NET VIEW occasionally does not show all computers

windows-server-2003 windows-xp command-line-interface

11,866

Solution 1

I don't have a direct answer for you, but if you need a list of all computers in the domain, you'd do much better to ask Active Directory for this. dsquery and dsget, or your choice of scripting languages with AD hooks (PS, VB, VBScript), would all do this handily, and with more filtering and output options, than NET VIEW

Solution 2

net view depends on the browser service which has never really been particularly reliable. Personally, I think you should consider coming up with an alternative to finding the computer name for your users.

Since you haven't provided much detail here are some links that may help you identify and fix the problem.

Troubleshooting the Microsoft Computer Browser Service - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/188305
Domain Master Browser Failures - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc959909.aspx
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/102878
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/188001
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Master_Browser

Solution 3

If you have NetBIOS over TCP/IP disabled in your environment, then NET VIEW will not work. NET VIEW uses NBNS to get the list of computers.

11,866

Neil

Updated on September 17, 2022

Comments

Neil over 1 year

I am having an issue on my workstation, where periodically the NET VIEW command does not seem to work.

Most times, NET VIEW will return a list of all the machines connected to our domain. Occasionally, it will only list 4 or 5 (instead of the usual 200+). The only way I've found to remedy it is by rebooting my machine.

I am running Windows XP Pro, the Domain Controller is running Server 2003.

What could be causing this, and how can I remedy it? Thanks!
- tony roth almost 14 years
  
  in todays world (ad based on dns) net view is kinda a waste of time!
- Neil almost 14 years
  
  I'll just use it to quickly find out a users computer. I.e. net view | findstr /i tony
- tony roth almost 14 years
  
  well as you can see net view is not reliable. So the descriptioin field contains the name of the user is that correct? if so then the followoing will work "dsquery computer -desc tony"
Neil almost 14 years

as I commented above, I just use it to quickly find a users computer name. For example: net view | findstr /i mfinni
mfinni almost 14 years

Then use "dsquery computer"