Network browse method response

[Anvil]

All,

I was reading another thread here (very short one) called "network browse method", where the user midros asked:

"in "configuration / core settings" there is a setting called "network browse method" with 3 options.

what is the difference among them?

I tried all 3 and then browsed my network and I can say that the 1st one  (default) does not work for me, but the other two seem to work fine although I don't see any difference between them ."

There are a couple of things I wanted to address, but the post was too old for me to respond. So I would like to place my response here:

1. The network settings don't seem to be located in Configuration >> Core Settings menu. The Network tree has its settings listed there.

2. My computer is in a Windows 7 environment where we are all connected by the workgroup method, not by domain. This is my home with my family, not a professional environment. Turns out that "Method C - Shell" worked best at detecting all the computers in my workgroup. Perhaps this method's API is for checking Windows workgroups for networked systems.

3. I can't say that this may be a fact, or merely unique to my system, but I can say it worked perfectly. It is a much better browsing and searching tool than Windows Explorer for looking at systems on my network.

[Mathias (Author)]

All,

I was reading another thread here (very short one) called "network browse method", where the user midros asked:

"in "configuration / core settings" there is a setting called "network browse method" with 3 options.

what is the difference among them?

The difference is that they are using different network APIs in Windows. This area in Widows has very limited documentation and there are multiple ways on doing it.
And some of the ways are better for some and some for others.

1. The network settings don't seem to be located in Configuration >> Core Settings menu. The Network tree has its settings listed there.

2. My computer is in a Windows 7 environment where we are all connected by the workgroup method, not by domain. This is my home with my family, not a professional environment. Turns out that "Method C - Shell" worked best at detecting all the computers in my workgroup. Perhaps this method's API is for checking Windows workgroups for networked systems.

3. I can't say that this may be a fact, or merely unique to my system, but I can say it worked perfectly. It is a much better browsing and searching tool than Windows Explorer for looking at systems on my network.

1. No the settings for it has been moved since then. File System plugins can now handle there own options.

2. "Shell" is actually using a higher level of API calls going through the Windows Shell. But it is not always the best for workgroup. Sometimes it does not show some computers (why I don't know) and another option is better.

3. I'm not sure what method Windows Explorer uses.. It should use the Shell API. but some times the results are different.
I think it process the results and sometimes removes computers from the list. Im not sure. It sometimes acts very strange when comparing to result from API calls.
Maybe they are using there own secret API or something