Master Browser Wars

  • Thread starter Thread starter thg
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thg

Greetings,

I have a small remote site that is connected to my main campus with a
VPN. They are on a different subnet. They are 192.168.10.0/24 while
my main campus is 10.1.0.0/16 (I did not pick the numbers at the remote
site.) We are 99.9% Windows 2000 and the couple of Windows 98 machines
I don't care about (dedicated scan stations and the like.)

When the site went in I started having all sorts of browse issues. I
put in a domain controller and created a AD site for them. DNS, DHCP,
and WINS all seem to be working. I can replicate between their domain
controller and the ones on campus.

Now I am getting Event ID 8003 about once an hour. The remote DC is
determined to be the master browser.

First question in "Why?" By putting them into sites aren't I supposed
to take care of that?

Second question is "How do I fix it?" Can I just set
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Browser\Parameters\
MaintainServerList to FALSE? If I am 100% W2K and my DNS is working do
I care about Master Browsers?

Many thanks,

Dan
 
W2k has a command built in called BROWSTAT, this will
allow you to view/set/change your masterbrowsers for your
domain. Use this command at each server that is having a
problem and set the appriopate masterbrowser. I had the
same issue internal to 1 site, where my server and a few
of my clients were having your "Masterbrowser war" this
fixed my problem .!!

HTH

D.J.
Northrop Grumman IT
A+, Net+, MCP, MCSA, MCSE
 
The pdc emulator is the master domain browser for the domain and each subnet/segment
will have it's own master browser which needs to communicate with the domain master
browser to build the master list and that is why you may be getting the error. Sites
control AD replication and authentication and have nothing to do with maintaining the
browse list. In a segmented network, wins is used for the master browsers to find
each other so you may want to check your wins database for the master browser records
where each of the master browsers should be identified assuming you are using wins
replication across the subnet. See links below for more info. --- Steve

http://tinyurl.com/4ppt
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;102878
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;188305
 
Steve and DJ, thank you. I'm embarrassed to admit that this is one of
those areas where I am pretty clueless. I hate not knowing things :-(

Checking WINS I find that the Domain Master Browser (1BH) is registered
as being on the address used by RRAS as "Internal". It is the highest
IP in the range that has been reserved out of the DHCP pool for use by
RAS.

Did that make sense? This computer, the one that carries all the
masters, was the first W2K computer in a workgroup environment. As
such it does pretty much everything. It has DNS, WINS, and DHCP in
addition to being the termination point for PPTP connections. The
address registered in WINS for the Domain Master is technically on this
computer but it is (I think, another thing I don't understand) reserved
for PPTP clients. I say "I think" because in the RRAS MMC that address
is listed as being "up" and "Connected" even though no RAS clients are
connected. Boy do I have a lot to learn about how Windows does
networking.

I have skimmed the links you sent and tonight I will sit down and
really read them.

Thank you for pointing me toward WINS. Since registrations are being
replicated I thought everything was fine. Clearly it is not. What
should my WINS look like? Other than the 1BH registration on the wrong
IP I think it is OK. I did get a error 4243 with a second word of
000009ff on the main campus once. Generally I can force a replication
without a problem. Each WINS server shows domain controllers that are
local to it. I'm going through Q321208 now.

Thanks again for your help. I feel like I am floundering a little.

Dan
 
Browsing problems are a headache becaue they are configured behind the scenes
automagically. I think your problem may be related to the fact that your domain
master browser is dual homed being the rras server [even if only one physical nic it
has at least one virtual nic]. The other thing to check is that your W2K servers
including the wins server are wins clients. The wins server should point only to
itself as its wins server. --- Steve

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=191611
 
And if the server is dual homed and using RRAS, make sure you've applied the
regedits in 292822.

Marina

Steven L Umbach said:
Browsing problems are a headache becaue they are configured behind the scenes
automagically. I think your problem may be related to the fact that your domain
master browser is dual homed being the rras server [even if only one physical nic it
has at least one virtual nic]. The other thing to check is that your W2K servers
including the wins server are wins clients. The wins server should point only to
itself as its wins server. --- Steve

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=191611

Dan Wright said:
Steve and DJ, thank you. I'm embarrassed to admit that this is one of
those areas where I am pretty clueless. I hate not knowing things :-(

Checking WINS I find that the Domain Master Browser (1BH) is registered
as being on the address used by RRAS as "Internal". It is the highest
IP in the range that has been reserved out of the DHCP pool for use by
RAS.

Did that make sense? This computer, the one that carries all the
masters, was the first W2K computer in a workgroup environment. As
such it does pretty much everything. It has DNS, WINS, and DHCP in
addition to being the termination point for PPTP connections. The
address registered in WINS for the Domain Master is technically on this
computer but it is (I think, another thing I don't understand) reserved
for PPTP clients. I say "I think" because in the RRAS MMC that address
is listed as being "up" and "Connected" even though no RAS clients are
connected. Boy do I have a lot to learn about how Windows does
networking.

I have skimmed the links you sent and tonight I will sit down and
really read them.

Thank you for pointing me toward WINS. Since registrations are being
replicated I thought everything was fine. Clearly it is not. What
should my WINS look like? Other than the 1BH registration on the wrong
IP I think it is OK. I did get a error 4243 with a second word of
000009ff on the main campus once. Generally I can force a replication
without a problem. Each WINS server shows domain controllers that are
local to it. I'm going through Q321208 now.

Thanks again for your help. I feel like I am floundering a little.

Dan
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
The other thing to check is that your W2K servers
including the wins server are wins client
Click to expand...

Thanks again.

I did check that. I actually read the articles you suggested. Do you
get as annoyed as I do when you give someone the answer and they ignore
it?

:-)

I have gotten busy on a couple other things. Expect to hear from me
again though...

Dan
 
Marina Roos said:
And if the server is dual homed and using RRAS, make sure you've applied the
regedits in 292822.

Marina
Click to expand...

Thanks! That might be it.

I'll make the changes tomorrow. Editing the registry three minutes
before quitting time seems like a bad idea :-)

Dan
 
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