Date: Thu, 3 Jun 1999 21:13:40 -0400 (EDT)
From: ITS Change <itschang@daisy.oit.unc.edu
Reply-To: Jim Gogan <gogan@net.unc.edu
To: unlisted-recipients:
Subject: MINOR: Microsoft Networking issues and new Master Browser
Issues and changes:
(1) For those of you that utilize Microsoft Networking (usually to
access NT services or Windows peer-to-peer networking services) - many
of you access resources via "browsing" through the Network Neighboorhood
icon on Wintel platforms. For reasons that I'll touch on in a minute,
browsing is not (and cannot be) guaranteed to work on the campus
network. The basic issues here are:
- no one knows how browsing REALLY works
- no one can find out how browsing REALLY works
- Microsoft can't say how browsing works in large environments
Due to these problems, many campuses have completely disallowed (and
block) the browsing functions from going out on the network at all!
(Note: it is highly unlikely that we would ever do that.)
Existing documentation (from Microsoft and others) is of little help. We
have seen Microsoft Networking actions in packet traces from the campus
network that directly contradict what little documentation about
browsing (and other Microsoft Networking functions) exists. Again, no
one in Microsoft seems to know all of the details either. We have been
saying for quite some time that many of these functions (especially
related to browsing) seem to be related to timing issues; Microsoft has
indicated otherwise. Recently, however, Sun has documented traces that
show that browsing activities are indeed directly related to timing
issues and has shared this with Microsoft. To date, there has been no
reaction or feedback from Microsoft on this of which we are aware.
SUMMARY for POINT 1: we cannot guarantee that you will always see
available Microsoft Networking resources via "browsing" in Network
Neighborhood.
COROLLARY: we can guarantee that if you do not configure
your PC to point to a WINS server, Network Neighborhood will be very
unlikely to ever work.
(2) Related to these browsing issues is the occurance of "master browser
elections" across campus that negatively impact the stability of
browsing (to whatever extent that is possible). In an attempt to
stabilize at least this aspect of Microsoft Networking, on Monday June
7th, we will be bringing up a server (running Unix - designed to be
stable from day one :-)) running Samba (SMB services for Unix) that is
being configured to ALWAYS win any "master browser elections". This
device should always win out over any NT system attempting to become the
Master Browser for the campus network. In order to provide this level
of stability, should we see other systems that through similar
mechanisms defeat this and win master browser elections, we MAY have to
block those devices from the network and notify the departmental system
administrator.
SUMMARY for POINT 2: Monday June 7th, we will deploy a new campuswide
Master Browser for Microsoft Networking that will, by default, win
browser elections. NO END SYSTEM CONFIGURATION CHANGES WILL NEED TO BE
MADE on end user platforms or departmental NT servers.
(3) In conjunction with this other service, we will on June 7th be
installing a WINS server on this new system (at 152.2.1.3) that will
ultimately (by June 21st) replace the WINS server running on
152.2.21.242.
SUMMARY for POINT 3: If you are currently pointing to 152.2.21.242 as
either a primary or secondary WINS server, you should change that to
152.2.1.3 by June 21st (but not before June 7th).
OVERALL SUMMARY: one fervently hopes that Microsoft does a better job
of this in Windows 2000 .....
If you have any questions about this, please let me know. Thanks!
-- Jim Gogan
ATN Networking and Communications