PCs are not appearing in Network places

  • Thread starter Thread starter Christian Ormstrup
  • Start date Start date
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Christian Ormstrup

We have a very small network (10) PCs

we recently put them all in one domain and set up the
servers for active directory. Only some appear in the
network neighbor hood and some that do can not be managed.

My PDC and BDC are also DNS servers. all PCs are in DNS.
All PCs have static IP addresses
all PCs point to DNS servers

WINS on the PCs is set to Netbios over TCPIP enabled

I can Ping all PCs and all PC can Ping servers

Is this a known problem or have a forgotten a step
somewhere?
 
First off see which machine's the browse master (pull browstat.exe off the
CD and run it) - ideally the DC should be the master as 2000S has higher
voting weight than anything else. Peek at the error logs on that machine for
browser-service related items. If the master is multihomed (2 NICs on the
same subnet) then it can get mightily pissy about browse lists and you'll be
lucky to ever see a complete one. Remember NetNei relies on cute but ancient
netbios protocols so pingability (which is IP-based) is no guarantee of
browsability. There isn't a netbios ping command, 'cos life sucks.

Have you got WINS server running on one of your DCs, and if so are all the
clients pointing at it? Incomplete NetNei lists are common (it's a buggy
protocol and was one of the reasons AD browsing was introduced) if there's
no WINS server - Admin Tools/WINS on your DC and make sure it's running. On
any W2K machine cmd prompt, typing 'nbtstat -r' lists how many client names
are resolved from the WINS server and how many had to be found by broadcast.
Lots of broadcasts = sick WINS.

~D~
 
I have WINS on both the PDC and BDC
The PDC and BDC WINS servers are replication partners
The PDC and BDC are also DNS servers.
PDC is master browser
All PCs are in DNS.
All PCs have static IP addresses
All PCs point to the local DNS servers
The WINS on the PCs is set to Netbios over TCPIP enabled
Not all PC's point to WINS
I can Ping all PCs and all PC can Ping servers
Licensed for 15 PCs and only have 10

Still can not get them to show up in Network Places and
can not manage them
 
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