Thanks DimaYasny that was a impressively quick reply

Will give it a go latter this afternoon. I have a virtual network setup with vmware for testing purpose will tell you how it goes.

I still need to fix my current problem, any ideas?

that is mostly usual windows behaviour, workgroups never were too good for networking since directory services started being used by MS.

That's what I keep hearing,

Seems strange it’s kind of got me interested. Why only some computers? It's not that vital for my users because if they want access to a computer they can do a nslookup computer name then connect via run \\IP but now I really want to know why run \\computername won't work.

Does anyone know what services/protocols are being used when you try and access a computer via run \\computername.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/172218
that's for the lookup order. if you have routers between subnets, there's a chance broadcast will not pass them, while direct icmp will

Thanks DimaYasny,

I had a read over the link you provided and related articles, but I'm still a little confused. My clients have Hybrid node types so in theory clients should register themselves with a NetBIOS Name Server (NBNS) upon start up.

I haven’t specified or setup one of these myself so I presume the clients are defaulting to b-node behavior which may be having problems because of routers etc. How do I setup one of these servers and how do I tell my clients about it. I presume there is a setting in DHCP server somewhere that will tell clients about it.

Or is there a way to use WINS server for this lookup instead?


I’m not sure if this will actual fix the whole problem because some of the computers having problems are on the same subnet.

I used browstat status on my computer and one of the other computers in my subnet that was having problems this is the result.

My computers:

Status for domain QWE.RTY.NZ on transport \Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{F142FA66-E3E3-4067-80D8-E4BA91D57D12}
Browsing is active on domain.
Master browser name is: MYPC
Master browser is running build 2600
1 backup servers retrieved from master MYPC
\\MYPC
There are 1 servers in domain QWE.RTY.NZ on transport \Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{F142FA66-E3E3-4067-80D8-E4BA91D57D12}
There are 1 domains in domain QWE.RTY.NZ on transport \Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{F142FA66-E3E3-4067-80D8-E4BA91D57D12}


Status for domain QWE.RTY.NZ on transport \Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{F716E62E-C6BB-45CB-A14E-CD0C1DF99001}
Browsing is active on domain.
Master browser name is: MYPC
Master browser is running build 2600
1 backup servers retrieved from master MYPC
\\MYPC
There are 1 servers in domain QWE.RTY.NZ on transport \Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{F716E62E-C6BB-45CB-A14E-CD0C1DF99001}
There are 1 domains in domain QWE.RTY.NZ on transport \Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{F716E62E-C6BB-45CB-A14E-CD0C1DF99001}


Status for domain QWE.RTY.NZ on transport \Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{384CA00D-B26C-4B1D-94BF-E7BFB3746FBF}
Browsing is active on domain.
Master browser name is: MYPC
Master browser is running build 2600
3 backup servers retrieved from master MYPC
\\AJW
\\BJS
\\FRED
Unable to retrieve server list from MYPC: 71


Other Computer


Status for domain QWE.RTY.NZ on transport \Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{7B5Bd080-78C2—46F2—BBC1—E4E324EF2645}
Browsing is active on domain.
Master browser name is: RM1
Master browser is running build 2600
1 backup servers retrieved from master RM1
\\RM1
There are 1 servers in domain QWE.RTY.NZ on transport \Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{7B5Bd080-78C2—46F2—BBC1—E4E324EF2645}
There are 1 domains in domain QWE.RTY.NZ on transport \Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{7B5Bd080-78C2—46F2—BBC1—E4E324EF2645}


Status for domain QWE.RTY.NZ on transport \Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{219D74AE-8EB0-4ED3-ACCF-FC78FEBDEC35}
Browsing is active on domain.
Master browser name is: RM1
Master browser is running build 2600
1 backup servers retrieved from master RM1
\\RM1
There are 1 servers in domain QWE.RTY.NZ on transport \Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{219D74AE-8EB0-4ED3-ACCF-FC78FEBDEC35}
There are 1 domains in domain QWE.RTY.NZ on transport \Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{219D74AE-8EB0-4ED3-ACCF-FC78FEBDEC35}


Status for domain QWE.RTY.NZ on transport \Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{4CE8C0A8-44FE-492F-9618-EC37DED58D11}
Browsing is active on domain.
Master browser name is: RM1
Master browser is running build 2600
3 backup servers retrieved from master RM1
\\GILLAN
\\DTAWSUS
\\BJS
Unable to retrieve server list from RM1: 71

I'm not sure If I an interpreting these results correctly but this indicates that there are multiple master browsers on the same subnet doesn't it?

wins is netbios name server actually.

anyhow, looks like for all the workstations, the WS itself is the master browser. you have to set up the server to have top priority in that. but switching to domain is still much simpler