Windows 2K/XP and network master browsers

Hi,

if you encounter problems when trying to browse the network neighbourhood in windows, it's often because of a windows machine which claims to be the master browser on the net, although it's not. So how do you see if there's a problem or not? Well, if you have one of the following symptoms you can be almost sure that there's a problem:

When you open My Network Places, the computer list you see is obtained from the master browser of your network.

  1. If you can ping a computer name, you can search it, you can map it,  but that computer doesn't show or take long time to show up on My Network Places.
  2. Net view command shows no lists or shows "System error 6118 has occurred. The list of servers for this workgroup is not currently available". 
  3. when clicking on Computers Near Me in My Network Places or workgroup name in Entire Network, the following error message may appear: "Cannot Access 'Computers Near Me' " or "Workgroup is not accessible" errors. 
  4. when click workgroup name under Entire Network Places, you get "Workgroup is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permission.  The list server for this workgroup is not currently available."
  5. Windows Explorer or My Network Places take a long time to open.
  6. Event logs on servers show many master browser election messages.

To prevent a machine from becoming master browser for the network you can do:

  1. go to "Administrative Tools > Services > the  Properties of Computer Browser" and then click "Manual"
  2. use Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe) to edit the following registry key:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Browser\Parameters\MaintainServerList
    and change the value of this key to false in NT and  no in 2k/XP.

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Remove NDIS firewall filter (McAfee Internet Security)

A component of McAfee's Internet Security Suite, the McAfee Firewall Network Filter Miniport is a firewall adapter that blocks unwanted users from accessing your computer and Internet connection. The firewall adapter is installed within your computer's configuration and can cause issues with virtual private networks (VPN), email applications, peer-to-peer applications and other programs that are trying to access your computer's Internet connection. You can remove the McAfee Firewall Network Filter Miniport and keep the McAfee Internet Security Suite installed on your computer system.

  1. run the windows terminal:
    Start -> Run -> type "cmd" and press Enter
  2. stop McAfee Host instrusion Prevention:
    type "NET STOP enterceptagent" in the terminal
  3. stop McAfee Miniport Driver:
    type "NET STOP firepm" and press Enter
  4. change to directory where the driver lies:
    type "cd Program Files\McAfee\Host Intrusion Prevention\inf\" and hit Enter
  5. remove ndis network driver:
    type "installfirehk /u"
  6. restart the host intrusion prevention service:
    type "NET START enterceptagent" and hit Enter

That should be all. Maybe you need to restart your computer to get rid of all temporary files.

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Map unix group to a windows domain group

Hello world,

here my scenario: i have a webdevelopment server as a domain member and i need the apache user in one of the domain groups so that apache can access readable and writeable files by the webdev group. The problem now is that you can't add unix users to a windows group because the unix user doesn't exist on the windows machine. BUT: you can map an existing unix group to an existing windows group so that the unix group is like an alias for the windows one and add the unix user to that group… and it is quite easy.

Let's say you have group1 on windows and domgroup1 on unix. Here is how to do it:

create a new unix group
# groupadd domgroup1

now map the groups
# net groupmap add ntgroup="group1" unixgroup="domgroup1" type=domain

list the mapped groups
# net groupmap list

now restart samba
# /etc/init.d/smb restart

The only thing left you have to do now is to add the user add to your domgroup1 in /etc/group