"browstat status" appears to fix my network places missing compute

I've being having the same or similar problems as many others, namely when
using My Network Places it fails with a no server list error when attempting
to access "this computer" or any others for that matter. It happens whether
or not my XP (SR2) PC is alone or not on the network. My other PCs (both
Win98) however never exhibit the problem.

However, I have discovered that if I run "browstat status" prior to trying
to access the resources using 'my network places' it works everytime. At
least until now I have had 100% success with it. I also only appear to need
to run it once ie at startup.

Can anybody explain why this should resolve the issue, given a restart of
the browser service has no impact and niether has anything else I've tried.