Too Many Servers Spoil Network Performance

The life of an NT systems administrator is fraught with peril. In one location, you have a rapidly growing network with about 240 client nodes running a combination of Windows NT 4.0 Workstation, Windows 95, and a few Windows for Workgroups (WFW) 3.11 machines (you just haven't had the time to standardize, or maybe you have no choice). You also have six NT 4.0 servers with one Primary Domain Controller (PDC) and--because you're paranoid--three Backup Domain Controllers (BDCs) for your single-domain structure (DOMAIN_MAIN), an Exchange server, and a SQL server. The BDCs also function as your print servers. The six NT servers contain all network files and necessary resources. The company has standardized on TCP/IP but has yet to implement routers, so you have decided not to implement Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) at this time. Because you have a legacy NetWare server, you are also running IPX/SPX (NWLink). Your users access the NetWare box using NT's Gateway Services for NetWare, and you plan to phase it out in the near future.

You are steadily replacing the old WFW machines with new hardware running NT 4.0 Workstation (good move). Life used to be good. But over the past few months, as you've added more nodes to the wire, the system has begun to slow down at unpredictable times. And to top it all off, every client's Network Neighborhood (Connect Network Drive in the WFW machines) now lists most of the 240 nodes and the six NT servers.

Your customers are complaining about several problems: 1) general network performance is slower than it used to be and getting worse ("Some upgrade!"); 2) mapping drives is a pain because the NT servers and the NT clients are all lumped together in the same list under DOMAIN_MAIN, and the Win95 and WFW clients are listed in the first screen instead of being grouped in a domain; and 3) every once in a while, for no reason, the entire network slows to a crawl for what seems like a minute or two, causing timeouts, resends, and ticked-off users. You are at a loss because you bought high-end hardware and followed all of Microsoft's default installation instructions. Deep inside, you're certain that if you don't fix this problem soon, management is going to suggest that you call a consultant. That possibility is not good in your environment: The last consultant they called is now the CIO.

But don't despair. Some slowdown in network performance is a result of the way Microsoft handles network browsing. By making some minor changes in the server components in your system and disabling the browser, you can recoup some of your lost performance.

Clients and Servers
To better understand Microsoft's network browsing, let's look briefly at some of the technology underlying all Microsoft operating systems since WFW 3.1. I'm oversimplifying a bit, but every Microsoft operating system contains two major component types that govern network access: a workstation component and a server component. These components take the form of services in NT, but they exist in Win95 and WFW, too.

In Win95 and WFW, you can't separate the workstation component from the product. Each of these products exists simply to be the OS for standalone boxes or workstations on a network. However, in both NT Workstation and Server, the workstation component is a separate service that you can manage individually through the Services applet in Control Panel. The purpose of this service is to provide the client portion of a client/server connection--that is, to connect to shared folders and shared printers in a Microsoft network.

The server component creates the capability for a given machine (running WFW, Win95, LanMan, or NT) to function as a server on the network. Active by default, this component lets you share directories, folders, and printers so that clients running the workstation component can connect to the server machine. On request, Network Neighborhood or Connect Network Drive presents lists of every computer (grouped by domain or workgroup) that has an active server component in the Microsoft network, even if a particular computer has nothing shared (no folders, no printers). By default, the computer's Browser service (which runs automatically in all Microsoft OSs) manages the creation of this list.

The Browser

The NT Browser service is designed to give users a dynamically updated list of available resources (in Network Neighborhood or Connect Network Drive). The Browser runs under the covers in every Microsoft network.

A master browser runs the Browser service. A master browser is a machine that acts as a sort of name service that keeps track of all servers that report themselves to it; it creates and maintains the browse list. A backup browser receives the browse list from the master browser and sends it to computers that ask for it. (For more information about browsers, see Mark Minasi, "Domains and Workgroups," April 1996.)

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