How do you find the system that’s acting as the master browser for your network? Simple, use the “browstat” utility that is part of the Microsoft XP SP2 support tools.
After you install the support tools, you’ll find a shortcut in your Start Menu.
Start > All Programs > Windows Support Tools > Command Prompt
This will drop you into C:\Program Files\Support Tools
Now you need to first identify which NIC browstat will use to do its bidding. The following command will list the NICs browstat can find.
browstat.exe dn
It will list each NIC and number each one. In this case we only have one NIC and it’s listed as “1″.
List of transports currently bound to the browser
1 \Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{81325554-0A59-487F-ADB5-21D342555555F}
Next, you need to identify which workgroup or domain you are part of or want to investigate. Use the following command.
net config workstation
In this case we are part of WORKGROUP.
Workstation domain WORKGROUP
Now here are some examples of how to use the browstat utility.
This will simply list the master browser on the network:
browstat.exe gm 1 WORKGROUP
e.g. browstat.exe [gm=get master] [1=NIC] [WORKGROUP=group/domain]
This will list the backup master browsers:
browstat.exe gb 1 WORKGROUP
You can now experiment with the other available options by just running:
browstat.exe
