Refresh "view Network Computers"

[comomolo]

Sometimes Windows won't show all the computers in the network. Hitting F5 won't do anything to solve this. Rebooting won't do any good either. Then, magically, at some point in time all the computers in the network are there again.

Also, if I change a computer's name, I'll see both the old and new name for a few hours. (The most misterious case is when I can see only three Macs in the network, but no PC...)

It seems that Windows XP refreshes its database (or whatever) of the computers in the network randomly. Or maybe the computers in the network send information about themselves randomly. I don't know.

Is there any way to manually force Windows XP to search the whole network for computers, remove the ones that are not there anymore (either because they've been turned off or because they have a new name) and be sure that what you see is the actual list of currently connected computers?

I use a simple peer to peer workgroup. No main server, no domain. Around 15 computers in the network. Most of them in a Gigabit network (three switches) but also one or two in a Fast Ethernet network (1 Fast Ethernet switch and ADSL router). All the swtiches are hooked together and there's only one workgroup at the office. There's no visible relation between what I see in the "View network computers" windows and being connected to the same switch, so I believe this is not a hardware issue.

TIA for any help,

CM

[KAndle]

Check out the reg key on KeepAliveTime first that may help. I dunno.

http://www.askmarvin.ca/os/tcpxp.htm

Or you could try the command:

nbtstat -R

This will reload the Netbios over TCP/IP cache. Type it alone to see other options. I am not sure if that switch will work though it may only have to do with WINS. It would work though if you first set your "servers" in an LMHOST file with #PRE entries. More on that command here:

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documen...us/nbtstat.mspx

Also in the past IPX-SPX has done a good job for me peer-to-peer networking with decent browsing. Netbeui does this OK too but won't pass through the router. Netbios over TCP/IP doesn't create the same traffic that Netbeui and IPX-SPX do though. It could still take up to a 1/2 hour I think for all machines to update even with IPX-SPX I think depending on how large the network is and the timing of things. I sure someone will correct me if any of the info I gave you is flawed it's been a long time since I've dealt with a 15-user peer to peer. That is pushing the limits of it working smoothly. Each computer has to communicate with the others to pass all this sort of information it takes time otherwise your network would be flooded with broadcasts half the time. A server is the next step that I would recommend. I know that is in a perfect world though. A LMHOST file is your best bet.