NetBIOS browsing across subnets not working after PDC upgrade to Windows 2008.

We recently upgraded a Windows 2003 primary domain controller to Windows 2008. Following the upgrade we noticed that NetBIOS browsing across subnets was no longer working. The only hosts that were able to be seen were located in the local subnet. This created some issues for some of the non-networking IT staff. While hosts located on the distant subnets could still be reached via hostname they weren’t appearing in the ‘network’ portion of the Windows explorer.

A brief inspection of the running services on the newly upgraded Windows 2008 primary domain controller showed that the ‘Computer Browser’ service was disabled. Apparently, this service is disabled by default in Windows 2008 Server. Setting the service to run automatically and then starting it resolved the browsing issues.

If you are having similar issues after upgrading your domain controllers, we recommend checking the ‘Computer Browser’ service. Ideally, you would probably want this service running on all of your domain controllers to ensure NetBIOS browsing is possible from any of the subnets on your network.