Disappearing PC from “Network places”

It happens when several PC are configured as serveurs on the same Microsoft network using one of the many versions of Microsoft Windows. If the PCs can all assume the role of a server (for files or printers), it sometimes happens that the network services seems to stop working unexpectedly (one PC becomes no longer visible by the others).

In this case, there could be a small configuration error which usually has no impact on anything but can become really annoying if several Netbios servers are present on the same Microsoft network without a WINS server (there are a lot of conditions, ain’t it? but this is common on a small networks hacked too quickly like mine).

If you go to the configuration panel, then to the network configuration, you will find the configuration for sharing files and printers on the Microsoft network. There, you must ensure tha:

  • parameter Announce LM is set to No
  • parameter Browse Master is set to Auto

It’s as simple as that. But it’s taken me hours to build the solution from the Internet.

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