Active Directory

hi folks,
sorry for creating my own topic but I was hoping to see something related to active directory under the Windows section, didnt even find a close match. I didnt bother searching elsewhere cause logically it has to be under the Windows section only.

my query is related to active directory and I hope to find some help here... we have a w2k domain and i'm the one incharge for our network out here... we have 200+ workstations and 2 vlans...

in the recent few weeks the traffic on our network has tremendously increased.. i ran a sniffer and figured that we have lot of wins netbios traffic.. every 12 mins all the host send their browser announcements which amounts to a lot of traffic i figured... we do not have any pre-w2k machines... all hosts run xp.. and all servers are w2k... i read this on MS's support site that browser announcements are only required in pre-win2k environments... browsing in 2k uses active directory... i want o disable the computer browser service on all computers in the network... however i do not see the active directory under "network places" on any of the XP machines...

how do i enable directory browsing on XP ? will it be a good idea to diable computer browser service in my scenario ??? i seriously want to bring down this extra overhead in my network...

please understand my scenario well before posting ur responses...

thank u
nadeem

As you said, you can safely disable the "Computer Browser" service if you have not got any pre-w2k clients. Take a look at www.petri.co.il/disable_netbios_in_w2k_xp_2003.htm
for pros and cons and useful links.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by:

how do i enable directory browsing on XP ? will it be a good idea to diable computer browser service in my scenario ??? i seriously want to bring down this extra overhead in my network...

You can't actually browse the Active directory from the clients , but you can browse the domain. You can manage or browse the Active directory from your server using the Active Directory management tools or from your clients if you install the Windows 2000 Administrative Tools.

Hi dalight,

thanx for the help, can u tell me how can i enable domain browsing on user workstations... i plan to disable netbt... but still allow the users to browse the domain... this is to enable them to connect to computers and printers in the organisation.
thanx again

nadeem

Have you got DNS running on your server? If so, you should be ok as you're not using any pre-w2k clients. Your DNS server will do the job for you.

prolly a little late now but you can disable the computer browser service via a GPO..

After you have disabled NetBIOS,
If you have added network shares to AD global catalog, users can locate and connect to these shares through Windows Explorer.
OR, you can use DFS (Distributed File System) to create a browsable structure for shared folders on the network.
Also, network browsing may not be available, but you can still connect to network resources through "My Network Places"