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Date:      Sun, 09 May 1999 12:19:18 -0700
From:      Kent Stewart <kstewart@3-cities.com>
To:        rick hamell <hamellr@dsinw.com>
Cc:        John K <john@volvo.se>, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Not able to see freebsd machines on NT machine
Message-ID:  <3735DFB6.A8445549@3-cities.com>
References:  <Pine.BSF.3.91.990509102718.9185D-100000@dsinw.com>

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rick hamell wrote:
> 
> > On a side note:
> > I heard somewhere that the Mircosoft IP stack includes NetBios information
> > in itīs TCP/IP headers ( //Computernames and so on) and that this is why
> > you can "browse the network" even if thereīs no NetBeui on your
> > windows box.
> 
>         If there is, I don't think it's terribly reliable. :) I unluckily
> still end up putting NetBIOS on if I need to share resources between
> Windows machines. I tried to share with just TCP/IP but when you go to
> network neighborhood it's hit or miss if it'll see anything. Once you've
> actually got things connected it seems a little more reliable.

Hi Rick,

That has always been my experience. Part of the browse requirement
since WFW 3.1 has always been the presence of a browse master and
NETBEUI, but times change. When you have been doing things a certain
way for a long time, you don't know what is truth and what is legend.
The browse master is supposed to be an NT Server. Unfortunately, every
Win9x machine that is setup using the default configuration wants to
be the browse master. Shutdown the server and one of the Win9x
machines become the master. When the NT server has finished rebooting,
it and the new Win9x browse master get into a hissing contest because
each want to be the master. Win9x won't give it up and NT won't quit
trying to become the master. You can watch the packet activity. For
each exchange between the Server and the Win9x machine, an entry is
added to the NT Server's event log. The process of discovery by the NT
browse master, according to legend, can cause broadcast storms when
you have Netbeui and a large number of computers on the network. I
have never seen a broadcast storm. You can stop Win9x from trying to
become the browse master by choosing the disable option in the "File
and Printer Sharing" properties on the Win9x machines. You still have
to have a server that is the master browser. When you start looking
around or have just rebooted the server, there is a delay until you
can browse the network neightborhood. I think the delay is while the
discovery process is going on. You can share based on previous mounts
but new discoveries are slow to come by. When I worked at Siemens
Power Corp., we were setup such that we could browse more than our
local network segment. This caused the startup to be even longer. This
was an option in the routers or switches the network people were
using. We never had to worry about what it was they did because it
worked. Each network, however, had to have it's own browse master.

>         Now, what I'd like to know is there any was I can kill
> Windows95's keep alive packets. I.e. when I have a dial-up connection
> (ppp with the -auto and -alias options,) with a time set up, Windows 9X
> seems to ping the network and keeps it alive. :(

My demand dial-up is all done with a NATD process on NT because it was
setup months before I started using FreeBSD. There are only five
machines on my home system. I have an activity timeout of 10 minutes
and after 10 minutes of no real activity NT hangs up. I only allow
tcp/ip on the dial up but netbios may be included via tcp/ip. My keep
alive is the mailers. I set them up to check for mail every 3 minutes
and 10 minutes after I kill the mailer, the dialup is dropped. There
is a Win9x machine on the network full time and it doesn't affect the
dial up. The Win98 system also has browse master disabled. Win 9x used
to not be able to remember a dialup password unless you routed IPX or
Netbeui with your tcp/ip. I don't have any idea if that is still true.

-- 
Kent Stewart
Richland, WA

mailto:kstewart@3-cities.com
http://www.3-cities.com/~kstewart/index.html


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