1.  NetBEUI is broadcast; NetBIOS is not *necessarily* so.

2.  Browsing is not really a NetBIOS thing, and (definitely* doesn't 
depend on WINS.

  Browsing depends on the client's ability to locate a "browse 
master" on the current segment for its domain/workgroup.  If it 
can't, it will call for an "election" to fill this role.  

  My experience with the Altiga/Cisco 30xx VPn boxes was that NT/2000 
clients were able to browse the internal domain after a brief delay.  
Windows 9x clients never managed to do this.

  Since Windows 9x *were* able to mount internal shares via the "net 
use" command line (which *does* us NetBIOS and WINS), we didn't sweat 
the fact that browsing never worked.  Since it worked fine for 
NT/2000 clients, we assumed the defect was in Win 9x itself and not 
in our VPN configuration.

DG


On 22 Jan 2002, at 18:09, Andrew J. Caird wrote:

> Tim,
>   Browsing Windows networks is a NetBIOS function, and that
>   is, as I understand it, a broadcast protocol.  For VPNs to
>   work, your network is different from the other network
>   (the office in your case), and broadcasts don't cross
>   subnet boundaries unless there is something to help them
>   do so.
> 
>   One option is to put a WINS server in each location, and
>   share NetBIOS information between the WINS servers.  This
>   is probably a bit much for your home.
> 
>   Another option (and I'm reaching here) is to use what some
>   firewalls offer (not sure about Cisco, I think Checkpoint
>   does) to solve this problem; you get handed an address
>   internal to the network and it does some NAT stuff and it
>   looks like you are on the network, and you'll see the
>   NetBIOS broadcasts and all will be well.  Again, I'm sure
>   someone else on this list can expand on/correct these
>   statements.  
> 
>   Another option is to use a NetBIOS "helper"; some switches
>   have this (which won't help you with your VPN problems,
>   but it may clear up the concept for you a little).  You
>   might look into Samba, who's nmbd can forward WINS
>   information across subnets; see in particular the "wins
>   server" stanza in the smb.conf file and smb.conf(5) if you
>   look at this option.
> 
>   Hope this helps.
> --
> Andrew Caird                                Uniphied Thought
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]     313.550.8408        www.uniphied.com
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> Firewalls mailing list
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> 


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