|
Home > Archive > General Discussion > May 2001 > windows 95/ windows 98 / windows NT workstation and win 2 k professional HELP
You are viewing an archived Text-only version of the thread.
To view this thread in it's original format and/or if you want to reply to
this thread please [click here]
| Author |
windows 95/ windows 98 / windows NT workstation and win 2 k professional HELP
|
|
| deeppurple 2001-05-22, 10:14 pm |
| Hi people,
its me again with yet another adventure and a problem,
my workplace has a mixed environment of OS...
i have 10 machines working on win95 and 14 machines on win98 , about 50 + working on winnt workstation and 30 + on win2k professional
NetBEUI is installed on all the machines...
the problem is .. the WinNT and Win98 do not communicate VIA the network neighboorhood...
what do you think i should do .. i have tried re installing NetBEUI ...
all the PC's are in "WORKGROUP" but frm other Pc's like Win2k Pro I can see all the PC's like those with win98 installation and those with winNT WS installation ..
any help would be appreciated...
have a nice day people..
Deep Purple | |
| Gundyman 2001-05-23, 7:25 am |
| It sound silly, but double check all IP, interface and hardware connection. | |
|
| Hi deeppurple, it sounds to me like you are a victim of "browser elections".
I don't know how much you know of the process but here goes in a condensed format......
The browse list,(ie the network neighbourhood pretty pictures) is maintained by the most powerful machine on the network, all others go to this machine to find out what is available.
Just who is the most powerful machine on the network is determined by a process of election. An election is initiated every time a new, more powerful machine is swithced on, unfortunately in your mixed envioronment I can see immense opportunities for elections.
possible scenario.... first pc turned on in the morning is win98, it becomes browse master...20 other win 98 pc's booted up next and everything is fine because they are equals. Then along comes an nt workstation, it says "I AM NT HEAR ME ROAR", forces an election and wins. Now the interesting part, the win98 discards the browse list and the nt machine builds a new one from scratch. This list is built from broadcasts from the machines on the network which advertise the services/shares they have. The longer a pc has been running the more time between these broadcasts and hence the longer it takes to build the browse list. Then along comes a win2k box it says "I AM WIN2K HEAR ME ROAR", forces an election and wins. Guess what ? the whole process starts again from the beginning. If your nt and win2k boxes have varying spec's there could be dozens of elections going on.
Is that ugly or what?
On top of that the clients only get the browse list from the browse master at irregular intervals. Which I think is your main problem. I think you can set the interval in the registry but am not sure where.
If you can map a drive to a share which you can not see in network neighbourhood I would almost guarantee this to be your problem.
Solution? patience.... you will eventually be able to see all computers, it might just take a while.
Possible fix would be to leave one of the win2k machines on 24 hours a day, preferrebly the one with the most ram, fastest processor etc. It should then always maintain the browse list, which should always show all pc's currently online.
Whew!!! I am tired from typing that so if you have managed to stay awake through it I hope it helps.
Trust me that is the condensed version | |
|
| Yes, I think Gigas has the problem sorted there !!
By the way, If I was in your boots, I would be seriously considering of getting rid of NetBuei and using TCP/IP, also, because of the number of computers, I would also be considering making a domain, preferably a Win2k Domain  | |
| afuentesjr 2001-05-23, 5:07 pm |
| quote:
Originally posted by Gundyman
...double check all IP, interface and hardware connection.
I'm no certified tech, working on getting my A+ first, but I would agree with the above...
Later, | |
|
| As others have stated, the best thing to do would be to get rid of Netbeui all together and go for purely tcp/ip.
Netbeui is broadcast based, that means that every time a computer sends a packet every other computer has to stop what it is doing to see if it is intended for it or not.
Tcp/ip sends most (not all) packets directly to the intended recipient.
A workgroup with 100 computers must be soooo sslllooowwwww......M$ and most texts recommend no more than 10/20 pc's in a workgroup
ideal fix in an ideal world (dons asbestos suit) IMHO, You get the idea,.... Win2k based domain, seperate users onto different subnets based on similar sharing needs to localise traffic.
Quick and dirty fix.....nuke netbeui, go to tcp/ip and use switches instead of hubs. | |
| Tekmazter 2001-05-24, 10:47 am |
| Even if you use TCP/IP, you still have broadcasts everywhere GIGAS. Ethernet, which is pretty much most networks is all broadcasts. But I would have to agree that the solution here is TCP/IP. Heck, M-Soft doesn't even recommend using NETBEUI on a network over 10 clients. Good luck. Also, anything over 10 clients again, M-Soft recommends a domain structure now. |
|
|
|
|