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Workgroup Issue
I have a client that has been having an ongoing network issue that I cannot
figure out. They have 6 XP pro boxes configured in a workgroup environment. These computers will work fine for a few days or sometimes weeks and then one day they will start their day and the netowrk will be working fine. Then all of a sudden one of the users will open "My Network Places" and literally watch all the listed items disappear one by one (normally they have 10 or so items in the list) until all are gone. As the day progresses they typically will have this happen on all their machines, but not always. They have a network hardware firewall/router in place and up to date Antivirus (Norton) and Antispyware (Counterspy) in place. There is no indication anywhere of infections. Solutions tried: 1) Verified all have the same Workgroup name 2) Verified all have different computer names 3) Verified we are using simple file sharing 4) Ping by IP address to different machines generally works 5) I attempted the fixes mention in KB 811259 entitled "How to determine and recover from Winsock2 corruption" 6) Saw another KB that referenced changing a key from 0 to 1 and verified that registry key was set appropriately on all machines. 7) Checked wiring One thing that has tended to work to resolve the problem on one machine at a time is to do the following: 1) Change the workgroup name to something random. 2) Goto the Nethood folder in the users directory under Documents and Settings and delete anything in there. 3) Reboot 4) Change the workgroup name back to the original 5) Reboot 6) Wait 4-5 minutes for Network Neighborhood to refind the computers This work around is tiring and I need to find the cause and solution to this. Any help would be appreciated. Chris |
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#2
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Workgroup Issue
In article ,
Acupro Tech wrote: I have a client that has been having an ongoing network issue that I cannot figure out. They have 6 XP pro boxes configured in a workgroup environment. These computers will work fine for a few days or sometimes weeks and then one day they will start their day and the netowrk will be working fine. Then all of a sudden one of the users will open "My Network Places" and literally watch all the listed items disappear one by one (normally they have 10 or so items in the list) until all are gone. As the day progresses they typically will have this happen on all their machines, but not always. They have a network hardware firewall/router in place and up to date Antivirus (Norton) and Antispyware (Counterspy) in place. There is no indication anywhere of infections. Solutions tried: 1) Verified all have the same Workgroup name 2) Verified all have different computer names 3) Verified we are using simple file sharing 4) Ping by IP address to different machines generally works 5) I attempted the fixes mention in KB 811259 entitled "How to determine and recover from Winsock2 corruption" 6) Saw another KB that referenced changing a key from 0 to 1 and verified that registry key was set appropriately on all machines. 7) Checked wiring One thing that has tended to work to resolve the problem on one machine at a time is to do the following: 1) Change the workgroup name to something random. 2) Goto the Nethood folder in the users directory under Documents and Settings and delete anything in there. 3) Reboot 4) Change the workgroup name back to the original 5) Reboot 6) Wait 4-5 minutes for Network Neighborhood to refind the computers This work around is tiring and I need to find the cause and solution to this. Any help would be appreciated. Chris As you can see from reading this news group, lots of people have similar problems. In my opinion, network browsing through My Network Places is inherently unreliable, and I recommend not using it. You can spend a lot of time troubleshooting it, but I don't think it's worth the effort. To access another computer directly, without using My Network Places, type the other computer's name in the Start Run box in this format: \\computer To access a shared folder directly, type the computer name and the folder's share name in the Start Run box in this format: \\computer\share You can create a desktop shortcut to another computer or shared folder by specifying the location of the item as: \\computer or \\computer\share You can even create a desktop shortcut to the workgroup: 1. Open My Network Places. 2. Click "View workgroup computers". 3. Press the Backspace key. 4. Drag/drop the workgroup to the desktop. -- Best Wishes, Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking) Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group for everyone to see. I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions addressed directly to me in E-mail or news groups. Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program http://mvp.support.microsoft.com |
#3
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Workgroup Issue
On Mon, 13 Aug 2007 11:26:02 -0700, Acupro Tech
wrote: I have a client that has been having an ongoing network issue that I cannot figure out. They have 6 XP pro boxes configured in a workgroup environment. These computers will work fine for a few days or sometimes weeks and then one day they will start their day and the netowrk will be working fine. Then all of a sudden one of the users will open "My Network Places" and literally watch all the listed items disappear one by one (normally they have 10 or so items in the list) until all are gone. As the day progresses they typically will have this happen on all their machines, but not always. They have a network hardware firewall/router in place and up to date Antivirus (Norton) and Antispyware (Counterspy) in place. There is no indication anywhere of infections. Solutions tried: 1) Verified all have the same Workgroup name 2) Verified all have different computer names 3) Verified we are using simple file sharing 4) Ping by IP address to different machines generally works 5) I attempted the fixes mention in KB 811259 entitled "How to determine and recover from Winsock2 corruption" 6) Saw another KB that referenced changing a key from 0 to 1 and verified that registry key was set appropriately on all machines. 7) Checked wiring One thing that has tended to work to resolve the problem on one machine at a time is to do the following: 1) Change the workgroup name to something random. 2) Goto the Nethood folder in the users directory under Documents and Settings and delete anything in there. 3) Reboot 4) Change the workgroup name back to the original 5) Reboot 6) Wait 4-5 minutes for Network Neighborhood to refind the computers This work around is tiring and I need to find the cause and solution to this. Any help would be appreciated. Chris Chris, You have the symptoms of a master browser conflict. This is what Steve refers to when he says that "network browsing through My Network Places is inherently unreliable". It's not unreliable, if you take the time to set it up right. Named, directory based resource access is better than IP addressed, fixed link resource access, for many people. http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/04/nt-browser-or-why-cant-i-always-see.html http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/0...lways-see.html I suggest that you start by looking at your protocols used on the 6 computers. An extra, unmatched protocol on one computer can cause symptoms like what you mention. http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/fix-network-problems-but-clean-up.html http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/0...-clean-up.html Having done that, look at logs from "browstat status" and "ipconfig /all", from each computer. Read this article, and linked articles, and follow instructions precisely (download browstat!): http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/troubleshooting-network-neighborhood.html#AskingForHelp http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/0...#AskingForHelp -- Cheers, Chuck, MS-MVP 2005-2007 [Windows - Networking] http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/ Paranoia is not a problem, when it's a normal response from experience. My email is AT DOT actual address pchuck mvps org. |
#4
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Workgroup Issue
While I was awaiting a response I discovered an article on how to define
which is the Master Browser and which are not. I also discovered that one machine was always the Master Browser and it also had other functionality that made this a bad idea. I have since changed the setting to FALSE on that box and set another one to TRUE and left the rest as AUTO. As I understand it this should resolve the issue. Do you agree? There seems to be some conflicting reports as to whether I should the rest to AUTO or FALSE so if I am mistaken here let me know. "Chuck [MVP]" wrote: On Mon, 13 Aug 2007 11:26:02 -0700, Acupro Tech wrote: I have a client that has been having an ongoing network issue that I cannot figure out. They have 6 XP pro boxes configured in a workgroup environment. These computers will work fine for a few days or sometimes weeks and then one day they will start their day and the netowrk will be working fine. Then all of a sudden one of the users will open "My Network Places" and literally watch all the listed items disappear one by one (normally they have 10 or so items in the list) until all are gone. As the day progresses they typically will have this happen on all their machines, but not always. They have a network hardware firewall/router in place and up to date Antivirus (Norton) and Antispyware (Counterspy) in place. There is no indication anywhere of infections. Solutions tried: 1) Verified all have the same Workgroup name 2) Verified all have different computer names 3) Verified we are using simple file sharing 4) Ping by IP address to different machines generally works 5) I attempted the fixes mention in KB 811259 entitled "How to determine and recover from Winsock2 corruption" 6) Saw another KB that referenced changing a key from 0 to 1 and verified that registry key was set appropriately on all machines. 7) Checked wiring One thing that has tended to work to resolve the problem on one machine at a time is to do the following: 1) Change the workgroup name to something random. 2) Goto the Nethood folder in the users directory under Documents and Settings and delete anything in there. 3) Reboot 4) Change the workgroup name back to the original 5) Reboot 6) Wait 4-5 minutes for Network Neighborhood to refind the computers This work around is tiring and I need to find the cause and solution to this. Any help would be appreciated. Chris Chris, You have the symptoms of a master browser conflict. This is what Steve refers to when he says that "network browsing through My Network Places is inherently unreliable". It's not unreliable, if you take the time to set it up right. Named, directory based resource access is better than IP addressed, fixed link resource access, for many people. http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/04/nt-browser-or-why-cant-i-always-see.html http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/0...lways-see.html I suggest that you start by looking at your protocols used on the 6 computers. An extra, unmatched protocol on one computer can cause symptoms like what you mention. http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/fix-network-problems-but-clean-up.html http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/0...-clean-up.html Having done that, look at logs from "browstat status" and "ipconfig /all", from each computer. Read this article, and linked articles, and follow instructions precisely (download browstat!): http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/troubleshooting-network-neighborhood.html#AskingForHelp http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/0...#AskingForHelp -- Cheers, Chuck, MS-MVP 2005-2007 [Windows - Networking] http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/ Paranoia is not a problem, when it's a normal response from experience. My email is AT DOT actual address pchuck mvps org. |
#5
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Workgroup Issue
On Mon, 13 Aug 2007 17:18:01 -0700, Acupro Tech
wrote: "Chuck [MVP]" wrote: On Mon, 13 Aug 2007 11:26:02 -0700, Acupro Tech wrote: I have a client that has been having an ongoing network issue that I cannot figure out. They have 6 XP pro boxes configured in a workgroup environment. These computers will work fine for a few days or sometimes weeks and then one day they will start their day and the netowrk will be working fine. Then all of a sudden one of the users will open "My Network Places" and literally watch all the listed items disappear one by one (normally they have 10 or so items in the list) until all are gone. As the day progresses they typically will have this happen on all their machines, but not always. They have a network hardware firewall/router in place and up to date Antivirus (Norton) and Antispyware (Counterspy) in place. There is no indication anywhere of infections. Solutions tried: 1) Verified all have the same Workgroup name 2) Verified all have different computer names 3) Verified we are using simple file sharing 4) Ping by IP address to different machines generally works 5) I attempted the fixes mention in KB 811259 entitled "How to determine and recover from Winsock2 corruption" 6) Saw another KB that referenced changing a key from 0 to 1 and verified that registry key was set appropriately on all machines. 7) Checked wiring One thing that has tended to work to resolve the problem on one machine at a time is to do the following: 1) Change the workgroup name to something random. 2) Goto the Nethood folder in the users directory under Documents and Settings and delete anything in there. 3) Reboot 4) Change the workgroup name back to the original 5) Reboot 6) Wait 4-5 minutes for Network Neighborhood to refind the computers This work around is tiring and I need to find the cause and solution to this. Any help would be appreciated. Chris Chris, You have the symptoms of a master browser conflict. This is what Steve refers to when he says that "network browsing through My Network Places is inherently unreliable". It's not unreliable, if you take the time to set it up right. Named, directory based resource access is better than IP addressed, fixed link resource access, for many people. http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/04/nt-browser-or-why-cant-i-always-see.html http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/0...lways-see.html I suggest that you start by looking at your protocols used on the 6 computers. An extra, unmatched protocol on one computer can cause symptoms like what you mention. http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/fix-network-problems-but-clean-up.html http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/0...-clean-up.html Having done that, look at logs from "browstat status" and "ipconfig /all", from each computer. Read this article, and linked articles, and follow instructions precisely (download browstat!): http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/troubleshooting-network-neighborhood.html#AskingForHelp http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/0...#AskingForHelp While I was awaiting a response I discovered an article on how to define which is the Master Browser and which are not. I also discovered that one machine was always the Master Browser and it also had other functionality that made this a bad idea. I have since changed the setting to FALSE on that box and set another one to TRUE and left the rest as AUTO. As I understand it this should resolve the issue. Do you agree? There seems to be some conflicting reports as to whether I should the rest to AUTO or FALSE so if I am mistaken here let me know. It's a tuning issue. If you have one computer that stays on constantly, and only one LAN segment, you only need one browser. As long as all computers elect the same master browser, and no computer elects itself, you can have as many browsers as you wish. Between the two figures ("1", and "n") is the number for you. The more browsers that you have, the greater the chance that you could end up with 2 master browsers, and a segmented LAN. You always need 1 browser, if you're going to use My Network Places. So see how it works, for you, and use browstat to track what the actual browser infrastructure is at any time. You can write a script, to run browstat (or any other command) from each computer, with the script started from one computer, using PSExec from SysInternals (Microsoft). http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/essential-tools-for-desktop-and.html#PSTools http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/0...d.html#PSTools -- Cheers, Chuck, MS-MVP 2005-2007 [Windows - Networking] http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/ Paranoia is not a problem, when it's a normal response from experience. My email is AT DOT actual address pchuck mvps org. |
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