Losing a WINS election

Hi! I am having a problem with my win2K box and neighborhood networks. Whatever workgroup I assign myself to, I usually become the network master, so that other machines talk to me when they want to browse that workgroup to get names and addresses. The problem is, I am running Zone Alarm and it doesn't let anyone else talk to me, so nobody can browse whatever workgroup I am in. This is making me faily unpopular around the dorm.

Is there a way to make windows lose any network master elections?

Thanks for any and all help!

-Brad Larson

 

Edit the following key in the regsitry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Browser\Parameters\MaintainServerList

Change the value of this key to no, quit Registry Editor, and then restart your computer.

 

Hey thanks, that seems to have worked.

Thanks again!

-Brad Larson

 

You're welcome.

I bet your the only guy with a Windows 2000 box in your dorm's LAN which is the reason it always defaults as the master browser. If someone were to have a 2000 Server or an XP machine they would take over the master browser role from you. The basic rule of thumb is that the newer OS will always override with Servers overriding workstations.

By making the registry change your box will not participate in browser elections.