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WINS Netbios Remote Users can't browse

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by bigjedi20 1 view

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We have several Wan remote sites that are hooked up w/router and t1 and have been for over a year. In the past week, when the try to login to the domain, they get a domain controller not availabe. However, if you log onto local system, they can get on our internet and use email. But they still can't see the rest of the domain under network neighborhood.
Also if, I go to internet explore and put it \\servername it will always go to that server and display shares. But it doesn't here. It can't recognize names. I can ping by ip and by computer name from dos prompt, but I can't browse network within windows. I believe the problems lie with WINS. We have a WINS server and that IP is included on the remote client PC settings and it has always worked.

Trying to determine if the problem might be related to WINS, I created an LMHosts file wih our PDC IP and name placed into the file. I rebooted, and viola...she could connect. I assume I can do the same for all our other remote clients, butthat is a lot of work. I'd rather WINS work like it should.

As to what I've done with the WINS server (and it works fine on the LAN, and it seems tor recognize the remote users/computers in the WINS Database), is uninstalled the service, deleted the database, reinstalled service and service pack and rebooted, and am still having the same problem. The only other alerts/errors I've seen in any event viewers on the client side have to do with RPC or master browser alerts. Could either of these guys be compounding the problem.

One last thing. Wins server, total Quieres:

for example:

1700 total
130 successful
1570 failed.

Is that right? Is this the problem? Please help me fix this. I'm desperate. BIG PRIZE

19 replies

by geoff

Had a similar problem in the end we turned on Netbui on the boxes and this resolved most of the problems, the other thing we considered was enable Netbios over TCP. Remember that with Netbui, it is not routable and it can take up to 15 minutes before u can see a computer in Network Neighbourhood, keeping pressing F5

by jerone318

We were having the same problem connecting to other Domains across our wan connection. What we did was to put the wins server address on our cisco router as a ip helper address on the interface.

by geoff

One further point is that u don't say whether this is an NT4 system or W2K in a W2k system then DNS is the preferred method of resolving ip addresses to betbios names

by joseph moore

Ok. WINS over a router to WAN clients is notoriously poor. In fact, I am not even sure if it works properly. I think it does not travel over the router unless the router is configured to send the WINS traffic.
And right now, I can't remember the specifics on what the router needs to be set for to properly send WINS traffic.
So in the meantime, I have 2 suggestions. First is to install a WINS server at the remote location, and set it up to be push-pull replication partners with your main office WINS server. Set the WAN clients to use this local WINS server.
If that is not possible, then go with the LMHOSTS option. My company has a remote office over WAN, and using the LMHOSTS file is how I solved their remote authetication problems.
YOu mentioned you listed the PDC in the LMHOSTS of one PC. Ok. That is good. But, you should also put an entry defining the domain in the LMHOSTS file also.
Here is the full syntax I recommend you using for the LMHOSTS defintions:

10.1.1.### PDCNAME #PRE #DOM:DOMAINNAME
10.1.1.### "DOMAINNAME \0x1b" #PRE

The first line you recognize, mapping the IP address of your PDC to the machine name. The second line maps the domain name to the same IP address. Having both lines in the LMHOSTS really helps out with the authentication.
LMHOSTS is explain in TechNet article Q180094.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q180094
(please remove any spaces)

Also, you might want to look into extending the dial-up delay Registry entry in the WAN clients. This entry will tell the workstations to look for the PDC for a very long time; it helps to synchronize them with the network. TechNet article Q163204 explains this one and why you should use it (my remote clients do).
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q163204
(please remove any spaces)

Hope this helps.

by eau

Have you include the WINS server as the WINS client as well?

if not, then this could be the reason why remote user are the ones who have the problem.

Hope this helps

by faisalmasood

As for as WINS over router is concerned, im not sure that it gonna work.

As you said that you r experiencing Master browser alerts on some PC's & you can't access pcs via network neighbourhood. So what I would like you to do is make sure that PDCis working as Domain Master Browser & no other pc is taking that role from PDC.

Use the small Browselist utility from:
http://www.ntsecurity.nu/toolbox/browselist/

If that is the case then stop & disable the browsing service on clients. Stopping the browsing doesn't mean that they would not see other PC's in network neighbourhod. But it mean that they would not be able to play any browsing role ie Master Browser, Backup Browser or Potential Browser.

Also See my threads: (U must read the first one)

Network Browsing:
https://www.techrepublic.com/forumqa/thread_detail.jhtml?thread_id=73218

Browsing Service Problem???
https://www.techrepublic.com/forumqa/thread_detail.jhtml?thread_id=71089

Also check Event Viewer for more errors. & check MS KB &
http://www.eventid.net

by faisalmasood

The best method to troubleshoot a MS network is to check Event Viewer for any new errors / entries. Then using those entries search MS KB Or MSDN library.

So I suggest you to check your event viewer on server & on clients for errors.

If u see errors regarding browing then, follow my instructions as above. Also search the following site:
http://www.ntfaq.com

by nettek

I do not usually like to contradict other answers, but WINS works fine over a WAN, and you do not have to configure routers to accomodate it. I have one primary and one secondary WINS supporting 750 users, 14 servers, across 10 WAN links. For some good WINs information, check out article Q185786 at support.microsoft.com.

From you description, it sounds as if you have a corrupted WINS database. The easiest way to correct this is to delete the WINS database and let it rebuild itself. Shut down the WINS server service on all your WINS servers. Go to the WINNT\System32\Wins directory. Rename WINS.MDB to WINS.MDB.OLD. Restart your WINS server services. The WINS database will rebuild itself. The best time to do this is after hours, sothat people do not lose name resolution. When they come in in the morning and log back on, their Computer Name will be resolved to their IP address in the WINS database.

by bkinsey1

I'd check the corrupted WINS database idea first. Could be that the Master Browser record isn't being found. Also, sporadic outages in your WAN links can lead to browsing-related problems even if connectivity is there every time you try to troubleshoot. Look for any evidence of more-frequent-than-usual downtime with your router. Third, have there been any changes to your domain controller hierarchy in the time frame when the problems started? Fourth, the failed queries in WINS Manager could be an indication of a problem, but check this article out (Q151475) before deciding that.

If you give the RPC and Browser-related errors from the clients, that might help.

Bottom line: WINS does work over a WAN link, especially at T-1 speeds. If it has been working and suddenly stops, something changed.

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