/Domain Changes....

"Workgroup" had defaulted back to "WORKGROUP" when, in fact, my LAN's
workgroup is named "303".

Changed from "WORKGROUP" to "303", rebooted, and the problem had gone
away...... Which is really good because all that Election stuff flew
right over my head... -)

Cool, thanks for reporting back with your success. I never consider the
workgroup angle because I don't use them here. Instead, I use direct IP
access to see my various shares, making workgroup names irrelevant.

Workgroup etc are logical networks. The LAN is merely the physical
carrier of the signals between the devices that constitute the network.
The devices have to "know" that they are part of a network and how to
communicate with each other. That's why having a LAN isn't enough to
make a network.

You might be oversimplifying things there. A LAN is enough to make a
network. Networking devices 'know' they are part of a network by applying
their network mask to their IP address. Discovery (and the resulting
capability to browse for other hosts) isn't a requirement.

This thread and one on a related NG are both about problems that are
caused by the distinction between the physical and logical networks. In
both cases, an OS update broke the logical connections. We really should
have two words, one for the physical connections between devices, and
one for the system created when two or more devices talk to each other.

Or, we could use the OSI model. ;-)