Configuring the Browse Master

When you explore your Network Neighborhood or the Entire Network, the list of computers you see is provided by the Browse Master. The Browse Master is a designated computer that maintains the master list of computers in a given workgroup, as well as in other workgroups. By default, the Browse Master in a Windows 98 workgroup will be the first computer that has File and Print Sharing enabled to initialize in that workgroup. However, you can also configure a Windows 98 computer manually as the Browse Master.

Because maintaining the resources list can affect the performance of the computer assigned as the Browse Master, you may want to change the computer assigned as Browse Master. You can use a computer that is always on the network, but is seldom used as a workstation.

1. In Control Panel, double-click the Network icon.

2. On the Configuration tab in the network components list, select File and printer sharing for Microsoft Networks.

3. Click Properties.

4. On the Advanced tab, click Browse Master, and then select the Value you want this computer to have ( see below ). Click OK.

Selecting a Value for the Browse Master

The Browse Master Value setting on the Advanced tab has three possible values:

· Enabled: Specifies that the computer should be the Browse Master. If more than one computer in a workgroup has this option configured, an "election" ensues in which one of these computers will be designated the Browse Master.

· Disabled: Specifies that the computer should never become the Browse Master. Use this setting if the computer has little free memory, or if it is connected to the rest of the workgroup by a slow link and would suffer from poor performance as a result of providing browse lists to clients.

· Automatic: Specifies that the computer may become the Browse Master if the current Browse Master shuts down, and no computers have the Browse Master setting set to enabled. If this happens, those computers that have Browse Master set to automatic perform an election to select a new Browse Master from among that group. This is the default setting, which is appropriate for most networks.