NetBT errors with Win2K and WinXp (attn: ie6user)

[scholar24]

I am having concerns with my WinXp Pro and Win2k Pro network. I am the XP machine and the network is standard 3com 10/100 cards over a linksys sr41 dsl/cable (with cable), dynamic ip from the linksys, gateways and firewalls are configured correctly, all overall the network seems to browse/log on/off fine. The problem is I'm getting errors in the event viewer (which i use to debug configs)that says something like "the master browser on "computername"/netbt has forced an election on * network because a duplicate name was detected, use nbtstat -n to find the duplicate name" Not exact as the event hasn't been logged today but it will also say a master browser is required for my workgroup. How can you configure a master browser for the network? I notice the error randomly and when the other machine (not mine) powers down. The computers are on the same workgroup with different with different computer names. Maybe this isn't a serious error I can confiure the group policy for my mcahine to not log betbios errors but I would like to know if this is affecting my network first.

Tom Caldwell
NexusSoft Consulting

 

[scholar24]

Got the error again, this is exactly what the event viewer says

Another machine has sent a name release message to this machine probably because a duplicate name has been detected on the TCP network. The IP address of the node that sent the message is in the data. Use nbtstat -n in a command window to see which name is in the Conflict state.

and the browser error

The browser was unable to retrieve a list of servers from the browser master \\COMPUTERNAME* on the network \Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{D57A139A-536A-4EC3-8D15-089173BAFC6D}. The data is the error code.

This might help

Tom

 

[jpm121]

Okay, should be simple enough -- you have Netbios over TCP/IP enabled, and more than one of your PCs has the same Netbios name. Thus, your OS is trying to resolve conflicts and is sending messages around telling machines to give up their claim to a given name.

Simple solution -- disable Netbios over TCP/IP. You probably don't need it anyhow. Other solution -- go around and change all the machine names to something unique (these are frequently set to "OEM_User" or something like that on pre-configured machines.

To disable, it's Control Panel, then Network, right-click on your network connection, select Properties. Then, double-click TCP/IP, click Advanced button, then WINS tab, then Disable at the bottom. DOne and done.

Good question, by the way -- I never knew about the nbtstat command.

Good luck...

 

[scholar24]

I thought I needed to run netbios for home network connectivity, i made some registry changes and the network is browsing great. I'll keep that in mind thanks for responding

Tom