host disappeared from browse list

[Marco Frattola]

hi all sambaers

i've got a little problem with browsing. i'm using samba 1.9.17p4 on a
linux machine, fwiw.
since our servers are 'volatile' (i.e. they change functions from time to
time), i'm trying to put their function instead of their real name in the browse
list. so, if i'm looking for the fileserver, all i have to do is to search
for a machine called fileserver in the browse list, and shares from that
machine will be \\fileserver\share, whatever name fileserver has.
first i tried with netbios aliases. for i while i had two 'records' for the
same machine in the browse list: one with the tcp name, one with the
'virtual service' netbios name. fine for me. but the day after the machine
completely disappeared from the browse list. it's still findable, both via
virtual name and real name, but it doesn't show up.
next i tried using netbios name, without netbios aliases, as the virtual
name. no joy. no name shows in the browse list.
what did i do wrong?
-- 
||    || |||||||  Marco Frattola                     Microsoft is not the answer
||`..'|| |||...   Piacenza, Italy                    Microsoft is the question
|||  ||| |||''    mfrattola at enjoy.it                 "No" is the answer
|||  ||| |||      www.enjoy.it/users/~mk/index.html  Live Linux, live free!