Active Directory Domain - Clients cannot view Network Neigborhood
"domainname is not available. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions.
"The list of servers for this workgroup is not currently available."
That's what happens when you try to browse the network in Network Neighborhood in XP Pro. We all have access to mapped drives (mapped via a login script), and you can get to the domain server by typing in \\servername.
Server is Windows Server 2003. DNS seems to working as pinging servername gets me the IP address. IP addresses are assigned to the clients using DHCP.
We installed the new server in January. Everything has worked except the network neighborhood thing. It never has.
In the Event logs for a member server, I will often find "The browser service was unable to retrieve a list of servers from the browser master."
Any suggestions?
Expert's answerTo troubleshoot your network neighborhood browsing problem, start by downloading the Browstat program provided by Microsoft in the Windows Resource Kit. You may also download browstat here. Once you've unpacked browstat, open a command window and type
If the output tells you that browsing is active on the domain it should also tell you which computer is the browse master. If you have a browse master active, then you probably have configuration issues at the workstations. You will want to ensure that File and Print sharing is enabled in the network settings and that NetBios or NetBios over TCP is enabled as well. The Microsoft Knowledge Base Article Troubleshooting the Microsoft Computer Browser Service is a good reference for using the browstat utility and provides a lot of information about what to look at to get your Network Neighborhood working. Be aware that enabling Network Neigborhood browsing may expose you to various malware exploits. This article discusses some of the issues involved with enabling the restrictanonymous value in the registry key [HKLM \System \CurrentControlSet \Control \Lsa], which is required for trouble free domain browsing. Seriously consider that your server and network are more secure now than they will be when you get the Network Neigborhood browsing working before you trade away the security benefit for end user convenience. An excellent resource for finding more information about getting the Network Neigborhood working for your workstations is the Windows Server 2003 Solutuion Center. Three particular knowledge base articles that may be helpful are 843517, 135404, and 188305. |
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