Small networking problem.

[riddellcomp]

I have a simple home network with an XP machine as the server and a 98SE machine as the client.
The problem I have is sometimes the 98se machine cannot find the XP machine in the network neighbourhood even though the 98se machine is currrently using the XP machines adsl connection via ICS and the XP machine can browse the 98se machine no problems.

Any ideas?

[kato2274]

I have a simple home network with an XP machine as the server and a 98SE machine as the client.
The problem I have is sometimes the 98se machine cannot find the XP machine in the network neighbourhood even though the 98se machine is currrently using the XP machines adsl connection via ICS and the XP machine can browse the 98se machine no problems.

Any ideas?

ughh XP and windows 98 networked. man I hate this scenario. I see this a lot and it's usually a real pain in the a$$ for exactly what you described. I don't know why it's so flakey and I often have no idea how I fix the problem, sometimes it just starts working . . . . of course it stops working just as easily

the one time I had no problems with it was when I had a linux box using SME server running and it acted as the master browser. man that little network is rock solid! no issues like this ever. it has XP machines, 98 machines, a 2k machine and even a ME machine.. . . . go figure.

[craigmodius]

If it's a network browser issue on the XP machine you can edit the registry to tell it to be the boss.

And depending on the network card, sometimes you can set those options by going to the properties of the NIC from the network applet in the control panel or the XP equivalent.

If you're seeing browser election events in the Event Log on the XP machine, prior to the 98 machine losing connectivity then this would be a good suspect.

edit: Some good info here. The bottom tells you how to tell a 98 machine not to be the boss.

[riddellcomp]

Where do I find the event log?

I dont have any problems with the XP machine accessing the 98 machine Its the 98 machine that cannot access the xp machine even though ICS works fine.

I will try the registry tweaks you mention.

Thanks.

[riddellcomp]

I was able to do the xp tweak no problems but the following key is not in the win98SE registry.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\Browser\Parameters\MaintainServerList


The browser key is not there.

Any other ideas?

[silencio]

I've had a number of small/home networks setup with 98 and XP very happily working together. Just create a hosts and lmhosts file on each machine.

[confus-ed]

I've had a number of small/home networks setup with 98 and XP very happily working together. Just create a hosts and lmhosts file on each machine.

... I was just writing a 'huge' explanation on 'resolution' of names & addresses .. so now you stole my 'thunder' ... I'm just gonna chuck in the 'other way' WINS & leave it at that

Oh & as far as 'browser elections' go, xp 'ought to win'

[craigmodius]

I was able to do the xp tweak no problems but the following key is not in the win98SE registry.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\Browser\Parameters\MaintainServerList


The browser key is not there.

Any other ideas?

this bit at the bottom here the setting is the same for a 98 machine as 95. I would disable it on the 98 box so long as it is enabled on the XP machine.

Windows 95 machines can only participate in a browser election if they are configured for File and/or Print sharing. This is accomplished in Control Panel / Networks. To set or check the browser settings, scroll the network Configuration for File and printer sharing for Microsoft Networks. Highlight this entry and click the Properties button. Select Browse Master and choose from Disabled, Enabled, or Automatic.

As confus-ed says make sure the XP box is set to MaintainServerList and the 98 set to Not MaintainServerList. (so that the XP box will win an election)

If you have static IP Addresses setup you might want to consider a hosts file as silencio points out.

And the event log is your bestest friend when troubleshooting an XP system. If you have a my computer icon on the desktop you can right click it an select manage. if not it should be available in the control panel under Administrative Tools, or off the start menu under Programs->Administrative Tools.

Although the XP box is not the one having the problems, the 98 machine is looking to the XP machine to give it a list of available computers and the XP machine isn't doing this when it loses an election.

[riddellcomp]

Craigmodus,

Okay Im trying to follow all this but have a few problems.

I can access the file and printer sharing properties on the 98Se machine and disable the browse master but I cannot do the same on the XP machine because when I select File and printer sharing the properties button is greyed out.

I can also set the xp machine to Maintainserverlist but I cannot set the 98SE machine to Not maintainserverlist because as I said in my previous post the "browser" key is not in my registry. Could all this be the reason why Im having problems????
I have checked the event log and here is what I have found that may be related to my problems.

The Network Address Translator (NAT) was unable to request an operation of the kernel-mode translation module. This may indicate misconfiguration, insufficient resources, or an internal error. The data is the error code.

and this

The browser has forced an election on network \Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{32EFDBAB-C635-4541-B294-FF87C61BCF98} because a master browser was stopped.

and this too

The DNS proxy agent encountered an error while obtaining the local list of name-resolution servers. Some DNS or WINS servers may be inaccessible to clients on the local network. The data is the error code.

Actually theres quite a few now that Ive looked. However I must admit I don't know how many of these error messages relate to the couple of times throughout the day when the kids hit reset because their game hangs or my 2 year old hits the power button and restarts the computer. But no doubt you can tell if any of these error messages are related to that.

I do have a static Ip address but know nothing about host files. Could I set this up easy enough?

Thanks again for the help from everyone.

[confus-ed]

Busy just now (& you didn't actually ask me) ... but have a look at these links & maybe things can get a bit less confus-ed for you ?

Network Neighborhood / My Network Places / Find Computer

& I thinkee the key is :-[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\Browser]

(so we'd gone down a level too far ?)

Have a look at this link now

& here are my 'crib notes' for changing master browser in 9x ..

1. On the machine open Control Panel (Right click on Network Neighborhood and select properties)
2. Click the Configuration tab
3. Check the list of installed network components for "File and Printer sharing for Microsoft Networks". If this is here go to step v.
4. If this is not installed click the Add button, select Service and click Add. Select Microsoft and select "File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks" and click OK. Click OK to the configuration tab and when asked reboot the machine.
5. Select "File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks" and click Properties.
6. In the property box click Browse Master and select Disabled in the Value box.
7. Click OK.

Now I probably needed to think about all that & string it into a 'coherent answer' ... but I'm never that good at that bit , so I'll let you sort it out !

[riddellcomp]

Busy just now (& you didn't actually ask me) ... but have a look at these links & maybe things can get a bit less confus-ed for you ?

Network Neighborhood / My Network Places / Find Computer

& I thinkee the key is :-[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\Browser]

(so we'd gone down a level too far ?)

Have a look at this link now

& here are my 'crib notes' for changing master browser in 9x ..


Now I probably needed to think about all that & string it into a 'coherent answer' ... but I'm never that good at that bit , so I'll let you sort it out !

Unfortunately confus-ed Now Im even more confus-ed than I was before.

Firstly I havent gone down a level too far in the registry.
This key just isnt there.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\Browser]

The Browser option just isnt there, I swear on it.

Secondly I have already set the xp machine to be the domainmaster browser in the registry.
However I cannot enable the browse master in file and print sharing because the properties tab is greyed out.................OR ...............Is what I just did in the registry the same thing??????(setting the domainmaster browser)
I can disable browse master in the win98 machine but havent yet as I was unable to "ENABLE" it in the XP machine. Should I disable it in 98se anyway?

Hey but thanks for the link, It has taught me a lot that I didnt know.

[riddellcomp]

Okay I disabled the browse master on the Win98 machine and it has fixed the problem. I wont bother touching the xp machine now.
Thanks for the help.

[confus-ed]

Unfortunately confus-ed Now Im even more confus-ed than I was before.

...However I cannot enable the browse master in file and print sharing because the properties tab is greyed out.................OR ...............Is what I just did in the registry the same thing??????(setting the domainmaster browser)
I can disable browse master in the win98 machine but havent yet as I was unable to "ENABLE" it in the XP machine. Should I disable it in 98se anyway?

Hey but thanks for the link, It has taught me a lot that I didnt know.

1. Bummer ! That wasn't the aim at all

2. Yes - disable it in 98 ( Now I'm confus-ed I thought that's what we couldn't do !) - here's the order for master browser election 'winners' ..

Windows xp
Windows 2000 Server
Windows 2000 Professional
Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Server Enterprise Edition
Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Server
Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Workstation
Microsoft Windows 98
Microsoft Windows 95
Microsoft Windows for Workgroups 3.11

(top is the 'winner' & I guess that 'server 2003' is now 'top')

& while I was writing this you fixed it ! .. so job's a winner

[riddellcomp]

Thanks Confus-ed. No it wasnt the win98se machine that I couldn't disable it was the xp machine that I couldn't enable. I thought I had to do both but as it turns out just disabling the win98 masterbrowser did the trick.


Thanks again.

[craigmodius]

glad to hear everything is going OK.