Jul 22, 2011

MRxSmb error 8003 on SBS 2003 Server - master browser

After adding a new Dell Windows 7 64 bit laptop to a Small Business Server (SBS) 2003 domain, i started seeing an error message in the servers System event log.  The event source was MRxSmb and the event ID was 8003.

The description said "The master browser has a received a server announcement from the computer [insert-computer-name] that believes that it is the master browser for the domain on transport NetBT_Tcpip_ etc. The master browser is stopping or an election is being forced."

And the computer name mentioned in the error message was the new laptop that I had recently added.  So you need to go to that PC that is named in the error message, go to Services in the Admin Tools area and stop the Computer Browser service.  In my case, stopping it wasn't good enough. It would restart every time the computer rebooted, even though it was set on Manual start up.  So you should change it to Disabled.

Now keep an eye on your event logs and this message should no longer appear.

Basically this laptop was announcing itself to the network, saying "Hey, i'm the master browser for the whole network".  But that job should really be left up to the server, not a random PC.   And when we say "computer browser", we aren't talking about your web browser.  This is a network service that allows PC's on your network to be aware of what other PC's are on the same network.

Autopilot White Glove error message We couldn't find any Provisioning Packages

I was testing out the Windows Autopilot "White Glove" feature this week.  This is a new feature of the Intune AutoPilot service th...