Peer to Peer Networking
What is Microsoft Peer to Peer Networking?
Microsoft Peer to Peer Networking (sometimes referred to as just Windows Networking) is what lets yousee other Microsoft Peer to Peer or server computers in the Network Neighborhood on your Windowsmachine. It also lets your computer connect to these computers over the network. It is unsupportablebecause even though your computer may be configured correctly, another computer configuredincorrectly on your network segment can cause your Network Neighborhood to not function correctly.Because we do not have administrative access to dormitory and office Windows computers, there is noway that Computing Services can control the integrity of the Windows network.
How does Microsoft Peer to Peer Networking work?
Windows networking was originally designed to work on small (LAN) networks in which a centraladministrator had control over the configuration of all machines. Windows networking works very well insuch environments.
EnumerationWhen you open your network neighborhood, your machine sends out a request to get a list of who's inyour workgroup. A "master browser" computer responds to your computer and gives your computer alist of the computers that are "backup browsers" for your workgroup on your subnet. Your computerthen picks a "backup browser" at random from that list and contacts that computer, which finally givesyou the list of computers to display in your network neighborhood. This process of listing members of aworkgroup is called "Enumeration". Having multiple "backup browsers" distributes the load ofenumeration across multiple computers. Each subnet has one "master browser" and two or more"backup browsers" per workgroup.
ElectionAny Windows computer (including yours) on the network can become a "backup browser". Whenever acomputer enters (starts up) or leaves (shuts down) from the workgroup, an "election" takes placeamong all the Windows computers on that network segment, and the most eligible machines becomethe "master browser" and "backup browsers". The number of "backup browsers" grows and shrinks tomaintain a certain ratio of browsers to non-browsers. This all happens dynamically without the userknowing it. (There are ways to control the likelihood of your machine becoming a browser though usingregistry settings).
SubnetsBrowsing works using 'broadcasts' which are confined to a subnet and do not go across routers.Dormitories are in their own 'subnets', and broadcasts in one subnet will not reach other subnets suchas other dormitories or academic buildings. (Some dorms are in the same subnet). Routers are thehardware that separates subnets. If the “master browsers" are properly configured, they will communicate with our "domain masterbrowser" (which is also our primary domain controller (PDC) and Windows Internetwork Naming Server(WINS)), to register themselves as the designated "master browser" for their subnet. The "domainmaster browser" collects the lists of computers from each subnet's "master browsers" and shares that list with all the other "master browsers". Eventually each master browser will have the list of allcomputers in all subnets.
This process breaks down when a "master browser" computer is not configured properly and doesn'tcommunicate with the "domain master browser", and therefore will not contain the list of computersfrom other subnets.
Resolution:Correctly configured Windows 95/NT computers use only the NBT (NetBIOS over TCP/IP) protocol tocommunicate with other Microsoft computers. In order to communicate with a computer over NBT, youneed to know the target machine's IP address. When you double-click on a machine name in theNetwork Neighborhood, your computer asks the WINS server to translate the NetBIOS name into an IPaddress. If for some reason if this fails, your machine then broadcasts on the local subnet asking forthe computer to identify itself.
This system can fail if:The program 'nbtstat -c' shows you the list of machines that your computer has recently communicatedwith. When you first boot up your machine and open the network neighborhood, the only machines inthat list should be either a master or backup browser. If that computer belongs to someone you know you could then let that person know that their machinemay be configured incorrectly. It is also possible that that machine is just a "backup browser", and thatthe "master browser" that it communicated with is not configured correctly.
Augmenting Enumeration with NetHood EntriesThere is a folder called NetHood, which can contain shortcuts to machine names. Even if Enumerationfails, entries that have been manually placed in the NetHood folder will still appear in the NetworkNeighborhood. To make an entry in NetHood, drag the desired computer from the NetworkNeighborhood into the NetHood folder, which will create a shortcut to that computer.
The NetHood folder is located at C:\Windows\NetHood for Windows 95 users, andC:\WinNT\Profiles\[username]\NetHood for Windows NT users, where [username] is the username youlogged into NT with. Your installation drive and directory may of course be different.
Augmenting Resolution with LMHOSTSThe LMHOSTS file is similar to the /etc/hosts file on a Unix machine: it's a plain text file that mapscomputer names to IP addresses. For example:
When your machine boots, it reads the LMHOSTS file and enters any entries with the #PRE keywordinto the name cache. Such entries do not time out. By default, the name cache can only hold 16entries.
Your computer does not have an LMHOSTS file by default, but it will have a sample file namedLMHOSTS.SAM. You can search on your hard drive to locate this file. Potential Problems
Enumeration and Resolution are dynamic protocols, meaning that you can still get to a machine even ifit's IP address changes (which can happen if they move to a different building, install a differentEthernet card, or addresses are reassigned during network upgrades). NetHood and LMHOSTS use "static" entries, meaning that if for some reason the IP address of themachine changes, you won't be able to get to it at all. NetHood and LMHOSTS is not a general solution, and not a long term solution, but it may help youaccess your friends machines during times that peer-to-peer networking is otherwise inaccessible.
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