Until yesterday our workgroup worked fine. It is hosted on a server 2008 computer, which is our sole DNS server in a smaller office enviroment. Today we cannot access our workgroup, we get errors about how maybe it doesn't exist or we don't have permission to access it. On the server when we look at server manager-> roles-> ADDS-> workgroup-> computers, all of our computers are there. However, even on the server itself, when looking at network places we see no connectible network. We do see the network name under network places, we just can't access it. We also can access networked computers using their URL (eg. //production for the production computer) from all networked computers. Yesterday we also encountered this problem, but restarting our router and restarting the DNS service on the server solved the problem at that time. Today no such luck. The only changes made in the last couple days were installing a new software package that is based off a SQL database, and enabling 'desktop experience' prior to the install (as was required for use of windows media player). The installed software works fine and can access the database across the network. Also our workgroup problem was not immediate upon this install, but happened about a day later. So far we have tried several full restarts of the server and router (as that fixed the problem once but only once before). We have also restarted the any services or rolls that seam applicable, as well as resetting the reg data in the master domain controller. I also downloaded and installed 'netbios browsing console', and tried to use it to the best of my ability. It should be noted that although I am officially responsible for resolving this problem, I have no training in in microsoft networking and only bring what i have learned over the years as a computer user. The netbios browsing console asked me some questions that i tried to answer correctly, but i didn't really understand some of what it wanted. It asked me for netbios name of the network: CHET.local i said as that is the name of our network. actually the network come up as simply 'CHET' in my network places, but my co-worker says the .local is important. netbios name of the PDC: SERVER2 is what i said, as that is the name of our server IP of the PDC: 10.11.12.21 as that is the above servers IP IP of the WINS computer: 10.11.12.21 as this is the same server again. subnets: it had some default thing, so i chose that. i wanted to tell it 255.255.255.0 but when i went to add there was a bunch of naming and weird stuff i had to do so i didn't. We don't use subnets in our system except that they are implied by our 10.11.12.x IP naming convention. What netbios browsing console said was the domain master browser was not found. I suspect that is because i gave it the wrong information some how. On the server the ADDS service is up and running, and we suspect it is functional as we can find computers using their URL and our internet access is fine. Thanks for your input, and i will provide any further information you need, but do bare in mind that i am not a network technician. Please be explicit in what further information you require and where i may find such information. Ben Yardley

update: i entered subnet information into netbios browsing console, and used CHET rather than CHET.local, and got this error when searching for a computer on the workgroup: "System missing from domains master browser's list" which is better than DMB missing i guess. Where is this domain master browser list on our server? thus far i have been assuming it is somehow inside our DNS or ADDS services, which are up and running. ben

Hello, please clarify, at one time you use the term workgroup and the domain and the naming looks like you have a domain instead a workgroup. Also if you have networking problems if i understand you correct and a reboot resolves this partly please post an unedited ipconfig /all from the server, DC/DNS, and a client machine with problems.Best regards Meinolf Weber Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights.

Your DHCP server must hand out static address of server as primary DNS server address so clients can find DC. Then put the ISP's DNS addresses in the forward lookup of your DNS server so clients can find internet. Also make sure your server has static IP address outside of DHCP scope. Regards, Dave Patrick .... Microsoft Certified Professional -Microsoft MVP [Windows]

Issue resolved. Turns out our 'computer browser' service on the server turned itself off somehow. Turned it back on and everything works.