Unable to browse Trusted Domain

[LCannon]

I have setup trust relationships between two domains, A and B, but am having some problems browsing the domains through network neighborhood.

When in domain A, I can see all the PC's in that domain but domain B is not even listed. But if I spell out the pc and share in domain B that I want in Start|Run, \\pc\share, it comes up.

But, when I'm on a PC in domain B and browse through Network Neighborhood, I can see both domains and all PC's. I don't get it.

I have WINS and DNS running on both PDC's and BDC.

Please help

 

[darranagl]

do you have Computer Browser service running on the Domain A server? New Zealand, a great place to live.

http://www.southland.org.nz

tokala@orcon.net.nz

 

[Aslamvs]

Could you please check which kind of trust relationship u are using bothway or one way.

 

[LCannon]

Computer Browser is running on the Domain A server (PDC for Domain A).

In Domain A, I have Domain B as a trusted and trusting domain.

In Domain B, I have Domain A as a trusted and trusting domain.

 

[ShackDaddy]

You need either of two things to make your browsing environment work:

1) both domains need to be utilizing the same WINS infrastructure so that they can query WINS to resolve names across domain borders.

2) The domain controllers in each of the two domains need to have active LMHOSTS files that reference the domain controllers in the other domain and mark them as being domain controllers (#DOM:%DOMAINNAME%).

Once either of these two things are in place, you shouldn't have any trouble browsing. Theoretically, if you have all the hosts from both domains in the same single subnet, the clients might be able to assemble a working browse list via broadcast, but this isn't the ideal way to set things up, and can't always be relied on.

ShackDaddy

 

[LCannon]

ShackDaddy,

I would prefer to use WINS. I setup WINS on both PDC's. Also, each domain is in a seperate subnet.

When I setup WINS, I didn't do much configuration of it. How do I determine that both domain's are utilizing the same WINS infrastructure?

 

[ShackDaddy]

Don't set up WINS on both PDC's. Set it up on one PDC and configure EVERY system in both domains to use that single server for their WINS (assuming you have less than 750-1000 clients. Once you've done that, your whole browsing list will bloom.

ShackDaddy

 

[LCannon]

Okay ShackDaddy. I'll give that a try and let you know. Thanks for the help.

 

[LCannon]

ShackDaddy,

Okay, that didn't work. I removed WINS from the Domain B PDC and changed the IP address it uses to connect to the WINS server in Domain A, Domain A's PDC. I still can't browse to Domain B in Domain A and now I can't browse to Domain A in Domain B when I could before. Doh!

 

[LCannon]

I'm gettting a "System error 53 occured" on the PDC of Domain B. How do I correct this? I think it's related to my problem.

 

[darranagl]

It looks like your WINS servers have a problem. Maybe they are not replicating to each other properly.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q159926

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q132950

New Zealand, a great place to live.

http://www.southland.org.nz

tokala@orcon.net.nz

 

[ShackDaddy]

Are you trying to browse from the Domain B PDC, or from a client in Domain B? All the client systems in Domain B need to be pointed at the same WINS server (Domain A PDC) address. Also, make sure that the Domain A PDC is pointing to itself for WINS, and that all its clients point to it.

In NT, network services like DNS, DHCP, and WINS are domain-independent, so you could use a single source for those three services for both domains. With DHCP you might need a DHCP relay agent in the subnet that doesnt' have a DHCP server in it, and you would create a separate scope for that subnet on the server. I'm mentioning this because if your clients use DHCP, you should probably redistribute the address for DOMAIN A PDC as the WINS server for all of your clients via DHCP.

"Error 53" usually means that a system is trying to make a connection to another server and the connection fails due to name resolution problems or merely because the destination system doesn't exist. Normally you would get it when you try and map a drive to a server that's unreachable.

Lastly, once you have things set up like I described above, browsing won't be successful right away. All the clients will need to register with WINS and the browse list will take time to rebuild itself on your domain controllers. Restarting a DC can have the effect of trashing the browse list and starting from scratch again, depending on the makeup of the other clients in the network and their configurations.

ShackDaddy

 

[LCannon]

ShackDaddy,

It seems to be working now. I have all my clients, in both domains, pointed to the Domain A PDC as their WINS. Also setup a secondary WINS in Domain A. And I can browse to all PC's in both Domains. Thanks a bunch ShackDaddy! You
the man!

But I still don't understand why I was getting that error on the PDC for Domain B when it was running WINS. But that stopped after I uninstalled WINS.

One last question on this issue and then I think I will have it. How can I confirm that the two WINS servers in Domain are talking to each other? Should they? (okay, two questions.)

darranagl,

Thanks for those sites. But the LMHost file that was being used by my WINS in Domain B didn't have anything in it and I don't know how to correct entires in the WINS database. Couldn't find out how at those sites.

 

[ShackDaddy]

Lcannon, I would advise just keeping a single WINS server unless you really have a large number of clients or have your WINS server running on very unreliable hardware. If you really want to have redundancy for your browsing environment, you can use two, and you will merely need to configure the two servers to be push/pull partners with each other. It's not that hard to set up from within the WINS Manager tool. Make each the push and pull partner of the other.

Glad this was helpful to you.

ShackDaddy