my network places?

[offmyrocker]

We have a windows 2003 server and all the client pc's have windows xp pro. Sometimes(alot) when you go into my network places on any pc and go to browse the network it sees the domain but it will only show 4 pc's. does anyone have any info on this. Thanks

 

[basst]

Within a network one machine is usually chosen as the Master Browser. This machine, which is usually a server will be responsible for building the list you see in My Network places.

If you have servers or PC's that could be potential Master Browsers then they can force a browser election when they start up. This causes all machines to throw away the current list and wait for the out come of the election. The eventual winner (usually a server as higher OS always beat client OS) The list will then be re-built by the chosen Master Browser.

Run network monitor on a server and run a capture to see if there are a lot of browser elections occuring.

There is a registry fix that you can apply to machines to prevent them every becoming the Master Browser which can be useful if you have test servers that are constantly being rebooted.