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by joemoran

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I am having what would appear to be a WINS/NetBIOS issue that is driving me nuts.

I am running an NT 4 network (one WINS server) with mostly Windows 98 clients, but a handful of W2K Pro clients as well.

On Windows 98 clients, I can browse Network Neighborhood and see all of my servers without any problems.

On the other hand, with Windows 2000 clients, when browse Network Neighborhood I see the domain advertised, but when I click it to browse servers I get a message saying
not accessible- The network name could not be found.

Similarly, if I attempt a NET VIEW at the command prompt, I am unable to, and get System Error 67.

In spite of this (and here is where it gets weird), my login scripts, which reference

NetBIOS share names, run without a hitch on these same W2K machines. Moreover, if I do a NET USE to connect to a share, it works just fine.

I've been to the Knowledge Base, but I cannot find anything referencing this issue.

Something I have noticed is that the W2K clients show up in Server Manager but are always greyed out even if online. Not sure if that is related, but I think it might be.

Anyone have any ideas?

7 replies

by m.r.

As to the gray icons:
Show Domain Members Only Option has Dimmed Icons (Q110348)
This is a start but I've had many systems show gray icons and not for these reasons.

Are you running multiple protocols on the network?

Is DNS configured?
DNSis a primary name resolver for W2K and can cause strange browsing issues. You should also check on browser stats - any elections?, who's master?, multiple workgroups?, etc.

by joemoran

I checked, and the Show Domain Members Only option is not on. Also, when I try to connect to these machines in Server Manager, I get a not found error.

I'm only running IP, and I'm not running DNS.

Also, I should have mentioned that the clients are all getting thier IPs from DHCP, which is specifying a WINS server.

by vyeth

Dear Friend,

Please install NetBuei on both NT servers and 2kclients .
further if u can try specifying the wins and or dns servers for the 2k clients

best of luck
vikram

by joemoran

I appreciate the help, but I don't think adding NetBEUI is the answer I am looking for. Also, the 2K clients know where the WINS server is, because they get it from DHCP and they can manually map shares.

by m.r.

More info on the Server Manager: The icons will be gray for any station that is unreachable. In my case if I don't File and Print Sharing enabled I can't get to the system and get the same error - it's also gray in the manager. The network browsing may need more info though. You must be running a Domain and sounds like only NT4.0 domain controlers. WINs is getting setup by DHCP on all workstations and the servers should also have it listed. A domain controler should be the master browser but the W2K stations are newer and probably will force elections. What happens if you use Start-Run-\\(server ip address)? Start-Run-\\(server name)?
Anyway hope these aren't below your skill level.

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