Behavior of "Shared" sidebar - PCs show up erratically

Hi everyone,
until recently, all running PCs with an SMB share in my network at work showed up under the "Shared" sidebar. Now, half of the time, they don't, and I can only see the other Macs on the network and the servers I am already connected to. Then sometimes they all show up again.This is very frustrating, because it is unpredictable, and as per Murphy's law, if I really need to connect to a PC, the list will definitely not show up.
Is there a way to force Mac OS to update the list under the Shared sidebar? I already tried clicking the triangle to collapse and reopen the list, closing and opening the finder window, relaunching the finder etc., all to no avail. Interestingly, turning on or off file-sharing in the Sharing peference pane has no effect either, PCs can randomly show up or not, independently of my sharing settings. Macs always show up.
Any ideas?

Okay, I dug in a little deeper. Within SMB networks, there seems to be a so-called "master browser" which seems to distribute the list of computers in the network. I have the feeling that some computer (may be one of the Macs in the network?) in the network grabs the "master browser" title and somehow my Mac uses this master browser instead of the proper one. Anybody knows how to find out, which master browser my machine is using?

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All of the things that folks seem to be having problems with are broadcast or multicast based. If you're not seeing things, chances are really good it's because you're not seeing the broadcasts / multicast packets. Why? Donno... shouldn't be any different than Tiger and "works fine for me".
Here is how you see what multicasts are going on the wire (broadcast are just another type of multicast):
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There are a few different types of broadcasts that you'll want to be looking for. Note: These are only examples of each type - there are multiple sub-types of these to advertise other details. I'm only giving generic descriptions of each - the packet data in yours will be different, but a similar format.
_This is a AFP Multicast (udp/5353)_
You'll see here my wife's macbook advertising its services. This data gets collected and put in the mDNSResponder cache for when you need it. It is also used to make stuff show up on your finder.
21:08:18.189071 IP (tos 0x18, ttl 255, id 26790, offset 0, flags [none], proto: UDP (17), length: 232) 192.168.15.101.5353 > 224.0.0.251.5353: [udp sum ok] 0*- [0q] 5/0/1 Melissa.device-info.tcp.local. TXT "model=MacBook2,1", Melissa.afpovertcp.tcp.local. (Cache flush) SRV Macintosh-3.local.:548 0 0, Melissa.afpovertcp.tcp.local. (Cache flush) TXT "", services._dns-sd.udp.local. PTR afpovertcp.tcp.local., afpovertcp.tcp.local. PTR Melissa.afpovertcp.tcp.local. ar: Macintosh-3.local. (Cache flush) A 192.168.15.101 (204)
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This is what your system looks for to make Windows systems show up on your finder.
21:06:34.226681 IP (tos 0x0, ttl 64, id 41952, offset 0, flags [none], proto: UDP (17), length: 78) 192.168.15.101.50581 > 192.168.15.255.137: [udp sum ok]
NBT UDP PACKET(137): QUERY; REQUEST; BROADCAST
TrnID=0x28DB
OpCode=0
NmFlags=0x11
Rcode=0
QueryCount=1
AnswerCount=0
AuthorityCount=0
AddressRecCount=0
QuestionRecords:
Name=_MSBROWSE_ NameType=0x01 (Unknown)
QuestionType=0x20
QuestionClass=0x1
_This is a UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) Broadcast (udp/1900)_
These are used for things like your Internet router, UPnP Music Servers, and other similar devices to advertise what they can do (similar to the Bonjour packets - but a different standard).
21:08:25.042607 IP (tos 0x0, ttl 4, id 25012, offset 0, flags [none], proto: UDP (17), length: 353) 192.168.15.1.1900 > 239.255.255.250.1900: [udp sum ok] UDP, length 325
0x0000: 4500 0161 61b4 0000 0411 9434 c0a8 0f01 E..aa......4....
0x0010: efff fffa 076c 076c 014d d47e 4e4f 5449 .....l.l.M.~NOTI
0x0020: 4659 202a 2048 5454 502f 312e 310d 0a48 FY.*.HTTP/1.1..H
0x0030: 6f73 743a 3233 392e 3235 352e 3235 352e ost:239.255.255.
0x0040: 3235 303a 3139 3030 0d0a 4361 6368 652d 250:1900..Cache-
0x0050: 436f 6e74 726f 6c3a 6d61 782d 6167 653d Control:max-age=
0x0060: 3630 0d0a 4c6f 6361 7469 6f6e 3a68 7474 60..Location:htt
0x0070: 703a 2f2f 3139 322e 3136 382e 3135 2e31 p://192.168.15.1
0x0080: 3a38 302f 7570 6e70 2f73 6572 7669 6365 :80/upnp/service
0x0090: 2f64 6573 5f70 7070 2e78 6d6c 0d0a 4e54 /des_ppp.xml..NT
0x00a0: 3a75 726e 3a73 6368 656d 6173 2d75 706e :urn:schemas-upn
0x00b0: 702d 6f72 673a 7365 7276 6963 653a 5741 p-org:service:WA
0x00c0: 4e50 5050 436f 6e6e 6563 7469 6f6e 3a31 NPPPConnection:1
0x00d0: 0d0a 4e54 533a 7373 6470 3a61 6c69 7665 ..NTS:ssdp:alive
0x00e0: 0d0a 5365 7276 6572 3a4e 542f 352e 3020 ..Server:NT/5.0.
0x00f0: 5550 6e50 2f31 2e30 0d0a 5553 4e3a 7575 UPnP/1.0..USN:uu
0x0100: 6964 3a75 706e 702d 5741 4e43 6f6e 6e65 id:upnp-WANConne
0x0110: 6374 696f 6e44 6576 6963 652d 315f 302d ctionDevice-1_0-
0x0120: 3030 3137 3366 3638 6364 3861 3a3a 7572 00173f68cd8a::ur
0x0130: 6e3a 7363 6865 6d61 732d 7570 6e70 2d6f n:schemas-upnp-o
0x0140: 7267 3a73 6572 7669 6365 3a57 414e 5050 rg:service:WANPP
0x0150: 5043 6f6e 6e65 6374 696f 6e3a 310d 0a0d PConnection:1...
0x0160: 0a .
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Hi Capt,
In order to help you analyze your issue, we need confirm some situations.
1. Did these 3 computers all join the same HomeGroup or Workgroup?
Yes
2. Domain Controller server with two joined workstations you mentioned, did it mean two of these 3 computer joined the domain environment?
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3. Did you ping via IP address or computer name?
Both, but this morning something is different.
a. MommaDell and M6600 can ping each other both by IP and Name, but can't ping Tower-755 either way.
b. Tower CAN ping both MommaDell and M6600 both ways.
According to your description,
Tower cannot ping MommaDell and M6600.
No, Tower CAN ping both MommaDell AND M6600 both by ip and name.
MommaDell can ping Tower.
M6600 can ping Tower.
Both of the above was true yesterday, but not this morning.
Please check if MommaDell and M6600 could ping each other.
Yes they can
And make sure all of them turn on the network discovery and turn off the firewall temporarily for test:
Network Discovery is ON in all three machines, and Windows firewall is always off because I have ZoneAlarm on all three machines.
Enable or disable network discovery
Which?
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-in/windows/enable-disable-network-discovery#1TC=windows-7
If it doesn't resolve, please post every computer's ipconfig /all output here for analysis.
it's 7:30 and I have to be out until 2:30. I'll do the posting then, and thanks for the help.
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help, and unmark the answers if they provide no help. If you have feedback for TechNet Support, contact [email protected]
Capt. Dinosaur

Behavior of "Shared" sidebar - PCs show up erratically

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