Non-Domain Networks

5th September 2019

I support some schools and small businesses without Windows domains. If cost is an issue i would normally recommend a Synology NAS as a domain controller. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNRtOTNfjnk

Generic Troubleshooting:
-Make sure the windows firewall is OFF on the PC you are trying to get to, firewall setting on the local PC doesn’t matter. There are multiple firewall settings for Private and Public(Internet) networks. Only turn off the Private one.

Make sure the hosts file is empty. Hosts file lets the user manually set or override name to IP address resolution.
notepad c:\windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
all of the lines should start with a # which designates them as comments

Netbios Name Resolution & Master Browser

Windows default is to query DHCP for NetBios off/on setting, default is Enabled if not set

to check type:

ipconfig /all

and look for this line

NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

NetBios uses broadcast to elect a Master Browser, it maintains a list of computers that you see when you open Network Neighborhood in Explorer.

If set off for all computers it doesn’t work at all (obviously) so pick 1-2 wired (not Wifi) PCs to designate as masters per subnet

The Master Browser is per workgroup and information is NOT shared across workgroups.

Requires file sharing to be turned on for each computer participating

Requires Windows firewall to be off or exempt for file sharing to work

Works intermittently if the Master Browser is off or busy.

Prefers the newest OS

Not a smart election process, will happily give the master browser role to a laptop, on wireless, that often sleeps to save battery power. (turn off for laptops)

How To Turn off:

Set “Computer Browser” service to disabled

OR

REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Browser\Parameters]"
 IsDomainMaster"="False" "MaintainServerList"="Auto"

The only reliable troubleshooting tool I have found is NetBScanner by NirSoft

https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/netbios_scanner.html

It can scan a subnet or range of ip addresses and report each PC’s workgroup, and the Master Browser for the subnet.

It can scan across subnet boundaries.

The Old Method:

To find your workgroup and master browser type the following at the command prompt

nbtstat -n

Ethernet 3:

Node IpAddress: [10.47.121.22] Scope Id: []

NetBIOS Local Name Table

Name Type Status

———————————————

REDDOT <00> UNIQUE Registered

WORKGROUP <00> GROUP Registered

REDDOT <20> UNIQUE Registered

Domain master browser is a role usually on a Primary Domain Controller that distributes NetBios information across subnets to the elected master browser of each subnet.

Wins resolution (NetBios is the protocol WINS uses for name resolution)

Originally designed to provide name resolution across subnets

Pre windows 2003 Wins had its own database, but modern OS’s use the DNS database.

Non-domain version of Domain master browser?

DNS resolution

Requires a server, which could be your internet router.

The server can be set to allow workstations to register their name at startup

Usually DNS requires a “Fully qualified” name consisting of pc.domain ie www.google.com but the domain suffixes setting allows bare names to have a suffix/domain name automatically added

DnsLint utility does same basic analysis and checks for Split Brian. It creates an html report.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=321045

link is broken but utility still available here

https://download.cnet.com/DNSLint/3000-2085_4-77521032.html

NetBIOS resolution order:
1. Local NetBIOS cache
2. WINS
3. B-node Broadcasts
4. LMHOSTS file
5. HOSTS file
6. DNS

Hostname (DNS) resolution order:
1. HOSTS file
2. DNS
3. Local Cache
4. WINS
5. B-node Broadcast
6. LMHOSTS