I have a small network made of Windows machines: two Win2K Pro
desktops (KARIM, YANNI) and one WinXP Pro HP laptop (RISHO) in a
workgroup (WORKGROUP). The machines are connected via a 3Com
OfficeConnect 8-port switch, which is also connected to an ADSL modem.
The machines are configured as static IPs (10.0.0.3 and up) and the
ADSL modem has IP 10.0.0.2.

The problem I encounter is this: the WinXP laptop is extemely slow at
transferring data from the network, including accessing the internet.
The only clue I have to what's wrong is the following System Event (on
the KARIM desktop, not the RISHO laptop):

Event Type:	Error
Event Source:	MRxSmb
Event Category:	None
Event ID:	8003
Date:		2003-08-25
Time:		3:38:00 PM
User:		N/A
Computer:	KARIM
Description:
The master browser has received a server announcement from the
computer RISHO that believes that it is the master browser for the
domain on transport NetBT_Tcpip_{F2BDD698-F375-41AA-94C. The master
browser is stopping or an election is being forced.
Data:
0000: 00 00 00 00 03 00 4e 00   ......N.
0008: 00 00 00 00 43 1f 00 c0   ....C..À
0010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0018: 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........

After reading about that error on the Web and on the Microsoft support
site, I figured that only one computer should be the master browser,
and I thus changed the registry value
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Browser\Parameters\IsDomainMaster
to FALSE on all but one computer, KARIM. But the problem persists.

Help!! :-)

Your problem has nothing to do with a Master Browser election. That
event is fairly ignorable--doesn't really mean much (other than an
election for Master Browser was called :) ).

I'm guessing your notebook just isn't connecting as fast, or the wire
isn't that great that you're using to connect the notebook with.

Legolas-ga

Hello, djkerrrrr:

  I know by own experience, that you problem can be really frustrating
and also can be due a lot of reasons, please, check out this link:

The Network is SLOW !
http://www.wown.com/j_helmig/netslow.htm

And tell me if it was useful to you.

Regards.

Are designating WINS server, too?
That sometimes helps in browser elections.
You can get around WINS by doing it by IP.
Map drives to \\10.0.0.3\sharedfolder not \\karim\sharedfolder

But, maybe problem is hardware layer,
especially if internet is slow not just LAN.
Bad NIC drivers, bad wire (who crimped it?  if the pairs are wrong it
might fail at 100mbit).

Thanks to everyone who responded. 

Your common comment was that the hardware layer might have problems. I
had checked for this possibility by using different wires with the
same result. I will check further.

There is another piece of info that is of note here. Before my current
network setup I was using a 4-port ADSL modem/router, instead of the
ADSL modem and the 8-port switch. RISHO had the same problem
connecting on the network. However, and this is where things get
weird, when I connected RISHO to a cheap 10Mbit hub that was in turn
connected to the modem/router, RISHO was able to access the network at
a full 10Mbit. When I installed the new switch, using the hub no
longer made a difference, RISHO was back to stuttering. At that point
I decided to give up :-)

But with your comments in mind, might that have something to do with
the hardware network driver(s) of the laptop? I have no knowledge
whatsoever in this area.

I'd also like to respond to individual posters:

Legolas, 
Thanks for pointing out that the event is ignorable. I was only
focusing in that direction.

joseleon,
Your link seemed to refer to a Win95-specific context. The DOS (!)
tool they discuss is not available on Win2K or WinXP.

snsh,
I don't think it's a name resolution problem because the TCP/IP
properties designate the ADSL modem (10.0.0.2) as gateway. So no name
resolution occurs but the result is the same. As for bad wires, all
the wires I got (for the whole network) came from the same place and I
interchanged a couple of them with the same result.

So the best route is to look at RISHO's network drivers? What are NIC
drivers?
Thanks again,
djkerrrrr